The Life and Poems of a Cuban Slave

Juan Francisco Manzano 1797–1854

J. Manzano, E. Mullen

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137481382
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Critique littéraire en poésie

This is a revised second edition of Edward Mullen's landmark scholarly presentation of Juan Francisco Manazo's autobiography and poetry. Taking into account the extensive scholarship that has accrued in the intervening decades, this is an accessible, essential resource for scholars and students of Caribbean literatures.

POEMS,

WRITTEN IN SLAVERY

&c. &c. &c.

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 THE NEGRO POET,

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED

TWO PIECES DESCRIPTIVE OF

CUBAN SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRAFFIC,

By R. R. M.

LONDON:

THOMAS WARD AND CO.,

27, PATERNOSTER ROW;

AND MAY BE HAD AT THE OFFICE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 27, NEW BROAD STREET.

1840.

To

JOSEPH STURGE,

The Howard of Our Days,

The Friend and Faithful Follower

of

THOMAS CLARKSON,

This Little Work

Is Dedicated by His Friend,

R. R. MADDEN

London, Oct. 21st, 1840.

PREFACE

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,¹ 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 Havana, and attracted the attention of the literary people there, while the poor author was in slavery in the neighbourhood of Matanzas.² 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A few of those pieces which were unpublished or unpublishable in Cuba, I have endeavoured to put into English verse; and to the best of my ability, have tried to render, so as to give the sense of the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.

To form any just opinion of the merit of these pieces, it is necessary to consider the circumstances under which they were written, and how are these circumstances to be estimated by one ignorant of the nature of Cuban slavery? I had at first thought it would have been necessary to have prefixed some notice both of the trade in slaves, and the system of slavery in that island, but I found it impossible in any reasonable limits to effect this object, and the very abundance of my materials was an obstacle to the undertaking, or rather induced me to reserve these materials without abridgment for other purposes of higher interest, more likely to benefit the cause I am desirous to promote. I determined, therefore, to give a short but faithful sketch of the Cuban slave-trade merchant and planter in verse, and the presumption of the attempt is sufficiently obvious to myself to render any apology available in a literary point of view. As portraits, however rudely sketched, of the characters I have attempted to describe, the vivid impression which the originals have made on my mind, were too strong to leave these pictures without a resemblance, which an abler artist might have better, though not perhaps more faithfully delineated. Montgomery,³ and Hanna Moore⁴ have given us the character of the slave-trade captains of former times, and Cowper⁵ has admirably described the general horrors of slavery itself. But though the brigands of this trade, and the evils of this system in other colonies have been frequently depicted, I am not aware that the wealthy merchants in such high repute in the Havana who carry on this trade; and the polished cavaliers, and hospitable Creoles, who are the planters of this island, have been portrayed except by travellers, who have judged of their humanity by the courteousness of their manners, and the amenities of slavery, by their deportment at the social board.

The author of the Poems I have attempted to translate, is now living at the Havana, and gains his livelihood by hiring himself out as an occasional servant. His name, for obvious reasons, I think it advisable not to publish, but to leave no doubt of the authenticity of these Poems, I have deposited the originals in the Spanish language in the hands of the secretary of the “British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society.”

He is now in his forty-second year. He was born in Cuba. His father and mother lived and died in slavery in Cuba. The former was a “pardo” negro; the latter, the offspring of an African and a mulatto union. He was about thirty-eight years of age when he obtained his li...