Ruth M. Wilson
This unit is recommended for eighth grade remedial reading students. These students are mainly Hispanic and African American and many have poor academic skills and are low achievers. These students are aware of their ranking in school which may contribute to negative behavior and low self esteem. However, this negative feeling can be turned around with particular lessons and positive attitudes from teacher and student.
Dr. Iva Carruthers, Professor of Sociology at Northwestern, Illinois, states that building self esteem in Hispanic and African-Americans can reroute them from a path of poor academic achievement and underemployment. Therefore, this unit will aid the student in his or her quest to respect and to understand his or her past culture. Sheila Tobias, author of
They’re Not Dumb, They’re Different
, feels that teachers can get rid of these feelings and labels and help students come closer to using their skills by understanding their past. Just as a tree must have healthy roots to flourish and grow so must a student.
Why do these students show little interest in the academics? One reason could be that they
are
aware of their expected limited horizons. They know they are poor testers and the test scores labels them “the can’t do kids.” Enter the action plan called
Quality Education for Minorities (QEM). This project has a single purpose which is to improve the education of minority students. This action plan is based on the belief that every child has a right to a quality education. One important goal of QEM is to insure that minority students come to school prepared to learn. This is a skill which is taught in early childhood and is nurtured through the school years. Unfortunately, this skill was never nurtured in some students.
In 1988, a study reported that two out of five Hispanic-American children lived in poverty, and nearly half of all African-American children were among the working poor. These two factors, I think, are ones which effects a student’s performance the most. Low income, poor access to adequate health care, poor nutrition are other variables which play a negative role in the learning process.
Latin America Speaks
will be beneficial for both minority groups to understand that slavery, whether in the Caribbean or the United States, was inhuman. A slave was a slave regardless of color...black as coal or light as cream, speaking English or Spanish. Hopefully this unit will bring both groups to the understanding that poverty and bigotry are just minor inconveniences which can be circumvented...as Juan Manzano so cleverly did. He had fortitude, stamina, the love of self, and the will to survive, and that is what the students must try to achieve.
The unit will begin with the definition and discussion of the word “autobiography.” How does it differ from the word “biography?” What are some of the circumstances that make people write autobiographies? Are they usually accurate? Also, this section will introduce the author Juan Francisco Manzano to the students. His short biography will tell of his trials and tribulations and how he triumphed.
Since I teach Remedial Reading, I need to make sure that my students understand what I’m teaching. Fortunately, there are ways that I can check whether my students are comprehending the lessons which I am presenting. This may include: checking the previous day’s lesson and recapping events; asking questions frequently and giving students a chance to respond and receive feedback; checking for understanding by evaluating responses, and having a good success rate during their initial learning.
While doing the above, it is important that inferential and critical thinking skills be used to enable the students to make valid judgments and sensible evaluations. When students have the necessary tools and feel challenged, even the most difficult or unpleasant task may be tackled.
Next the students will be reading excerpts taken from narratives written by Juan Manzano and Richard Madden, his translator. These selected portions will focus around a specific theme: the brutality and hypocrisy of the slave system. During the presentation of each lesson, students will draw conclusions, make comparisons, use inferential thinking to see similarities and cause and effect between American and Caribbean Slavery.
The primary objective of this unit is to build self-esteem in both groups of students, Hispanic and African-American. Questions to think about and to ask are: What made this human being so different from the other slaves? What forces allowed this individual to survive under horrendous conditions? Was color a help or a hindrance in slave life? Why were slaves keep ignorant? Who benefitted from the ignorance? Why was religion an important part of the day to day existence? And lastly, why did slavery last so long?
This unit may be used during the month of February which is designated as Brotherhood Month. This would be an opportune time to expose both groups to ethnic diversity and similarities. Perhaps Manzano’s work will help both groups of students become more tolerant of each others heritage.
Background Material
The Caribbean Slave trade was like the spokes in a wheel which were constantly reaching into Africa for cargo. The spokes reached out from Le Cap to Barbados and Trinidad in one direction, to the Guianas and Central America in another, and to Jamaica and Mexico in another, and to Cuba and the United States in still another. In all directions there was trading in slaves, and the number of African captives increased rapidly throughout the new world. In the West Indies as in other parts of South and Central America, the Blacks out numbered the European colonist.
