Juan Francisco Manzano (1797-1854), an urban slave who taught himself to read and write, and who ultimately achieved fame as a poet in Cuba's colonial slave society, wrote the only known autobiographical account of Latin American slavery. His narrative, composed in two parts, is a heart-rending history of the systematic, unrelenting destruction of human dignity and individual will. It bears the marks of slavery, not merely by virtue of the countless oppressive autobiographical events and the cruel punishments that are narrated, but also because of its unorthodox syntax and orthography in the original manuscript, and the destruction of the second half of Manzano's history which "disappeared" mysteriously during his lifetime and has never surfaced since. In this first bilingual edition of the volume, Evelyn Picon Garfield provides a careful translation of Manzano's somber narration. Ivan Schulman introduces the text to place it in historical and cultural context.

Autobiography of a Slave Autobiografia de un esclavo (English and Spanish Edition)

Biographies & Memoirs

Manzano, Juan Francisco

Community & Culture

Wayne State University Press

A COLLECTION of Poems written by a slave recently liberated in the Island of Cuba, was presented to me in the year 1838, by a gentleman at Havana, a Creole, highly distinguished, not only in Cuba, but in Spain, for his literary attainments. Some of these pieces had fortunately found their way to the Havana, and attracted the attention of the literary people there, while the poor author was in slavery in the neighbourhood of Matanzas. The gentleman to whom I have alluded, with the assistance of a few friends, of pursuits similar to his own--(for literature, even at the Havana, has its humanizing influence,) redeemed this poor fellow from slavery, and enabled him to publish such of his Poems, as were of a publishable kind in a country like Cuba, where slavery is under the especial protection, and knowledge under the ban of the censors of the press. A few of those pieces which were unpublished or unpublishable in Cuba, I have endeavoured to put into English verse; and to the best of my ability, have tried to render, so as to give the sense of the writer (sometimes purposely obscured in the original) as plainly as the spirit of the latter, and the circumstances under which these pieces were written, would admit of. I am sensible I have not done justice to these Poems, but I trust I have done enough to vindicate in some degree the character of negro intellect, at least the attempt affords me an opportunity of recording my conviction, that the blessings of education and good government are only wanting to make the natives of Africa, intellectually and morally, equal to the people of any nation on the surface of the globe.

Poems By a Slave In The Island of Cuba, Recently Liberated: Translated from the Spanish, by R. R. Madden, M.D. With the History of the Early Life of ... Slavery and the Slave-Traffic, by R. R. M

Politics & Social Sciences

Madden, Richard Robert

Sociology

Historic Publishing

Autobiografía de un esclavo es el primer testimonio en castellano de la esclavitud sufrida en las colonias españolas del Nuevo Mundo. Por tanto, tiene un gran valor histórico, a pesar de estar inacabada porque la segunda parte Apuntes autobiográficos no se conserva, por ser considerada una obra clave de la narrativa antiesclavista y del periodo colonial. Salió a la luz en 1937, una centuria después de que se comenzara a escribir en 1835 por Juan Francisco Manzano. En esta Autobiografía, Manzano relata su vida en la esclavitud y todo lo que ello supone cuando sirve a su primera ama, Beatriz de Jústiz de Santa, quien gracias a su aperturismo consigue leer numerosas obras y aprender a escribir; o cuando sirve en casa de la marquesa de Prado Ameno, una señora autoritaria que provoca su huida.

Autobiografía de un esclavo (Biblioteca Cubana) (Spanish Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Editorial Verbum

La autobiografía de Juan Francisco Manzano (1797-1853) es un testimonio único sobre la esclavitud, escrito en español por un esclavo. Su composición en 1835 fue posible gracias a los esfuerzos de Domingo del Monte, que alentó al poeta a escribir un relato autobiográfico. Manzano tuvo que aprender a leer y escribir antes de aventurarse a narrar los episodios de su vida en un manuscrito legible, aunque con multitud de errores. Para hacerla más accesible a los lectores Del Monte encomendó el manuscrito a Anselmo Suárez y Romero para que le diera forma e hiciera las correcciones necesarias. Suárez y Romero cumplió cabalmente con la petición, pero también modificó la vida del esclavo con la intención de que el testimonio cobrara mayor fuerza en favor de la abolición de la trata de esclavos y la esclavitud. Tanto la autobiografía original como la versión corregida por Suárez y Romero desaparecieron. El original, encontrado un siglo más tarde en la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, fue publicado en 1937 por José Luciano Franco. La versión de Suárez y Romero, hallada a mediados de la década de los ochenta en la Biblioteca de Sterling de la Universidad de Yale e inédita hasta el momento, es la que se da a conocer a los lectores en este libro.

Autobiografía del esclavo poeta y otros escritos (Spanish Edition)

Luis, William

Iberoamericana/Vervuert

La Autobiografía del esclavo Juan Francisco Manzano es un texto de referencia en la cultura y la política cubana del siglo XIX.

Autobiografía de un esclavo (Historia) (Spanish Edition)

Arts & Literature

Linkgua

Linkgua ediciones

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