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The Bondwoman's Narrative

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It is one thing to read about the injustices of slavery from a historical or even an observer's point of view. It is quite something else to learn of the daily life of a slave in the indentured person's own voice. Such is the case with "The Bondwoman's Narrative" penned by a female slave in the 1850s.

According to the editor this manuscript has existed for 140 years, and is quite probably the "earliest known novel by a female African-American slave and the earliest known novel by a black woman anywhere." Also according to Mr. Gates a slave escaped from a North Carolina plantation in 1857 and was able to reach New Jersey. It is his contention that she is the author of this book.

Whether one wishes to question the authenticity of his identification or not is quite immaterial considering the compelling material within "The Bondwoman's Narrative." The relationship between ladies' maids and their mistresses is revealed in sharp detail, as are the offensive overtures by a relentless master. The slave and narrator is presented not as a human being but as chattel, valued only for what she might bring on the block.

Ms. Craft has ably evoked pictures of the old South as well as the horrific conditions imposed by bondage. It is a miracle that these people could even hope for freedom. It is a wonder that this manuscript was brought to light at last.

- Gail Cooke

The first story is one of discovery and authentication on the part of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. This story will be fascinating to scholars and others interested in how original manuscripts are found and in the problems and procedures for authenticating them as artifacts as well as resolving other issues surrounding their authorship. This mystery story continues because Gates is on a mission in this section to find the "real" Hannah Crafts. I kept reading quickly, following his strains of research with almost as much excitement and suspense as I did in reading Hannah's narrative itself. Hannah mentions names that Gates traces back to real people, and he gradually uncovers dots, then connects them for the reader, showing just how exciting scholarship of this kind can be as a human endeavor. As an American literature scholar myself, I finished Gates's narrative wanting to run out and search for Hannah Crafts as well [if I only had the time and energy with all the other mysteries I'm already trying to solve].

The second narrative, of course, and really the most important, is Hannah Craft's novel itself, which is thought so far to be autobiographical, in which a first person narrator describes her experience as a house slave and her eventual escape from a plantation near Wilmington, NC, via the Underground Railroad to New Jersey. The novel is a quick read, like a popular novel today with traces of the 19th C. sentimental novels of its day, with suspense and Dickens-like characterizations. There is a noted motif of "passing" (as one race for another and one gender for another) that is fascinating to trace throughout the story. Perhaps the great "pass" of all is the unanswered question about the racial identity of the author, a question that bothers some greatly that it is even being asked and is critically important to others that it be answered as accurately as possible.

Gates includes material that makes this version of the book "teachable" as well (he plans a later scholarly edition)--a listing of the library holdings Crafts is presumed to have had access to; passages from Dickens's BLEAK HOUSE set side by side with echoes from Crafts's novel; chapter notes by the editor that point to issues in similar narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, etc.

Whether you eventually "buy" Gates's claims about its authenticity and importance or not, the book provides a focal point for discussions of many issues, both for the general reader and the specialist in American literature, American studies, history, gender studies, textual studies, and many others. It's also a peek inside the work of literary scholars, which reveals just how much fun our detective work (often thought to be dry and dusty by others) really is.

I say, read it, and let the conversations, and thought-provoking arguments, begin!

~Prof. Connie Ann Kirk

"The Bondwoman's Narrative" is an unprecedented literary event. This manuscript, recently discovered by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the only known novel to have been written by an African American slave. It might possibly be the first manuscript to have been written by a black woman...anywhere. Not only is the narrative unprecedented, it is a suspenseful and engrossing account of a young slave who "passes" for white in her attempt to find her way to freedom.

The bondwoman is Hannah Crafts, a mulatto and a slave, who wrote her story as an autobiographical novel. Hannah Crafts was not uneducated, she was self-educated. And, as anyone familiar with world literature will realize, Hannah Crafts, may have been very well educated, indeed. As we read her story, written in an effusive style, we realize that she was well aware of the limitations and injustices society inflicted on persons of color in 19th century America. What she didn't realize is that the freedom and life of the plantation's mistress is soon to be in as much peril as is her own and that their destinies will intertwine. Is Hannah Crafts story an autobiographical rendition or is it a flight of fancy, albeit a very good flight of fancy? I think it is up to each individual reader to judge.

