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Summary
Summary
Written in the 1850s by a runaway slave, THE BONDS- WOMANS NARRATIVE is both an historically important literary event and a gripping autobiographical novel in its own right.When her master is betrothed to a woman who conceals a tragic secret, Hannah Crafts, a young slave on a wealthy North Carolina plantation, runs away in a bid for her freedom up North. Pursued by slave hunters, imprisoned by a mysterious and cruel captor, held by sympathetic strangers, and forced to serve a demanding new mistress, she finally makes her way to freedom in New Jersey. Her compelling story provides a fascinating view of American life in the mid-1800s and the literary conventions of the time. Quite possibly the only novel written by a runaway slave, THE BONDSWOMANS NARRATIVE is a provocative literary landmark and a significant historical event that will captivate a diverse audience.
Author Notes
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the chair of Harvard's Afro-American Studies Department. Instrumental in changing the literary canon, he has edited many long-lost works and has written several major critical texts. His work has helped to broaden the definitions of both American and African American literature
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Nothing intrigues quite the way an old manuscript does: there's the story told in its pages, but there's also the story of the pages. In this volume's lively, provocative introduction, Gates, Harvard chair of African-American studies, describes his discovery of a handwritten manuscript from the collection of Dorothy Porter Wesley, the famous Howard University librarian, in an auction. Identified in the auction catalogue as a "fictionalized biography... of the early life and escape of one Hannah Crafts," the manuscript, Gates thought, might be the "first novel written by a woman who had been a slave." After purchasing it, he undertook the painstaking work of authenticating it and determining its author. Though Dr. Joe Nickell (the sleuth who proved the Jack the Ripper diaries fraudulent) firmly limits the manuscript's composition to 1853 to 1861 and Gates locates a few candidates for authorship, the historical Hannah Crafts remains elusive. Whoever Hannah Crafts wasDand about that there is sure to be some discussionDshe was a talented storyteller. Though Crafts appears self-taught and borrows from many sourcesDinfluences include other slave narratives, 19th-century sentimental and gothic novels and, as Gates noted in a letter to the New Yorker, Charles DickensDshe propels her story along, vividly describing the heroes and villains she entangles in her multiple plots. A mulatto, Hannah grows up a house slave in Virginia, learning to read in secret. When her master at last marries, Hannah becomes a maid to the new mistress, a woman who seems haunted. In fact, she is hunted: someone who holds proof that her mother is a slave is blackmailing her. Knowing her mistress will be sold if exposed, Hannah encourages her to flee, and flees with her. Thus begins Hannah's journey, as she passes through the hands of prison guard, slave trader, benevolent caretaker, mean and petty masters and finally to freedom. The style is sentimental and effusive, but it is also winning. Crafts's portrayal of the WheelersDa small-minded but ambitious couple who prefer to "live at the public expense"Dis incisive and utterly familiar. Though Gates chose to touch up Crafts's punctuation, he left her spelling as is and included her revisions, which were remarkably few. Crafts clearly understood the needs of her narrative and the conventions of the 19th-century novel in a way that many first novelists (of any century) don't. While scholars will have to decide whether this is "the unadulterated `voice' of the fugitive slave herself," lay readers can simply enjoy Crafts's remarkable story and Gates's own story of discovering her. (Apr.) Forecast: With Warner's publicity push (editor tour, TV appearances, national advertising), Gates's first-rate reputation, the prospect of this being the first novel by a former slave woman and the manuscript's own merit, count on this title to be a very big seller. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In this intriguing novel's introduction, a condensed version of which was published in the February 18, 2002, issue of the New Yorker, distinguished Harvard historian Gates sets the context of the book's historical importance. Gates purchased the manuscript, which was handwritten in the 1850s and languished in private hands for nearly a century and a half, at an auction in New York last year. Having had the holograph authenticated by two experts, Gates now confidently presents it to the world. The autobiographical novel, overwritten and melodramatic but engrossing to the end, follows a female slave in her circumscribed existence on a North Carolina plantation and her flight to freedom in the North. It is, according to Gates, "the first novel written by a female fugitive slave and perhaps the first novel written by any black woman at all." Gates' research into the manuscript's origins led him--albeit circumstantially--to find out more about Hannah Crafts, the author, and his recounting of the pursuit of that inquiry, also related in his introduction, only serves to enrich the whole reading experience of this surprising book. Let it be emphasized that this novel is not simply a historical document but also a vivid, compelling narrative. Brad Hooper.
Library Journal Review
Read by Anna Deavere Smith, this is an unprecedented autobiographical tale written in the 1850s by an African American slave who is probably the first black woman to write a novel. Crafts recounts her life story while simultaneously revealing her new mistress's secret that forces them to flee from slave hunters. Throughout the book, the author's path crosses with a powerful and determined enemy. Typical of sentimental and gothic novels, this suspenseful work is atypical in that it provides a black female writer's account of the brutalities of her society. A highly remarkable literary and historical work by a self-educated woman who gives a slave's experience of slavery from a humanistic view. The introduction and commentary by Henry Louis Gates discusses the provenance of the original manuscript and its place in history and literature. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.-Bernadette Lopez-Fitzsimmons, Manhattan Coll. Libs., Riverdale, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. ix |
| The Bondwoman's Narrative | p. 1 |
| Textual Annotations | p. 241 |
| Appendixes | |
| A. Authentication Report--Dr. Joe Nickell | p. 283 |
| B. Testimony of Jane Johnson | |
| Version 1 | p. 317 |
| Version 2 | p. 319 |
| C. John Hill Wheeler's Library Catalogue | p. 321 |
| Bibliography | p. 331 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 335 |