In present day census figures for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean region do not always reveal the African Origin of their people. Argentina, for example, received many slaves, and the African population of her capital city was large as late as 1850, but all these Africans have now been absorbed, and Argentina is thought of as a country without Blacks.
In countries like Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico, the dark mixture blended Indian with African and European strain which was the result of a new people, a product of all three races. A new creation for a new world.
During that time, Great Britain and Spain were dangerous enemies. The hostilities arose with Great Britain’s abuse of the asiento, the license to import slaves into the Spanish Empire and Britain’s pressure to break Spain’s commercial monopoly. Due to Spain’s pressure, the Caribbean became a danger zone from 1739 to 1748. Spain survived many dangers and became the “Key to the New World”, and the fortress of the Indies.
Then came the Seven Year War which Charles III of Spain foolishly entered. The war was in its last stages when Charles entered and Spain was defeated. Under Great Britain, the victor, religious toleration, free trade, and many civil liberties were implemented. British occupation of Cuba brought numerous changes that some Cubans claim that the history of their island really begins in 1762. John Fagg author of
Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
mentions the above in his book
Cuba became a booming commercial activity center, Slaves and Europeans goods poured into Havana’s ports. Eventually, Havana was restored to Spain by a peace treaty in exchange for Florida and the Bahamas Islands. Cuba’s population increased rapidly, reaching 171,000 by the census 1774, with whites numbering 96,000, African Slaves 44,000 and mixed persons 31,000. The mixed blooded persons, I presume could include the family of Juan Manzano. Yet his family were slaves and were treated as such.
It was tobacco, sugar, and cotton which made the Caribbean Islands desirable for slave traffic. There was not much excitement with the first settlement of slaves, until the planters began to produce tobacco in large quantities, to be exported and marketed in England and Spain. The rationale for the European nations in acquiring slave colonies was to increase the wealth of their countries by means of another man’s labor. It was rationalized that the cost of defending the plantation would fully be repaid by the wealth that the possession of them would bring. Absentee ownership never came to mind because the merchants of greed had “tunnel vision,” focusing only on profit and not on human misery. Absentee ownership is still being practiced today in large urban areas in this country...especially in housing.
While slavery was flourishing in the Caribbean Islands, in England there were many men who opposed it. Men such as: John Wesley, Samuel Johnson, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Charles Fox, and young William Pitt. Each man stressed the economic or moral wrong of the system. Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson fought valiantly for years for slavery’s abolishment. These men with their friends and supporters won the fight in Great Britain and eventually in the dominions. Therefore, Britain has the dubious honor of abolishing her slave trade many, many years before America and other European Slave Trading Countries.
Cuban and American Slavery were quite similar in there treatment of Africans. Both brought families from Africa to be sold at the market, or auctioned off to the highest bidder. Families were inhumanely separated. Strong muscular men, commonly referred to as bucks, and fathers brought a good sum. Women and children, considered the weaker ones, brought a smaller amount and were usually sent in other directions...to work in the fields, the master’s house, or become cooks or wet nurses. Many women had no say in how their body was to be used by the master or the master’s family. Consequently, numerous slave women were molested and gave birth to mulatto children. Some masters favored these children because they were usually lighter in color than the other slaves. Some masters did not make any distinctions and treated them all poorly. Because of this favoritism, some lighter slaves did think they were better than their Black brethren. As was the case of Juan Francisco Manzano, a light skinned Cuban slave.
When the French, Spanish and Portuguese landed in the Caribbean, they were largely on military missions, and staffed by men as opposed to North America which was settled by families. These men took mistresses and sometimes wives among the Indians and Africans they ruled. In time the children they fathered, were referred to as “criollos” or “creoles.” The term Creole which meant mixed blood and native born became acceptable when the colonies grew rich and certain creole families became prominent. The others: octoroons and mulattoes were assimilated into the Spanish life style. They rose in their profession and soon forgot their background while living and writing like a Spaniard. Many of the great figures in Latin American literature were known to have black blood. When it became unpopular or unpleasant to mention one’s heritage, sayings such as: Yesterday they called me “nigger” so I should get mad; but he who called me was as black as I am. You pretend to be so white, but I know your grandfather. This was said by the slaves to someone was “passing.”
When Manzano was asked to write his memoirs, he had no guide to follow. He had only the incidents which happened in his life and he wrote them down. Davis and Gates, authors of
The Slave’s Narrative,
noticed a particular pattern when a slave wrote his or her narrative. This same pattern was used in the autobiographies of Frederick Douglas and Linda Brendt. The pattern Davis and Gates revealed was:
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A.