"The Bondwoman's Narrative" really doesn't tell us anything new about the times in which Hannah Crafts lived. It's significance lies not in the facts it presents (although they are interesting), but in its historical value. The fact that this is, quite probably, the first narrative to have been written by a black woman makes "The Bondwoman's Narrative" unique and unprecedented and a true literary event.

Almost as interesting as the story of Hannah, herself, is Professor Gates' introduction in which he details his own search for the real Hannah Crafts and the true facts of her life.

Although the details in this book are details we have read before, perhaps several times before, we have not read them as presented by Hannah Crafts. The experience of slavery was important in shaping the character of America and, because of this importance, Hannah Crafts' voice is a voice that should be heard. I don't think anyone who reads this unique and sometimes very lovely book, will ever regret it.

This book is worth buying to read about Gates' research efforts alone! You will be moved along the rollercoaster ride of snowballing excitement as Gates moves from first reading about the handwritten narrative in an auction catalog to authenticating the narrative to publshing the it as this book. Gates devotes the sixty page-plus introduction to his research and the appendices include the narrative's authentication report, the catalog of Hannah's owner's library(containing books from which Hannah borrowed plot elements), and testimony from another female slave that escaped Hannah's owner as well (Hannah mentions her in the narrative).

While some might feel the novel may seem un-original because of Hannah's "borrowing" from literature of her time, I found the book a pleasure to read. Historian/bibliographer Dorothy Porter Wesley (the narrative came from her library) concluded early on that the narrative was by a black woman because the black characters were treated as people first of all AND that some time would pass in the story before it was evident that a character was black at all. Long used to novels (from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Gone with the Wind) where authors, usually white, took immense pains to point out the literal blackness and lowliness of negroes, Hannah's assumed humanity and ordinariness of her black characters is refreshingly different.

Though some punctuation has been added to aid reading (major changes are bracketed to let you know where), Gates left in Hannah's mispellings, strikeouts and other revisions to keep the narrative as close to the handwritten manuscript as possbile. Overall, this book's an engrossing read from start to finish and I'm now looking for some of Gates' other literary finds to read.

This was the most fascinating book that I've read in ... well, I don't know how long! THE BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE is a fictionalized yet seemingly autobiographical slave narrative written by Hannah Crafts somewhere between 1856-1860. Hannah delves into the the mind and heart of a slave by telling the story of a young woman's personal experiences.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who chairs the Department of African American Studies at Harvard University, came across this hand-written manuscript at an auction for African American artifacts. He then embarked upon an amazing research project which explored the author's identity. From scientific analysis of the manuscript (handwriting, ink, paper quality, etc) to actual genealogical research (census reports, etc.), Professor Gates attempts to prove that Hannah Crafts was indeed the first African-American woman to write such a narrative. ...This is part of the book is intriguing although I do have one word of advice here - READ THE NARRATIVE FIRST! If you read the Introduction first, you will know much of the story before actually reading it (in his discussion, he gives away the ending!). By reading the narrative first, I found that I was able to reach some of my own conclusions before reading those of Professor Gates and I better understood the informative analysis!

I usually don't read books more than once but I would read this one again!

Admittedly I was also drawn by Gates' inteview; particularly I wished to read about how they discovered & authenticated this manuscript. While I certainly have my differences whith Dr. Gates on many things, the work his team did was exhaustive and impressive.

Going on to read the text itself, I was equally impressed. As a self-educated slave woman writing in clear recognition of the horrors of the "Peculiar Institution", the work is impressive in itself. She uses the florid language of the time and as others have said, uses many of the devices of Dickens et al. Nonetheless she writes in a manner which is far more clear than most of her contemporaries, and even with misspellings it is a wonderful read. The story she tells holds together well.

She also displays a great amount of respect for the reader. For example, she covers large gaps of time (for instance one instance where having escaped with another woman they lived in the forest for some months) very briefly, allowing the reader to fill in the obvious suffering and deprivation they experienced rather than making us labor through that. As a consequence of this good judgement the story moves along at a pace most modern readers will feel comfortable with.

And she spares no one (including some of her fellow slaves) plain-spoken criticism where warranted. And defying stereotypes, she even describes the small kindnesses shown by everyone from jailers to slave-traders struggling with their admirable impulses under the burden of this legal monstrosity.

Modern teenagers will also wince when they realize the similarities between their own attitudes and those of Mrs. Wheeler (one of her owner-mistresses).

And it is as revealing as "Gone With the Wind" and "Wind Done Gone" about the foibles of Southern culture.

