North American Slavery vs. Latin American Slavery: A Comparative Look at Frederick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano

When we assess the evils of slavery, we typically think of the North American slaves plight. We think of the beatings, murders, hangings and mistreatment of the Southern slave. But what about the slaves of Latin America? Who hears their cries of woe because of their evil slave masters? Is their treatment the same of their brethren under slave rule in North America? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to look into the lives of both North and Latin American slaves. For our purposes, we will utilize two slave narratives. One account will come from the North American slave, Frederick Douglass, and his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The other account will come from the narrative Autobiography of a Slave by the Cuban slave Juan Francisco Manzano. In analyzing these two slave narratives, we will compare the childhood, slave communities, slave/master relations, and literature of both Douglass and Manzano. By taking a comparative look at Frederick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano we will be able to hear the voices of the slaves and understand their plight. In order to gain a greater understanding of both Douglass and Manzano the following links are provided for you to explore:
Douglass during slave years,
Douglass after freedom,
Manzano bio and poetry,
(Map of Cuba)

Childhood is a period of maturation when our personalities begin to develop into the type of individuals we will eventually become. This is a crucial time where our identities are forming based upon how we are treated by those around us. +If a child is often handled as a burden that individual will take on a negative persona. In the case of children living under the dark hands of slavery, it was impossible to have a normal childhood. A slave's parents were always off conducting laborious tasks, or they were sold away. Oftentimes, the child was left with a stranger with whom the necessary maternal bonds could not develop. Furthermore, the child's environment was one where a slave was seen as ignorant, savage and inferior to their white masters. Fredrick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano both lived under the "Black Hand" of slavery. Yet, each had a different experience while growing up that yielded contrasting desires and incentives in regard to freedom.

Frederick Douglass was a North American slave whose environment killed any intellectual stimulus. He was denied all access to knowledge, even that which concerned his own life. Douglass demonstrated his lack of self-understanding when he wrote, "I have no accurate knowledge of my age...By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant" (Douglass 255). This excerpt form Douglass' narrative illustrated how the North American slave was given no opportunity for obtaining an education. These human beings were lowered to the level of beasts under the wicked institution of slavery. Their masters felt that a slave's only means for existence was to serve, therefore, it was only important to know how to perform thier duties. A child growing up in such harsh conditions would surely come to see himself as inferior. There was also an enormous amount of violence a slave had to witness. In Douglass' first encounter with violence he witnessed the beating of his own aunt by the overseer, in which "the louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest" (Douglass 258). Douglass commented on how this observance of brutality affected him when he wrote, "It sruck me with awful force. It was the bloodstained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle" (Douglass 258). Douglass' childhood was traumatic. Yet, not all experiences of slavery, as we learn in the narrative of Juan Manzano, were the same.

The Autobiography of a Slaveby Juan Francisco Manzano paints a much more pleasant picture of a slave-child growing up in Cuba. From the very beginning Manzano benefited because his mother was well educated and well trained. "These qualities...molded the life of the young Juan Francisco, creating in his soul the illusory notion of being able to overcome his condition as a slave through his intellectual aptitudes or the use of reason" (Manzano 45).

Manzano's environment fostered intellectual growth. He was "...knowledgeable in all that a woman could teach [him] about religion...[he] knew many short plays and interludes, dramatic theory, and stage set. They took [him] to see French operas. and [he] was good at imitating some of them..." (Manzano 51). Manzano was given the opportunity to learn poetry, Catholic prayers, art and theatre. Unlike Douglass, Manzano was not forced into the black abyss that usually complements slavery, but was allowed to flourish through educational instruction. Manzano's privileged childhood allowed him to be content with his enslavement. Douglass, on the other hand, was immediately aware of the ills of slavery. Thus, his desire for freedom developed mcuh earlier and more passionately than Manzano's.

The slave community of which Frederick Douglass was a part of contrasted greatly from that of Manzano's Cuban society. Within Douglass' community the slaves formed a family network that extended far beyond blood-linked relatives. The reasoning for this was that many North American slaves were sold and separated from their blood relatives. Therefore, the slaves in an attempt to achieve some sense of family, created their own familial bonds amongst their fellow bretheren. They sung, ate, worshiped and slept together within the same community. Unlike the Cuban slave community, their was no hierarchy amongst the slaves.

Manzano grew up in a caste system that existed amongst the slaves in Cuba. A pure black slave was the worst kind of slave to be. The mulatto slaves were against the black slaves. The slaves of the community instead of being united in their oppression chose to opress one another. The caste system was one of the reasons Manzano decided to run away. Manzano wrote, "I saw myself at El Molino, without parents or even relatives, and, in a word, a mulatto amongst blacks. My father was a bit proud and never aloud small groups in his house or that any of his children play with black children from the plantation" (Manzano 133).

In this instance, the reader learns of the origin of Manzano's own prejudices against other races. The notion of racism amongst slaves in the Cuban slave communities added to the new dimension of slavery and made it all too hard to fight against. There was no unity amongst the slaves that could rise up against the common oppressor.

