Fransh Manuel, 1722

The narrative of Fransh Manuel is told secondhand in a runaway slave advertisement penned by William Yard, but Yard suggests that he had possession of an original, written by the runaway. Manuel, Yard writes, “has told me [his story] since he has run away.” Unless the two held a long-distance conversation, Manuel must have left that story for Yard to find after his escape. This advertisement, then, preserves Manuel’s perspective on and experience of slavery; although mediated, it can only be described as a slave narrative. Manuel’s story of betrayal and, then, self-determination suggests the fragility of freedom. When personal liberty is contingent upon the textual authority of a pass identifying its bearer as a freeman, freedom is only as secure as the literacy and storytelling skills establishing its authenticity.