Despite it's shortcomings, this work deserves to be added to the American Canon of literature. Not just because it's the earliest novel by an African American woman, but because it's a great story as well. It can and should be read (and enjoyed) along with Washington Irving and Twain.

"The Bondwoman's Narrative" is perhaps the earliest work of fiction by a black woman. The novel details the journey of Hannah Crafts through slavery to her eventual escape to freedom. The story is engaging, suspenseful, humorous and tragic all at once. Yet, given the subject matter, I was rarely saddened by the events depicted in the novel. During the most emotionally difficult parts of the story, where mistreatment, death, and extreme cruelty are revealed, the author provides soothing relief for the reader through her faith in a loving, protecting God. I found it quite refreshing to read a slave narrative where the slaves' faith in God is used to elevate and encourage them to freedom as opposed to placate and conform them to slavery.

The book is beautifully written; authentic in tone, language and setting. Gate's decision to leave the author's original editing marks as part of the published novel provided a peep into Crafts' writing process and choices while at the same time drawing me even closer to the author. I suggest that you read the novel prior to reading the Introduction. I stopped a few pages into the Introduction for fear that I wold learn something through Gate's analysis that I would have picked up from the narrative on my own. Having saved the Introduction and Textual Annotations for last, I return to the book in anticipation of the story about the story of Hannah Crafts.

I highly recommend this novel. It should be welcomed into the American literary cannon. Its content and style are deserving of the honor. An excellent teaching and learning tool (an alternative to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" for sure!), that resonates with the spirit of love. There is something beyond strength throughout the pages of Hannah Crafts' story and Gates deserves kudos for making it available to the world. I can imagine Crafts at her writing desk above smiling down with gratitude.

The Bondwoman's Narrative is an historical artifact, a significant contribution to the literature of the pre-Civil War United States and, most especially, to African-American history and culture. Rating such a relic as if it were a modern publication denies it the accord it deserves as a newly discovered record of the misery endured by humans who were bought and sold in the last years of slavery.

Telling the story of Hannah Crafts, a literate house slave, the author, convincingly identified by editor Gates as a black woman, pens a sentimental melodrama, a genre popular at the time, to describe in detail the life of a slave. Leading a somewhat less miserable life than a field hand, Hannah reveals her never-ending duties, her treatment and mistreatment by wives of the owners, her observations on the sexual abuse of women by owners, and her firsthand knowledge of venal slave traders and unscrupulous lawyers. These accounts are remarkable for their immediacy and human drama.

The novel's narrative flow, as one traumatic episode after another builds to a climax, is clearly planned. Characters from one part of the novel appear and reappear in other parts, and sentimental motifs, common to the genre, repeat--the personification of a linden tree which affects several generations, curses visited on people and carried out over time, coincidences which strain credibility, and the hand of providence helping the pious Hannah.

Although Gates's arguments for black authorship are convincing, he does not address some intriguing European references here. Fresh linens look like "an alpine snowdrift," Mr. Wheeler is noted by Hannah as having "the attitude of a Frenchman," Mrs. Wheeler says she will not accept Hannah's "blarney," Hannah refers to the poetry of Lord Byron, and she describes Mrs. Wheeler in one scene as having "the rage of Orestes." These struck me as unusual metaphors and references, and I'd be intrigued to learn how common they were to the day and how and why Hannah came to employ them. Mary Whipple

Written in the 1850s by Hannah Crafts and edited for a modern readership by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Bondwoman's Narrative is the only known novel authored by a female African American slave, and perhaps the first novel ever written by a black woman. Describing the story of "passing" as a young slave treks toward freedom, The Bondwoman's Narrative is an enthralling legacy which is especially recommended for university African-American literature collections and community library large print fiction shelves.

This is a fascinating novel. The editor gives a convincing argument as to why it is believed that this novel was written by a female slave in the mid-19th century. Unraveling the authorship is an intriguing mystery in and of itself. The story is part gothic--part sentimental writing style. It tells a riveting story of a young woman's journey toward freedom. Along the way she introduces the reader to a variety of slave-experiences.

I particularly loved the way the main character relied on god for support in times of great need. Her reliance on prayer rings with genuiness. I am not a religious person, but I was very moved by the relationship betwen god and the girl as depicted in the story. Her prayers were powerful.

This book is valuable both for its historical relevancy and for its story, which certainly is a page turner. I thoroughly enjoyed the gothic and sentimental tones.