The Transatlantic Abolitionist Discourse: Richard Madden and Juan (Manzano)'s Impact on William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass.

The article examines the transatlantic abolitionist discourse by analyzing the influence of Cuban enslaved poet Juan Francisco Manzano and British abolitionist Richard Robert Madden on American abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. It highlights Madden’s 1840 English translation and publication of Manzano’s autobiography and poems, which exposed Cuban slavery to international audiences and shaped abolitionist literature. The study argues that Madden’s work served as a model for Garrison in encouraging Douglass to write his own slave narrative, revealing parallels in their autobiographical structures, themes of literacy, resistance, and the pursuit of freedom. Additionally, the article explores how abolitionist networks circulated Manzano’s and other Afro-Cuban poets’ writings, influencing U.S. abolitionist thought and literature while reflecting differing cultural contexts and narrative strategies between Cuban and American slavery.