The Bondwoman's Narrative
Encyclopedia
The Bondwoman's Narrative is a 2002 bestselling novel set in the mid-nineteenth century by Hannah Crafts
, a self-proclaimed runaway slave from North Carolina
. The published novel has a preface by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
, a literary professor at Harvard University
, describing the history of its acquisition, verification and publication. Scholars have speculated that the novel, possibly the first written by an African-American woman, was created between 1853 and 1861. It may precede the novel Our Nig
, published in 1859.
, beginning with her explanation of being taught to read and write as a child by a kind old couple, who were subsequently discovered and reprimanded. Years later, Hannah's master hosts a large wedding
. During the party, Hannah notices an unattractive old man subtly following her new mistress. Hannah concludes that “each one was conscious of some great and important secret on the part of the other.” Indeed, in the coming weeks, after observing her new mistress lock herself away most of the day, Hannah comes to learn that the old man is Mr. Trappe, a crooked lawyer who has discovered that the mistress is a fair-skinned mulatto
who is passing
for white.
Hannah and the mistress flee the plantation in the middle of the night, become lost, and stay the night in a gloomy shack
in the forest. The shack was recently the scene of a murder, and strewn with bloodstained weapons and clothes. Under these conditions, Hannah's mistress starts to go insane. Months later, the women are found by a group of hunters who escort them to prison. One of them, Horace, informs Hannah that her master slit his throat after their escape. The women are taken to prison, where they meet Mrs. Wright, a senile woman imprisoned for trying to help a slave girl escape. The mistress’ insanity worsens. After several months, the women are moved to a house, where conditions are much better, but they are unable to leave or know the identity of their captor. After a lengthy imprisonment, it is revealed that their captor is Mr. Trappe. The mistress, upon learning this, suffers a brain aneurysm and dies.
Hannah is sold to a slave trader. As she is being transported, the cart horse bolts and runs the cart off a ledge. The slave trader is killed instantly. Hannah wakes up in the home of Mrs. Henry, a kindly woman who treats her well. As Hannah recuperates, Mrs. Henry is told that Hannah’s previous owner wishes to claim her. Despite Hannah’s pleas, the young woman is returned to the status of house slave, this time for Mrs. Wheeler, a vain, self-centered woman. When sent to town for facial powder, Hannah hears news of Mr. Trappe’s death. After she returns with the powder, Mrs. Wheeler discovers that it reacts with her perfume, causing a blackening effect on her skin. Mrs. Wheeler has temporary blackface
, causing her much discomfort. After the family moves to North Carolina and another house slave replaces Hannah, Mrs. Wheeler suspects her of telling others about the blackface incident. As punishment, Hannah is ordered to the fields to be raped. Before being forced to join the field slaves, she flees again.
Hannah comes under the care of Mrs. Hetty, the kind woman who originally taught her to read and write. Mrs. Hetty facilitates Hannah’s escape to the North
, where the young woman rejoins her mother.
demonstrated that Crafts must have read prominent works of fiction such as Bleak House
. Robbins also argues that Crafts may have read a serialized version of Dickens's novel in Frederick Douglass
's newspaper, which had a high circulation among runaway slaves. Scholar Catherine Keyser has argued for influences from Charlotte Bronte
's Jane Eyre
in Craft's writing.
Major literary styles include:
first acquired the manuscript in an annual auction by Swann Galleries
. The catalogue
described the novel as an “Unpublished Original Manuscript
; a fictionalized biography
, written in an effusive style, purporting to be the story, of the early life and escape of one Hannah Crafts.” Its history could be traced to the 1940s, when it was owned by African-American scholar Dorothy Porter
.
Because of little interest, Gates bought the manuscript at a low price. He proceeded to verify the text as an historical artifact, and drew on expertise by a variety of scholars. Wyatt Houston Day, a bookseller and authenticator, wrote, “ I can say unequivocally that the manuscript was written before 1861, because had it been written afterward, it would have most certainly contained some mention of the war or at least secession.” Kenneth W. Rendell
identified the original ink as iron gall ink, most widely used up until 1860. Joe Nickell
, Ph.D., the author of numerous books on literary assessment, used a variety of techniques to evaluate the manuscript, studying the paper, ink, provenance, writing style, etc. As a result of his own review, Gates agreed with others who concluded that Crafts was most likely black because of the way she referred to black characters; the intricate, insider knowledge of specifics regarding slave escape routes; and her numerous conventional mistakes in language.
After verification and editing, Gates arranged for publication of the novel by Time-Warner in 2002. Due to the intense interest in such an early work, the only known one by a fugitive enslaved person and the first by an African-American woman, its publication was followed closely. The book rapidly became a bestseller.
The original manuscript version of The Bondwoman's Narrative is in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
at Yale University
.
