I am a slave and that the slave is a dead being in the eyes of his master," He had this master until he was 12 years old and she died. He remembers little of her death except standing in a line in his mistresses bed and crying afterward. Manzano's biography makes reference to his body as a tool for his mistress's pleasure. His second mistress, Marquesa de Prado Ameno, exercised control by dressing him up. When dressed in fine clothes, he was on his mistress's good side. When dressed in rags, this symbolized her displeasure. His change of dress publicized symbolically him being stripped of his identity in front of others. Manzano's dignity was removed, due to his constant change of costume. He also claims that when he turned 14 his punishments grew worse and worse. His mistress would cage him up for 24 hours at a time without food or water. He would be punished several times a week: "" (This punishment was so common that not a week passed where I would not suffer from beatings twice or three times per week.) Spanish edition Spanish colonial regime suppressed the history of marginalized social groups such as the African and the Chinese during the period the autobiography was written. During that time the Cuban sugar economy depended on slave labor for its economy. Even after the end of the Spanish rule in 1898, the book was unavailable to be published in Cuba or the Spanish colonies. The autobiography was the property of Del Monte, passed to Del Monte's heirs and then passed to the national library in Havana where it was published in 1937. English edition In the 19th century, Abolitionists published the literary works of slaves. In Manzano's case, his autobiography was published with the help of Del Monte and Madden. Because a Spanish version could not be published for some time, an English version translated by Richard Madden was published in England. In North America, slave narratives were translated and edited, partly for dramatic effect and would sometimes omit details. In Manzano's case, names, places and dates as well as instances of brutality were removed. Molloy points out that "on occasion the narratives contain so many of the editors views that there is little room for the testimony of the fugitive". Zafira Manzano's play, Zafira, was published in 1842. It was a metaphor of colonialism and