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Biography of a Runaway Slave</Cite> Miguel Barnet. Biography of a Runaway Slave. Willimantic, Conn.: Curbstone Press, 1994. 217 pp. $11.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-880684-18-4. Reviewed by Dale T. Graden Published on H-Ethnic (October, 1996) Few documentary sources exist from the Car‐ preter as "the frst personal and detailed account ibbean islands and the Latin American mainland of a Maroon [escaped] slave in Cuban and Spanish written by Africans or their descendants that de‐ American literature and a valuable document to scribe their life under enslavement. In Brazil, two historians and students of slavery" (Luis, p. 200). mulatto abolitionists wrote sketchy descriptions This essay will explore how testimonial literature of their personal experiences, and one autobiog‐ can help us better to understand past events. It raphy of a black man was published before eman‐ will also examine problems inherent in interpret‐ cipation. In contrast, several thousand slave nar‐ ing personal testimony based on memories of ratives and eight full-length autobiographies were events that occurred several decades in the past. published in the United States before the outbreak Esteban Mesa Montejo discussed his past with of the Civil War (1860-1865) (Conrad, p. xix). In the Cuban ethnologist Miguel Barnet in taped in‐ Cuba, one slave narrative appeared in the nine‐ terviews carried out in 1963. At the age of 103, teenth century. Penned by Juan Francisco Man‐ most likely Esteban Montejo understood that he zano, the Autobiografia (written in 1835, pub‐ was the sole living runaway slave on the island lished in England in 1840, and in Cuba in 1937) re‐ and that his words and memories might be con‐ counted the life of an enslaved black who learned sidered important enough to be published. For how to read and write. The Autobiografia con‐ that reason, he delved into topics of particular in‐ cludes with Manzano's escape from his owner. terest to himself and to the interviewer Barnet. The book inspired other authors to condemn the These included forms of African religious expres‐ institution of slavery as it existed in Cuba. Not un‐ sion and Montejo's recollections of life as a fugi‐ til publication of Miguel Barnet's The Autobiogra‐ tive slave hiding for several years in the forests of phy of a Runaway Slave in 1966 did there exist a Cuba. The book includes what appear to be actual narrative centered on the life of a common slave quotes from Montejo along with sentences and in Cuba (Barnet, 1966). The testimony of Esteban paragraphs shaped by Barnet to provide a read‐ Montejo has been described by its foremost inter‐ H-Net Reviews able account of the life of a black man in Cuba mills, taverns that sold supplies to the slaves, and during the late nineteenth and early twentieth religious practices. He rejects the myth that century. Africans committed suicide by hanging or drown‐ Born in 1860 as a slave, Esteban Montejo wit‐ ing themselves, but argues instead that they few nessed some of the most turbulent moments in all back to their homeland with a religious object of Latin American history. With the end of sugar (known as a prenda) tied to their waist. Slaves production on the Caribbean island of St. loved music, particularly the use of the drum. Domingue as a result of the Haitian Revolution Montejo laments that the "white man's music had (1791-1804), Cuba became a major exporter of no drum at all. Tasteless" (Barnet 1994, p. 33). sugar from its plantations in the decades before Montejo depicts the Africans with whom he lived Montejo's birth. To satisfy an insatiable demand as people of great physical beauty, compassion, for inexpensive labor, planters and merchants and sensuality. He also presents clear evidence of transported thousands of African slaves to Cuba the brutal treatment inflicted on these African from the 1780s to the 1860s, among them Monte‐ slaves by masters and overseers. Planters often jo's parents. Given the presence of so many re‐ locked their slaves in stocks for two or three cently arrived Africans in his midst, Montejo had months for minor offenses, and whipping was an extraordinary opportunity to witness African common. "The barracoon [slave quarters] was cultural expression and various forms of resis‐ bare dirt, empty, and lonely" (Barnet 1994, p. 24). tance to the slave regime. At some unknown junc‐ Slaves rose at 4:30 a.m. and then worked from ture during Cuba's Ten Year's War (1868-1878), 6:00 a.m. until sunset cutting sugar cane and Montejo escaped from bondage and lived on his working in the mill. own as a cimarron (runaway slave). The narrative In a chapter entitled "Life in the Woods," includes Montejo's remembrances of the War for Montejo