(For more information about Gates's work republishing a little-known novel by an African-American woman (but not about The Bondwoman's Narrative), see Our Nig
)
Hannah Crafts
Hannah Crafts was an African-American slave in the United States during the 19th century. She is the author of The Bondwoman's Narrative, a hand-written manuscript that was discovered in 2002 at the New York Swann Galeries auction house. The work was carefully verified as authentic by Henry Louis...
, a self-proclaimed runaway slave from North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. The published novel has a preface by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...
, a literary professor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, describing the history of its acquisition, verification and publication. Scholars have speculated that the novel, possibly the first written by an African-American woman, was created between 1853 and 1861. It may precede the novel Our Nig
Our Nig
Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is an autobiographical slave narrative by Harriet E. Wilson. It was published in 1859 and rediscovered in 1982 by professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. It is considered the first novel published by an African-American on the North American...
, published in 1859.
Plot summary
Crafts's novel focuses on the experience of Hannah, a house slaveHouse slaves
A House slave was a slave who worked and often lived in the house of the slave-owner. House slaves had many duties such as cooking, cleaning, serving meals and caring for children.-House slaves in antiquity:...
, beginning with her explanation of being taught to read and write as a child by a kind old couple, who were subsequently discovered and reprimanded. Years later, Hannah's master hosts a large wedding
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
. During the party, Hannah notices an unattractive old man subtly following her new mistress. Hannah concludes that “each one was conscious of some great and important secret on the part of the other.” Indeed, in the coming weeks, after observing her new mistress lock herself away most of the day, Hannah comes to learn that the old man is Mr. Trappe, a crooked lawyer who has discovered that the mistress is a fair-skinned mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
who is passing
Passing (racial identity)
Racial passing refers to a person classified as a member of one racial group attempting to be accepted as a member of a different racial group...
for white.
Hannah and the mistress flee the plantation in the middle of the night, become lost, and stay the night in a gloomy shack
Shack
A shack is a type of small house, usually in a state of disrepair. The word may derive from the Nahuatl word xacalli or "adobe house" by way of Mexican Spanish xacal/jacal, which has the same meaning as "shack". It was a common usage among people of Mexican ancestry throughout the U.S...
in the forest. The shack was recently the scene of a murder, and strewn with bloodstained weapons and clothes. Under these conditions, Hannah's mistress starts to go insane. Months later, the women are found by a group of hunters who escort them to prison. One of them, Horace, informs Hannah that her master slit his throat after their escape. The women are taken to prison, where they meet Mrs. Wright, a senile woman imprisoned for trying to help a slave girl escape. The mistress’ insanity worsens. After several months, the women are moved to a house, where conditions are much better, but they are unable to leave or know the identity of their captor. After a lengthy imprisonment, it is revealed that their captor is Mr. Trappe. The mistress, upon learning this, suffers a brain aneurysm and dies.
Hannah is sold to a slave trader. As she is being transported, the cart horse bolts and runs the cart off a ledge. The slave trader is killed instantly. Hannah wakes up in the home of Mrs. Henry, a kindly woman who treats her well. As Hannah recuperates, Mrs. Henry is told that Hannah’s previous owner wishes to claim her. Despite Hannah’s pleas, the young woman is returned to the status of house slave, this time for Mrs. Wheeler, a vain, self-centered woman. When sent to town for facial powder, Hannah hears news of Mr. Trappe’s death. After she returns with the powder, Mrs. Wheeler discovers that it reacts with her perfume, causing a blackening effect on her skin. Mrs. Wheeler has temporary blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
, causing her much discomfort. After the family moves to North Carolina and another house slave replaces Hannah, Mrs. Wheeler suspects her of telling others about the blackface incident. As punishment, Hannah is ordered to the fields to be raped. Before being forced to join the field slaves, she flees again.
Hannah comes under the care of Mrs. Hetty, the kind woman who originally taught her to read and write. Mrs. Hetty facilitates Hannah’s escape to the North
The North
The North may refer to:* a geographical section of the world * the wealthy and technologically advanced nations of the world, as contrasted with the nations comprising the South...
, where the young woman rejoins her mother.
Characters
- Hannah—The narratorNarratorA narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
of the story. She is a young slave woman who twice runs away. The character is believed to be analogous to Hannah Crafts, the author of the book, although the name was most likely a pseudonymPseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
. - The Mistress— The Mistress (who remains unnamed throughout the novel) is a fair-skinned mulatto who was switched with another baby at birth and raised as a wealthy aristocrat. After her secret is discovered by Mr. Trappe, she is manipulated until she finally succumbs to the pressure and dies.
- Aunt Hetty— the kindly old woman who originally teaches Hannah to read and write. After running away a second time, Hannah is aided by Hetty in her escape to the North. It is not known if this character is based on someone in the author's life.
