Miralda, das Negermädchen, oder die schwarze Nachtigall der Habana

Regensburg: Verlag von Georg Joseph Manz, 1862. Small Octavo. 156, [4] pages + four inserted plates. Original quarter leather and papered boards; rubbed and worn with small corner stress fracture to lower cover; two leaves with loss affecting eight words; lacks rear free endpaper.

Second edition of this 19th century tale about Miralda, a 12-year old girl of mixed racial identity, and the "black nightingale of Havana."

In "What's in a name? A historical source for William Wells Brown's Miralda," scholar Christopher Stampone argues that William Wells Brown, who had journeyed to Cuba, found inspiration in Bostonian Maturin M. Ballou's 1854 History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics In part:

"Brown changed Clotel, the eponymous heroine of the first novel, to Isabella in the second version, retitled as Miralda; or The Beautiful Quadroon. A Romance [...] No one has attempted to elucidate the name Miralda, a relatively minor character in the first novel who is named Mary and who, beginning with Miralda, becomes the novel's eponymous heroine and in the last two versions receives the name Clotelle, recalling the name of her mother and heroine of the first version of the novel [Stampone suggests] Brown looked to a popular literary source for the name-specifically, the romance of Miralda and Pedro first told in Maturin Murray Ballou's History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics. Brown likely borrowed the name because Miralda's tale gained significant popularity in newspapers and even in theaters throughout America (and, to a certain extent, Great Britain) during the mid-1850s and early 1860s. Shrewd businessman and writer that he was, Brown very likely capitalized on the name's popularity and used it to signal some overlap between his abolitionist story and one involving Cuba, a country that President Franklin Pierce and other pro-slavery politicians considered acquiring as a slave-holding state. (Christopher Stampone) "

Where does the present item, Miralda, das Negermädchen... by Wilhelm Herchenbach, published between Ballou's tale and that of William Wells Brown, fit into the scheme of things? A thought-provoking question, yet while all three authors write of a young woman named Miralda of mixed racial identity, this German author has his own spin:

In Cuba, Miralda sings to earn money for her father's freedom, becoming famous for her lovely voice. She unwittingly becomes involved in an uprising against Spanish colonial rule. When the rebellion fails, Miralda faces execution. At the last moment, she is pardoned for her crime.

In addition to the plot, Herchenbach, an educator and juvenile author, fills the text of Miralda with descriptions of the everyday work of the enslaved labor forces on the sugar cane, tobacco and coffee plantations.

At the story's conclusion, the plantation owner, Mr. Cardenas, tries to emancipate his slaves, but the majority reject this, exclaiming: "We'll never be freer than we are now, that's why we want to remain your slaves! [Freier, als wir jetz sind, werden wir nie, darum wollen wir deine Sclaven bleiben!]" (p152). Further, the Cuban plantations are described as "known as true places of culture and peace [als wahre Kultur- und Friedensstätten bekannt]." (ibid)

First published in 1857, the first and this second edition are both very rare. In America, OCLC records no holdings of either edition.

Notes: Ref. Hurrelmann, Wilkending, at al., Handbuch zur Kinder- und Jugendliteratur von 1850 bis 1900 (2016 edition). Christopher Stampone (2019) What's in a name? A historical source for William Wells Brown's Miralda, ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 32:1, 31-34. This edition, OCLC 952035522, Bibliothek der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München. The first edition, 1857, OCLC 258488663 cites no location; we find one copy at the Universität Erfurt. The book is found translated into French, Dutch, and Czech, as late as 1925, all editions are rare.