Last fall, I wrote about a book that was soon to be published,
called The Bondwoman’s Narrative. I can now report that the book
indeed did reach print: I obtained a copy this week and am still reading it.
The Bondwoman’s Narrative is an interesting story by itself but
becomes truly fascinating when you understand the author’s background and
qualifications.
Some years ago, when Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., chair of
Harvard University’s African-American Studies Department, found a listing
in an auction catalog for an unpublished, clothbound manuscript thought to date
from the 1850s: The Bondwoman's Narrative, by Hannah Crafts, a Fugitive Slave,
Recently Escaped from North Carolina. Gates realized that, if genuine, this
would be the first novel known to have been written by a black woman in America,
as well as the only one by a fugitive slave. He bought the manuscript and began
to analyze it.
The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts is billed as
a fictional novel although Professor Gates makes a strong case for it being
an autobiographical work by a self-educated black woman. Gates used genealogy
research techniques to locate the author in old censuses and tax records. Hannah
Crafts writes about a black woman’s early life as the slave in the household
of John Wheeler. Indeed, a Mr. John Hill Wheeler is found in numerous state
and Federal records. John Hill Wheeler of those records appears to be the same
person that Hannah Crafts is describing in her novel.
The real John Hill Wheeler was a slave owner who lived in North
Carolina and later in Washington, D.C. He held numerous state and Federal offices
and served for a while as ambassador to Nicaragua. John Hill Wheeler was a prolific
writer, and many of his works have survived. His description of his life and
locations fits the description of the supposedly fictional John Wheeler mentioned
in the novel. As a writer, one would assume that he kept a library of books
that might be accessible to his household slaves. As such, one can imagine that
a slave could become educated while living in Mr. Wheeler’s household.
The real John Wheeler had a slave named Jane Johnson. His diary
describes a trip to Philadelphia in 1855. Slave Jane Johnson and her two sons
accompanied Wheeler on that trip and then escaped while in the city. The novel
by Hannah Crafts describes a very similar escape by the author, so it would
appear that the escaped slave, Jane Johnson, wrote this novel under the pseudonym
of Hannah Crafts.
Hannah Crafts writes about slavery as only a person under bondage
could write. She describes her life and the lives of those around her in the
Wheeler household. Such a description is rare, perhaps unprecedented. The
Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts is believed to be one of the few
narratives written by a slave that describes the life she lived. Other such
slave narratives were usually edited by white abolitionists before being published.
Hannah Crafts’ narrative therefore has great historical importance if its
origins can be proved: this manuscript supposedly was written by a black woman,
unedited, unaffected, and unaided by anyone else. As such, it provides an insight
into slave life that is unavailable elsewhere.
The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts is a fascinating
glimpse of American life as lived by those under bondage. It is a difficult
book to put down.
The Bondwoman’s Narrative, a novel by Hannah Crafts
and edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is published by Warner Books. It retails
for $24.95. You can find it at many bookstores. If it is not in stock, it can
be ordered if you specify ISBN 0-446-53008-5. I also found it online from Barnes
& Noble at a discounted price of $17.46 at: http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&sourceid=30651548&bfpid=0446530085&bfmtype=book
Dick Eastman Online