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An engraved portrait, signed by the narrator.
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B.
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A title page that includes a claim written by himself, or statement of facts made by himself.
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C.
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Many testimonials and/or a preface or introduction written by a white abolitionist friend.
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D.
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A poetic epigraph by preference from William Cowper.
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E.
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The Actual Narrative:
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I Was Born
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1.
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at first sentence beginning, I was born, giving date, and place;
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2.
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vague account of parentage, often involving a white father, observing cruelty;
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3.
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description of cruel master, mistress, or overseer, details of first whipping with women frequently the victims;
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4.
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an account of one extraordinary strong, hardworking slave who refuses to be whipped;
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5.
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record of barriers raised against slave literacy and difficulties encountered in learning to read and write;
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6.
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description of a “Christian” slaveholder, and the claim that “Christian” slaveholders were worse than those professing no religion;
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7.
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description of amounts and kinds of food and clothing given to slaves, the work required of them, the pattern of a day, a week, a year;
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8.
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account of slave auction, of families being separated and destroyed, mothers and children distraught as they are taken from each other;
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9.
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description of patrols, of failed attempts to escape, of pursuit by men and dogs;
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10.
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description of successful attempts to escape, lying during the day, traveling by night...by the North Star, reception in a free state by Quakers with lavish breakfast and much conversation;
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11.
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taking a new last name (frequently one suggested by a white abolitionist) to accord with new social identity as a freeman, but retain first name as a mark of continuity of individual identity;
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12.
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reflections on slavery, an appendix composed of documentary material (bill of sale, details of purchase from slavery, and newspaper items).
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The above outline, although used during American Slavery, has similarities to outlines of Caribbean Slave Narratives. The theme of Manzano’s autobiography has techniques that are similar to the African American Tradition and his writings clearly belongs to that category.
Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
Juan Manzano was born a slave in Havana, Cuba in 1797. His parents being native born were considered creoles. Juan’s complexion was light cream colored which played a large part in his personal treatment and his thoughts of other Blacks. During Juan’s early years, until the age of thirteen, he lived a happy unorthodox childhood. He had very little contact with his mother or brothers, however, his mother did manage to see him a few times. Juan had less memories of his mother and brothers because he had been separated from them at an early age.
Fortunate to be treated gently in his early years, Nanzano developed thoughts and attitudes to aspire to be white rather than Black. He was not allowed to associate with other Black slaves which led him to believe he was better than his Black brethren.
Juan remembers his early years with fond memories...being well dressed, eating well, and having the privileges of a white child. His mistress, dressed him in fine ruffles and silks and took him everywhere. She displayed him as a plaything...a Barbie Doll, for his appearance was a reflection of her wealth and standing in the community.
The hardship in Manzano’s life begins at thirteen when he is sent to live with a sadistic mistress, the Marquesa. His new living conditions were totally opposite from the luxurious conditions he had left. No longer did he wear frilly silk clothes for now he was outfitted with coarse brown sugar sack garments which were uncomfortable to the skin. The sugar sack garments was the standard slave attire.
Juan suffered physical and mental abuse from this mistress. Such as: falling asleep while holding a lantern during a carriage ride, or being whipped for having exchanged a coin given to him by his mistress for a new shinny coin, or for a crushed flower. Beatings and cuffings were everyday occurrence for this slave.
Although badly abused, Juan managed to educate himself by looking, listening, and observing his surroundings. Writing was forbidden so he learned to write by tracing over letters. A practice that is still used today in primary grades. Tracing combined with an excellent memory allowed him to memorize things which interested him. With thoughts of freedom always in his head, Juan learned many useful things, so that when freedom came he could earn an honest livelihood.
Juan used his imagination by taking sheets of paper and turning then into various shapes: flowers, pineapples, shells, fans, and other objects. These shapes brought praise not only to him but to his unstable mistress, the Marquessa. Unfortunately, one day Juan was caught tracing letters instead of doing a chore, his new master became agitated and ordered him to return to sewing and never trace again. By giving this directive, the Master tried to silence his gifts...writing, drawing and reciting. Because Manzano had one purpose in mind, his freedom, this directive did not hamper him, for he would do the forbidden things at night when all were asleep.
