Juan Francisco Manzano, Autobiography of a Slave - Assignment Example

The inhumane punishments and oppressive events narrated in the biography and the orthography and unorthodox syntax in the original manuscript and the mysterious “disappearance” of his work during his lifetime all bear the scars of slavery. He started documenting his life events at the request of his mistress. This was possible since she had already taught him how to read and write. His original work never surfaced since. Juan Francisco Manzano lived in isolation as he was never allowed to play with other black children, but he led a relatively comfortable life and enjoyed some “freedom” as he was treated as a white child.

Sometime later, Manzano worked as a slave where he almost lost his life. “I was putting the sugarloaf comes in one of the sheds toward …….. It was a huge piece of the roof with several beams that fell behind me, hitting the black Creole, Andres.” From the shock I fell through to the filter house below us,” (Manzano, pg. 99). The filter house was a large low building with a dark and an almost airless interior. Andres, unfortunately, did not survive as his skull was crushed, and the eyes almost popped out.

Later on, rumors would reach Manzano’s second prompting him to urge young master Pancho to speak to his mother on Manzano’s behalf and get him from Dionisio where he worked in the sugar farm. This happened without much ado and he went to have a great life worth enough food to eat. He was also bought a hat and some shoes something that was very new to him (Manzano, pg. 101). Although he was still a young buy, he would not go out to play with the other children even after such comfort. “I sank into such depression that I did not emerge from my sorrowful despondency, even after I saw all the children engrossed in games or when they called,” (Manzano, pg. 101) At the age of nineteen, Manzano took a certain pride of everything he did. His