The terrors of slavery are often illustrated in conjunction with the brutality of the slave master. In the narratives of both Manzano and Douglass, the reader is privy to the formidable slave/master relations that were endured in their slave experiences. As a young child, Manzano's mistress took to him. She regarded him almost as a son, "holding [him] in her arms than [his] mother" (Manzano 47). He rarely if ever "left her side" (Manzano 47) for she refused to go anywhere without him. On one occasion his mistress reprimanded Manzano's father for physically mistreating him. Yet, these times did not last. His mistress would pass on and the realities of slavery would set in.

Under the rule of his new mistress, physical brutality was not only implemented, but it was engaged upon in instances of minute disobedience. For instance, by committing forms of "childish mischief" Manzano's mistress would "lock [him] up with orders that anyone who might give [him] even a drop of water was to be severly punished" (Manzano 57).

Amidst these trying times, Manzano sustained a broken nose regularly. In fact he feared the call of his name so much that each time that it was shouted through the halls he would be "overcome by such intense trembling that his legs could barely support" (Manzano 59) his body. In one case Manzano attacked his overseer for assaulting his mother. Perhaps he believed all acts of cruelty would cease if he could assert his self and show that his pride had not been emulsified. Yet, unlike Frederick Douglass, this brought him only more hardship.

Frederick Douglass managed to alter the dynamic of his slave/master relations by retaliating against his master, Mr. Covey. This particular master happened to have a reputation throughout the South for "breaking young slaves." Mr. Covey would afflict Douglass with all forms of brutality. Eventually, Mr. Covey managed to shatter Douglass in "body, soul and spirit. [His] natural elasticity was crushed, [his] intellect languished" (Douglass 64). Yet, Douglass made the fortunate decision to take a stand. Once this decision was acted upon, the cowardice of his master's will was evoked.

The greatest issue of controversy between Douglass and his master (this instance refers to a new master in Baltimore referred to by D. as Mr. Auld) concerned the question of literacy. The most powerful tool of oppression, as explained by Doulgass, was not the power of a lacerating whip, but that of illiteracy. It was the intentions of Douglass' master to keep him as low down to the dregs of humanity as was possible, away from literacy and "in the dark." Douglass recounts the words of his master when he wrote "a nigger should know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world" (Douglass 33). These aspects of the slave master relationship were the driving forces for Douglass, who after his manumission, became a prominent figure on the road to abolishing slavery.

Both Frederick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano influenced society through their writing. However, the pretenses under which they wrote were quite different, and consequently, those differences affected what they were capable of expressing in their work. Douglass had escaped form slavery when he wrote the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and he was legally free soon afterwards. Manzano, on the other hand, was still enslaved when he worte the Autobiography of a Slave. As a result of his bondage, Manzano greatly feared the retaliation of his mistress, since he was speaking out against the evils of slavery. In order to write their life stories, both writer had to accept the risks involved with writing about a controversial subject: the slave experience.

In the United States, Douglass had the support of the abolitionists and his people to motivate him to write his narrative. Also, he had an inner drive propelling him towards the public sphere where he could aid his people, both enslaved and free. In Manzano's case, Cuban "abolitionists" were not as supportive of his efforts as they could have been. Manzano was encouraged to write his narrative by a white man named Del Monte as a means of procuring his freedom. Both authors met great resistance to their writing, but Manzano was in a worse predicament due to the fact that he was a slave. Without Del Monte's motivation, Manzano probabaly would never have written his narrative. He was far meeker and guarded in his writing than Douglass was.

Manzano wrote many poems both before and after writing his narrative. Between 1821 and 1838, he published Cantos a Lesbia (Song of Lesbia) and numerous other poems such as "Al nacimiento de la Infante Maria Isabel de Luisa de Borbon". His narrative was completed in 1839, and part of the Autobiography was published in 1840. The first publication was translated into English. It was not until 1937 that the first Spanish publication was produced based upon what was left of the manuscript in the Havana archives. However, Manzano was more renowned for being the only slave to produce his own narrative than for the actual literature he produced. This may be true because once he gained his freedom, his greater purpose was fulfilled.

Douglass' literary works were far more extensive than Manzano's. In 1845, Douglass first published Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Unfortunately, he was forced to flee to England around the time of publication in order to avoid being recaptured, but he returned to America in a short time. By 1847, Douglass was working on the abolitionist newspaper North Star, which was later named Frederick Douglass' Paper. In 1852, he made an important impact on the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society with his speech, "What to the Slave of the Fourth of July?", thus positioning himself as an activist and a spokesperson. Douglass went on to publish two more narratives, My Bondage and My Freedom in 1855, and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881. In between the time when he was writing his other autobiographies, Douglass worked for the New National Era, a weekly newspaper in Washington D.C. Aside from his writing accomplishments, Douglass became a key figure in the abolitionist and the equal rights movements. He was revered as a speaker, author and statesman.

For more information on Frederick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano see the links listed in the Introduction.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.

Manzano, Juan Francisco. Autobiography of a Slave. Detroit: Wayn State University Press, 1996.

Wilson, Ruth. "Latin America Speaks." http://130.132.143.21/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/1/90.01.04.x.html