talked about his decision to escape. After Independence (1895-1898), better known as the throwing a rock that hit the head of the overseer, Spanish-Cuban-American War. The subsequent he ran from the felds into nearby wooded hills. presence of United States troops as an army of oc‐ Similar to the escaped slave Sethe in Toni Morri‐ cupation (1898-1902) deeply influenced Montejo's son's novel Beloved, Montejo lived in constant worldview. The book ends in 1905 with the death fear of capture. Unlike the majority of fugitive of the Cuban general Maximo Gomez. slaves in the United States who fed from masters The narrative is divided into three sections. In in the American South with a destination in mind the frst section entitled "Slavery," Montejo offers (the American North or West), Montejo preferred some of his most poignant and insightful com‐ to remain alone in the thick forests of Cuba. For mentary. He believes that "nature is everything. several years, he communicated with no one. Even what you can't see" (Barnet 1994, p. 17; Whenever he heard dogs barking, he immediately Aching, pp. 35-41). In a tropical environment took off his clothes to prevent the animals from where sickness and painful insect bites were com‐ picking up his scent. Montejo lived in a cave for mon, Montejo delights in recalling the manner in many months, and was always careful about the which Africans used natural herbs and potions sounds he made and the fres he built. When pos‐ for healing. Black women and men from various sible, he stole pigs and food crops from small African nations resided on the sugar plantations, farms. He allowed his hair to grow long into a kin‐ including Musungo Congos, Mandingos, Gangas, ka (most likely meaning dread locks). "You live Lucumis and Carabalis. Montejo comments on the half wild when you're a cimarron.... My legs and games played by Africans, sugar refining in small arms got as hard as sticks.... I felt good being a cimarron. Because I was my own boss, and I de‐ 2 H-Net Reviews fended myself on my own" (Barnet 1994, p. 52). to employ natural herbs, grasses and plants to Upon learning that slavery had been abolished, keep people in good health. The religious holiday Montejo ended his life of seclusion and began to of San Juan, celebrated each year on the 24th of search for employment at the sugar plantations. June, included festive parties attended by over‐ The title of the second section is "The Aboli‐ dressed men and women of the elite, cock fghts, tion of Slavery." A better title might be "The After‐ horse racing and card playing, along with dances math of Slavery," given that the chapter covers known as the mani, the jota, the zapateo and the the decade following fnal emancipation in 1886. tumbandera. Houses of Santeria, where "only Montejo labored as a free worker at the Purio and black people went" to practice their African reli‐ Ariosa central sugar mills during these years. He gion, also hosted parties during the feast of San endured long days cutting sugar, clearing felds, Juan. Instead of following Catholic rituals, howev‐ and maintaining the machinery of the mills. His er, the participants paid homage to the Yoruba cynicism about race relations and treatment of god of iron, farmers and war known as Oggun. the workers is evident from the outset. "There Clearly, Montejo is very interested in the African were masters, or rather, owners, who believed contributions to Cuban culture. "I come to the that blacks were made for locking up and whip‐ conclusion that the African was wise in all things. ping. So they treated them the same as before. To There are some who say they were from the my mind blacks didn't realize that things had wilds, and that they behaved like animals. There changed [with emancipation] because they kept is no lack of white men out there who say it. I on saying 'Your blessing, Master'.... [The white think different because I knew them. They man] believed they were the owners of humanity" weren't the least bit like animals. They taught me (Barnet 1994, p. 62). Montejo criticized the lack of many things though they didn't know how to read education provided for black and mulatto chil‐ and write. Customs that are more important than dren, and the fact that competent blacks were information. To be educated, not to meddle in oth‐ barred from entering elite professions. Reserving er folks' problems, speak softly, be respectful, be some of his most scathing criticism for the religious, be a hard worker.... All of that the Catholic hierarchy, Montejo claimed that "with African taught me" (Barnet 1994, pp. 150-51). women they [priests] were devils. They converted Montejo alludes to the presence and contributions the sacristy into a whorehouse...
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