Juan Manzano finally managed to escape with help of a group of Cuban writers. Through his writings, he managed to accumulate eight hundred dollars which these writers used to buy his freedom. After his freedom, Juan devoted his life to writing about the injustices of slavery. As in the poem
My Thirty Year
, he reflects upon his life as a slave from cradle to freedom. He speaks of thirty years in a world of pain and cruel oppression the slave system put him through...singling out his mistress and others who abused him. For all the torment that he had endured it was not in vain, for it is nothing to what one day is in store for the wicked ones who brought this torment to him. Juan Francisco Manzano died in 1854 and left a legacy of poetry for all to enjoy.
As mentioned previously, I have included poems by Richard Madden translator of Juan Francisco Manzano’s autobiography. Mr. Madden was an avid foe of slavery and wrote poems depicting its cruelty and inhumanity toward man. These poems are included in the lesson plans section of the unit
The sample lesson plans which follow will vary depending upon interest in subject area, reading level, interruptions, and allotted class time. Clustering may be used to facilitate lessons and as a visual aid. An example of clustering is presented in the
Lesson Plan Section of unit.
The Life and Poem of a Cuban Slave,
by Edward Mullen can be located at the Cross Campus Library, Yale University. This is the text which has the narratives of Juan Manzano and Richard Madden.
LESSON PLAN I:
OBJECTIVE:
Students will familiarize themselves with the vocabulary of the lesson being presented. Students will develop vocabulary awareness in subject area.
PROCEDURE:
Students will listen for the pronunciation of each word from teacher, words will be used in context. These vocabulary words will be grouped under the title “Latin America Speaks” on a chart. Teacher will have prepared worksheet with copies of the vocabulary to be used in today’s lesson.
ASSIGNMENT:
Students are to follow directions on their worksheet. Students will look up the definitions of each word using a dictionary. Students are to make sure to write the pronunciation of each word.
LESSON PLAN II:
OBJECTIVE:
Students will read a short autobiography of Juan Francisco Manzano. Students will be cognizant of the fact that Caribbean Slavery was as brutal as American Slavery.
PROCEDURE:
Teacher will discuss with students the evils and economics of slavery. Using a world map, teacher will point out various countries which were leaders in the slave trade and where they dropped their human cargo.
ASSIGNMENT:
Teacher will pass out worksheets on the life of Juan Manzano. Students are to silently skim the material to prepare for oral reading. After class discussion, teacher will then pass out the worksheet,
Explore Your Own Words
students may work individually or in pairs to complete this assignment.
LESSON PLAN III:
OBJECTIVE:
Students will recognize that Spain colonized parts of the Caribbean and brought slavery to the islands. Students will read selections from Manzano and Richard Madden, his translator, and understand the term “narrative.”
PROCEDURE:
Teacher will pass out a selection of Manzano’s work using xeroxed copies. After reading selection (orally or silently), students will do a worksheet pertaining to the selected lesson.
ASSIGNMENT:
Teacher will first discuss with the class the word “narrative” and why it is presented in this lesson. Teacher will write the definition on the board, or have it on a chart to be copied into student’s notebook. Then students will begin their class assignment working independently or with a partner.
DEFINITION:
Narrative poems tell a story. Sometimes the story is about a brief incident or a long incident in a person’s life. Sometimes it is a long complicated tale of adventure.
LESSON PLAN IV:
OBJECTIVE:
Students will be knowledgeable of the slave trade in the Caribbean. Students will be aware of the similarities and differences between the two forms of slavery.
PROCEDURE:
Teacher will have short discussion to recap earlier lesson stressing the likes and differences between Caribbean and American Slavery. In this lesson or other lessons, teacher may use clustering for brainstorming. This method helps to stimulate participation and does liven up the class.
ASSIGNMENT:
Pass out worksheet
Similarities and Differences
to class. Students are to read the directions and complete the work. At teacher’s discretion, students may work individually or in pairs to complete this task. Students may skim over previous material for this lesson.
(figure available in print form)
This brainstorming method enables students to expand their thoughts with less pressure of right or wrong answers. Also, it helps students toward the conceptual relationship among words. Brainstorming can be used with any lesson in this unit.
Classroom discussion in which all students participate helps to relieve tension and actively involves students that share common points of views. Helping students learn from each other is a valuable asset.
At teacher’s discretion, Clustering may be used prior to reading or could be used as a postreading activity. This lively activity may reinforce student’s learning and liven up the class!
