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Example research essay topic: Biography Of A Runaway Slave By Miguel Barnet - 1,878 words

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Biography of a Runaway Slave by Miguel Barnet Few documentary sources exist from the Caribbean islands and the Latin American mainland written by Africans or their descendants that describe their life under enslavement. In Brazil, two mulatto abolitionists wrote sketchy descriptions of their personal experiences, and one autobiography of a black man was published before emancipation. In contrast, several thousands of slave narratives were published in the United States before the outbreak of the Civil War (1860 - 1865). Miguel Barnet, in his Biography of a Runaway Slave, has done a tremendous job of depicting the slave history in the Caribbean region. The book is a written testimony of Estaban Mesa Montejo, who was interviewed by Miguel Barnet in 1963. At that time Montejo was 103 years old and lived in a Cuban nursing home.

Barnet, who was known as a leading figure in Latin American testimonial fiction, interviewed Montejo and gave the voice to the otherwise silent part of the history. Slaves traditionally participated in making the history, but never had an opportunity to talk about their experiences so widely and openly. Barnet, through the lips of Montejo, told the world about slavery in the region that was unexplored in that sense before. It is interesting that in order to accomplish that he not simply recorded the voice of the ex-slave, but also put everything that was said on the paper.

It is obvious that Barnet wanted to write a book that would tell about the hardships of being a slave. The main question, however, is whether he attempted to make it a mere ethnography or a historical novel. It might be a difficult task for the reader to make this distinction at once. Nevertheless, it becomes quite obvious that too many elements of a novel are present in the Biography of a Runaway Slave to merely call it a historical book. One of the first things that strikes the reader is the usage of a first person narration in the Biography of a Runaway Slave. This not only makes the speech pattern more colorful, but also adds even more credibility to the context of the book.

Readers are sure that the story is told just the way it happened because they have an opportunity to hear it from the person who lived through the events described in the book. It is obvious that if the author were trying to make the book a mere ethnography he would use the third-person narration. In that case, however, readers could get a sense of receiving the information through someones filters and the book would be no different from a history textbook. One of the most remarkable things about this book is the unique language the author used. Barnet was very concerned with capturing and passing out to the reader the sense of how Montejo talked and the words he used. It would have been extremely strange for a historical book to include such details as someones accent, because their focus is usually on the events of the period rather than on personal particularities of the narrator.

Novels, in contrast, pay a great deal of attention to small details, such as the language of the speaker. It is also the reason why W. Nick Hill, the translator, sought to bring out a new translation, criticizing a previously published one for flattening out the rich texture of Montejo's narration. The structure of the book is also very typical for this literary genre. The narrative is divided into three sections. In the first section entitled Slavery, Montejo offers some of his most agonizing and painful commentary.

He believes that nature is everything. Even what you cant see (p. 17; Aching, pp. 35 - 41). In a tropical environment where sickness and painful insect bites were not uncommon, Montejo delights in recalling the manner in which Africans used natural herbs and potions for healing. Montejo comments on the games played by Africans, sugar refining in small mills, taverns that sold supplies to the slaves, and religious practices.

He absolutely rejects the myth that Africans committed suicide by hanging or drowning themselves, but argues instead that they flew back to their homeland with a religious object tied to their waist. Slaves loved music, particularly the use of the drum. Montejo laments that the white mans music had no drum at all. Tasteless (p. 33). Montejo describes the Africans with whom he lived as people of great physical beauty, compassion, and sensuality. He also presents clear evidence of the brutal treatment inflicted on these African slaves by masters and overseers.

Planters often locked their slaves in stocks for two or three months for minor offenses, whipping was common, and housing was inadequate: The barracoon was bare dirt, empty, and lonely (p. 24). Slaves rose at 4: 30 a. m. and then worked from 6: 00 a. m. until sunset cutting sugar cane and working in the mill.

The title of the second section is The Abolition of Slavery. A better title might be The Aftermath of Slavery, given that the chapter covers the decade following final emancipation in 1886. Montejo worked as a free worker at the Period and Arizona central sugar mills during these years. He was spending long days cutting sugar, clearing fields, and maintaining the machinery of the mills. His cynicism about race relations and treatment of the workers is evident from the very beginning: There were masters, or rather, owners, who believed that blacks were made for locking up and whipping. So they treated them the same as before.

