Juan Francisco Manzano

"En face bilingual edition of only extant Latin American slave narrative written during slavery era. Original Spanish punctuation, spelling, and syntax corrected and modernized by Schulman; translation is of this new version of text. Introduction, notes, chronology give extensive background. Excellent for undergraduate classroom use. Scholars may prefer original text"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Out of print for nearly two decades, Edward Mullen's scholarly edition of Juan Francisco Manzano's autobiography and poetry has long been considered the standard text for understanding this remarkable figure's life and work. This revised second edition builds upon the achievement of the first, taking into account the wealth of academic literature that has appeared on Manzano since 1981. Providing a thorough historical, cultural, and literary contextualization, this is an accessible, essential resource for scholars and students of Caribbean literatures.

Compiled and translated from Spanish by Dr. R.R. Madden, this work consists of poetry, a narrative, appendix of essays relating to the state of slavery in Cuba and a glossary of terms. Dr. Madden included a preface and two of his own poems, one on slave traders, and the other on the evils of Cuban slavery. The narrative begins shortly before the birth of Juan Francisco Manzano, born as a slave in Cuba, and describes an easy, carefree childhood, his youth where he began to experience the trials and horrors of slavery, and ends on the night of his successful escape at about 38 years old. Some poems by Manzano that could not be published in Cuba were translated and included in the text.