- Mr. Trappe— The main antagonistAntagonistAn antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
of the story. A crooked lawyer, Mr. Trappe discovers and exploits the secrets of rich families. The character is modeled after Mr. Tulkinghorn from Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
’ novel Bleak HouseBleak HouseBleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon...
. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E3D81E38F931A35755C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all - Mrs. Wheeler-- A vain woman who buys Hannah after her accident. She has little respect for Hannah. After being humiliated in a blackfaceBlackfaceBlackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
incident, she orders Hannah to be raped by a black slave overseer. Hannah flees before this can occur.
Major influences
Hannah Crafts was clearly influenced by the popular literary trends of the day. Scholar Hollis RobbinsHollis Robbins
-Career:Robbins is a professor of Humanities at the Peabody Institute and Associate Research Scholar at the Center for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. She serves as an adviser of the Black Periodical Literature Project at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and is a...
demonstrated that Crafts must have read prominent works of fiction such as Bleak House
Bleak House
Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon...
. Robbins also argues that Crafts may have read a serialized version of Dickens's novel in Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
's newspaper, which had a high circulation among runaway slaves. Scholar Catherine Keyser has argued for influences from Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
's Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
in Craft's writing.
Major literary styles include:
- SentimentalismSentimentalismSentimentalism is used in different ways:* Sentimentalism , a theory in moral epistemology concerning how one knows moral truths; also known as moral sense theory* Sentimentalism , a form of literary discourse...
- Gothicism
- Slave NarrativeSlave narrativeThe slave narrative is a literary form which grew out of the written accounts of enslaved Africans in Britain and its colonies, including the later United States, Canada and Caribbean nations...
Acquisition of the novel
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...
first acquired the manuscript in an annual auction by Swann Galleries
Swann Galleries
Swann Galleries is a New York auction house founded in 1941. It is a specialist auctioneer of antique and rare works on paper, and it is considered the oldest continually operating New York specialist auction house....
. The catalogue
Auction catalog
An auction catalog or auction catalogue is a catalogue that lists items to be sold at an auction which is written and made available well before the auction date...
described the novel as an “Unpublished Original Manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
; a fictionalized biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
, written in an effusive style, purporting to be the story, of the early life and escape of one Hannah Crafts.” Its history could be traced to the 1940s, when it was owned by African-American scholar Dorothy Porter
Dorothy B. Porter
Dorothy Burnett Porter was an African American librarian who built the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University into a world-class research collection....
.
Because of little interest, Gates bought the manuscript at a low price. He proceeded to verify the text as an historical artifact, and drew on expertise by a variety of scholars. Wyatt Houston Day, a bookseller and authenticator, wrote, “ I can say unequivocally that the manuscript was written before 1861, because had it been written afterward, it would have most certainly contained some mention of the war or at least secession.” Kenneth W. Rendell
Kenneth W. Rendell
Kenneth W. Rendell is an American dealer and expert in historical letters, manuscripts, and documents. He is president of Kenneth W. Rendell, Inc., in South Natick, Massachusetts, and the Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery in New York City. Rendell is also founder of the Museum of World War II in...
identified the original ink as iron gall ink, most widely used up until 1860. Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell is a prominent skeptical investigator of the paranormal. He also works as an historical document consultant and has helped expose such famous forgeries as the purported diary of Jack the Ripper. In 2002 he was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr...
, Ph.D., the author of numerous books on literary assessment, used a variety of techniques to evaluate the manuscript, studying the paper, ink, provenance, writing style, etc. As a result of his own review, Gates agreed with others who concluded that Crafts was most likely black because of the way she referred to black characters; the intricate, insider knowledge of specifics regarding slave escape routes; and her numerous conventional mistakes in language.
After verification and editing, Gates arranged for publication of the novel by Time-Warner in 2002. Due to the intense interest in such an early work, the only known one by a fugitive enslaved person and the first by an African-American woman, its publication was followed closely. The book rapidly became a bestseller.
The original manuscript version of The Bondwoman's Narrative is in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. The building was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, and is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
(For more information about Gates's work republishing a little-known novel by an African-American woman (but not about The Bondwoman's Narrative), see Our Nig
Our Nig
Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is an autobiographical slave narrative by Harriet E. Wilson. It was published in 1859 and rediscovered in 1982 by professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. It is considered the first novel published by an African-American on the North American...
)
External links
- Hannah Crafts, The Bondwoman's Narrative, original manuscript, Beinecke Rare Book Library, Yale University
- In Search of Hannah Crafts Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Hollis RobbinsHollis Robbins-Career:Robbins is a professor of Humanities at the Peabody Institute and Associate Research Scholar at the Center for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. She serves as an adviser of the Black Periodical Literature Project at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and is a...
. Basic/Civitas, 2004. ISBN 0465027083