To my mind blacks didnt realize that things had changed because they kept on saying Your blessing, Master... [The white man] believed they were the owners of humanity (p. 62). Montejo criticized the lack of education provided for black and mulatto children, and the fact that competent blacks were barred from entering elite professions. Being especially sarcastic towards the Catholic hierarchy, Montejo claimed, With women they [priests] were devils. They converted the sacristy into a whorehouse... The priests put women in caves, in holes in the ground where they had executioners ready to kill them (p. 80). In a third section called The War of Independence, Montejo comments upon his experiences during the fighting against Spain, which lasted from 1895 to 1898.

Cuban guerrilla tactics and the use of the machete to cut off the heads of their enemy instilled terror among young Spanish troops. Montejo attributes the victory over Spain his fellow black soldiers: The conduct of our troops was a model for others, as anyone will tell you who fought in the war... we were brave and put the revolution above everything else... Even so, many colonels and other officers shit off-target every day. They did things that not even little children do (p. 183). Montejo condemned propaganda that minimized the role of black soldiers in the war.

He claimed that 95 percent of blacks had fought, but their involvement and sacrifices did not prevent them from being left out in the street after the end of the war. The main objective that the authors of historical books seek to accomplish is the accuracy of the events described in their books. For novelists, however, this issue is not of such a dramatic importance. In the Biography of a Runaway Slave, Barnet allows himself to make some faults. In the preface, W. Nick Hill quotes Barnet (from a Post Script to the 1987 Argentine edition) as stating that Montejo died the 10 th of February 1973 at 113 years of age.

That same year marks the 100 th anniversary of the Abolition of slavery in Cuba and also in the Americas, since Cuba was the last country to overcome this affront to the human condition. Barnet here, therefore, committed a double error: the abolition of slavery in Cuba was in 1886, not 1873; and Brazil, not Cuba, was the last country to abolish slavery in the Americas - in 1888. Since the text does not tell the reader exactly when or at what age Montejo escaped and since it is unclear when either he or the author thought that slavery ended, it is impossible to know how long he spent as a runaway. Montejo provides stimulating details about a rich culture shared by enslaved Africans. Yet, it is most likely that he learned about African culture after emancipation, and then worked backward in the taped interviews to portray such cultural practices as common at an earlier juncture. Such an approach can easily distort analysis of actual conditions and the true historical record, which is a common feature of novels.

Montejo portrays himself as a rebel during his first forty-five years of life, yet he never entered a quilombo (escaped slave community) or joined with other fugitive slaves to steal from plantations. Montejo notes on the last page of the book If I could, I would tell the whole story, all of it (p. 200). What does he mean by that? He is probably trying to say that he is only a human. It is not for him to write history, he is only making his small contribution.

This might be one of the reasons why Barnet presented this book as a novel, as memoirs, and not as a perfectly objective historical document. Much creative imagination on the part of the novelists must be employed in order to make their works interesting for the readers. While it is true that there is not a hard and fast line between fiction and nonfiction, it is also true that a reader can always suspect that the author went too far in reconstructing his subjects narrative for literary or other motives. It is very likely that the U. S.

Army during the occupation either promoted or did nothing to stop the development of segregation and discrimination. It is not clear, though, whether the events described in the book are a salient memory of Montejo or did he serve as a vehicle for the authors concern. Many readers might find Montejo's comments about the U. S. occupation to be a little too convenient given the political context of intense anti - U. S.

sentiment in Cuba in the early 1960 s, which is the time when the book was written. Biography of a Runaway Slave by Miguel Barnet is a very useful and interesting piece of information for anybody. Its topic is one of the most shameful ones in the history of human kind slavery. The uniqueness of this book is in the fact that it was written from the very words of an eyewitness of the events described.

Even though the book is very valuable, it cannot be viewed as a completely objective source of studying history. The author did not indent for it to be a textbook. Many things in there are subjective memories, which cannot be checked or traced. Barnet rather wanted to write a novel, which would reflect on the topic, possess credibility and be gripping to the reader. Works Cited: Aching, Gerard.

On the Creation of Unsung National Heroes: Esteban Montejo and Areas Julian del Casal, Latin American Literary Review, pp. 31 - 49. Barnet, Miguel. Biography of a Runaway Slave, translated by W. Nick Hill. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1994.


Free research essays on topics related to: runaway slave, black soldiers, abolition of slavery, person narration, latin american

Research essay sample on Biography Of A Runaway Slave By Miguel Barnet

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