The Bondwoman's Narrative

Starred review from April 1, 2002
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 was—and about that there is sure to be some discussion—she was a talented storyteller. Though Crafts appears self-taught and borrows from many sources—influences include other slave narratives, 19th-century sentimental and gothic novels and, as Gates noted in a letter to the New Yorker, Charles Dickens—she 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 Wheelers—a small-minded but ambitious couple who prefer to "live at the public expense"—is 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.

June 1, 2002
Well-known scholar and writer Gates, who just joined the faculty at Harvard, purchased this holograph a handwritten, seminovelized, extremely melodramatic account of a "mixed-race" woman's trials as a slave, as well as her commentaries on and escape from slavery from the estate of Howard University historian and librarian Dorothy Wesley Porter. Based on external and internal evidence, Porter and now Gates believe that the manuscript was written by an escaped slave just before the Civil War which, as Gates contends in his lengthy introduction, would make this the first novel by an African American woman. As such, it would offer unique access to a text untainted by seemingly helpful white abolitionist editors, advisers, and amanuenses who generally made extensive changes in the stories written by fugitive slaves. The external evidence of ink, paper, and handwriting does seem to suggest that this manuscript was written before the Civil War, although the internal evidence the author's unusual practice of race neutrality when introducing characters, as well as specific references to historical figures is less convincing. And the influence of other writers and genres (particularly, as it turns out, Charles Dickens and the 19th-century sentimental novel) still manifests itself throughout the text. In addition, there is the worrisome sense that this project may be more about Gates (his name is larger than Crafts's on the cover) or perhaps even about our own need to locate seemingly untainted texts than about the author herself. Still, Gates is to be commended for making this holograph public in the interest of scholarship. Possibly, as he hopes, this effort will cause more definitive authenticating material to be found. Recommended for academic libraries, public libraries where interest is warranted, and libraries with large African American collections. Roger A. Berger, Everett Community Coll., WA

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2002
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. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)