The life of Juan Francisco Manzano haunted me for years before I finally realized that to do justice to the Poet Slave’s story, I needed to write it in verse.
Juan often said that he hoped to write a novel about his life. He never had the chance. In fact, strict censorship by the colonial Spanish government prevented all Cuban poets and novelists from writing verses or stories about slavery.
The life story of Juan Francisco Manzano is known only because some of his autobiographical notes were smuggled to England, where they were published by abolitionists who hoped to raise support for their cause.
Unfortunately, the second half of Juan’s brief autobiography was lost in transport. As a result, little is known about the years after his courageous escape on horseback. We do know that he lived as a fugitive in Havana for many years, attending poetry readings and publishing books of his own poems while still officially a runaway slave. He married Delia, a mixed-race woman he called his Muse, for her beauty and her ability to play the piano inspired him to write verse. Her parents objected to the marriage because Juan’s skin was darker than hers and because he was still technically a slave.
Eventually, Juan used his own income, along with collections taken up by friends and colleagues, to purchase his freedom, even though it had already been granted by his first owner and paid for by his mother.
Admired both as a poet and an honest man, Juan Francisco Manzano also gained fame as a confectioner, using the candymaking skills he’d learned while enslaved. At various times he worked as a tailor, painter, and cook, all trades he’d learned before attaining his freedom.
Then, in 1842, a year that became known as Cuba’s Año del Cuero (Year of the Lash), false rumors of a slave rebellion resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people of all races, including many slaves and many poets.
Poetry has always been a powerful force in Latin American history, and poets have been regarded by dozens of governments, including the Spanish colonial one, as dangerous. This perception has arisen because so many poets choose to describe simple truths that affect both the emotions and the social awareness of readers and listeners.
During Juan Francisco Manzano’s lifetime, Cubans gathered in homes to hear him read his poems. Those who knew how to read bought his books. People who could not read listened, memorized, and recited his words of hope. Poetry was as much a part of daily life then as television is now.
Because of his ability to influence people, Juan was arrested on charges of trying to stir up a slave rebellion. He had written nothing treasonous, and no actual rebellion had occurred, but Juan and many other Cuban poets were victims of a general atmosphere of fear and suspicion created by the chaos following a series of disastrous hurricanes. With mansions in ruins and crops destroyed, wealthy planters imagined that slaves would take advantage of the confusion to kill them and take over farms. Rumors based on these fears led to the mass execution of innocent poets who had done nothing more than express their feelings in verse.
Juan Francisco Manzano was one of the fortunate few who survived. He was released from prison in 1845. By then, it was clear that there had never been any plans for a rebellion. This tragic period in Cuban history is referred to as the Escalera Conspiracy, named for the ladders where slaves and poets were tied while being whipped.
Even though he survived, Juan was undoubtedly shocked, saddened, and terrified by his year in prison. His brilliant voice was silenced. If he wrote any more verses during the remaining nine years of his life, he must have kept them secret, because none were published. Those years of silence are a powerful testimony to the horror of censorship. Nevertheless, the poetic genius and dramatic life story of Juan Francisco Manzano, the Poet Slave of Cuba, provide us with an even more powerful and inspiring testimony to the ultimate triumph of freedom.