The Bondwoman's Narrative

by Hannah Crafts

An unprecedented historical and literary event, this tale written in the 1850s is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and quite possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. A work uncovered by renowned scholar Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is a stirring, page-turning story of "passing" and the adventures of a young slave as she makes her way to freedom.

When Professor Gates saw that modest listing in an auction catalogue for African American artifacts, he immediately knew he could be on the verge of a major discovery. After exhaustively researching the handwritten manuscript's authenticity, he found that his instincts were right. He had purchased a genuine autobiographical novel by a female slave who called herself - and her story's main character - Hannah Crafts.

This facsimile edition of The Bondwoman's Narrative offers a high-resolution reproduction of the manuscript that Professor Gates found, presenting Crafts tale with a poignancy and power not found elsewhere. In her own hand the author tells of a self-educated young house slave all too aware of her bondage who never suspects that the freedom of her mistress is also at risk ... or how both will soon flee slave hunters and another ever more dangerous enemy.

Together with Professor Gates's brilliant introduction - which includes the story of his search for the real Hannah Crafts, the biographical facts that laid the groundwork for her novel, and a fascinating look at other slave narratives of the time - The Bondwoman's Narrative offers a unique and unforgettable reading experience. In it, a voice that has never been heard rings out, and an undiscovered story at the heartof the American experience is finally told.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, African American, Classics, Historical, Gothic, School

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Hannah Bond, pen name Hannah Crafts (b.ca.1830s), was an African-American writer who escaped from slavery in North Carolina about 1857 and went to the North. Bond settled in New Jersey, likely married Thomas Vincent, and became a teacher. She wrote The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts after gaining freedom, which may be the first novel by an African-American woman. It is the only known one by a fugitive slave woman.

Apparently written in the late 1850s, the novel was published in 2002 for the first time after Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard University professor of African-American literature and history, purchased the manuscript and had it authenticated. [I]t rapidly became a bestseller.

Bond's identity was documented in 2013 by Gregg Hecimovich of Winthrop University, who found that she had been held by John Hill Wheeler of Murfreesboro, North Carolina. He had identified many details of her life. Gates and other major scholars have supported his conclusions.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

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"No one ever spoke of my father or mother, but I soon learned what a curse was attached to my race, soon learned that the African blood in my veins would forever exclude me from the higher walks of life."

When The Bondwoman's Narrative was published in 2002, it became a New York Times bestseller, but the book's author was a mystery. Who was she? Was her name really Hannah Crafts? And was she truly a Black woman as she claimed to be? These questions and more arose when Henry Louis Gates Jr. found the long-lost manuscript of The Bondwoman's Narrative, which appeared to be one of the most significant historical finds in literature.

To prove the manuscript's worth, he would embark on a long search for the author.

I highly recommend reading this book! The author deftly blends a sentimental novel with elements of Gothic literature for an absolutely mesmerizing read. A story of haunted trees, cursed families, resilient women and more await you in The Bondwoman's Narrative.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the proper context by a very enlightening introductory essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (that is about half of this volume's content), the novel written by Hannah Crafts is a pretty remarkable piece of writing, not only for its insight into the life of a slave, but also for the rather clever and immenantly amateur way in which it is written.

Ms. Crafts novel is a hodge-podge of styles and genres with entire passages practically lifted straight from the works of Dickens and Poe and the like. She jumps from Dickensian social commentary to gothic horror to Twain-like humor to melodramatic slave narrative, without any kind of connecting tissue to tie it neatly together. You get the sense that upon reading the original works, Ms. Crafts liked them so much, she confiscated entire paragraphs and themes and put them to work to tell her own story. As a whole, the work is kind of a mess, but a very interesting mess.

I recently read Styron's "The Confessions of Nat Turner" which deals with a similar era, but to be frank, is written by a real author. Due to his upbringing and education and formal training as a writer, its obvious to see that his Pulitzer winning novel is superior as a consistent work of literary art. But to dismiss "The Bondwoman's Narrative" because it not consistent and literarily sloppy is to miss the point entirely. And that is where knowing the context of this work becomes so important.

Enter Robert Louis Gates, Jr., a historian who goes to great lengths to share from where he believes this work originated, and why he thinks that. In essence, he provides very convincing evidence that Hannah Crafts was a pseudonym taken by an actual escaped slave who, upon stealing her freedom, traveled to New Jersey where she started a family, then wrote this novel. Not only that, but he provides further evidence that, although the author claims that this is totally a work of fiction, much of what she writes can actually be traced to real people and real locations in North Carolina. And given the historical accuracy of some of the novel's content, one could extrapolate futher than many (though not all) of the events written about could actually be based on Ms. Craft's actual experiences.

Now, Mr. Gates is no David McCullough, but the introductory portion of this volume creates an impressive picture of what this novel represents. Sure, Styron might be a superior writer of fiction, but his writings are based on research (second-hand, by definition) and speculation. David McCullough might be a superior historian, subtly embellishing the facts at hand to draw an engaging narrative from documented history.

But Hannah Crafts is almost more impressive because she was not formally trained researcher, and didn't need to be. To her, this largley seems to be a first-hand account. She didn't need any formal education, as she rather cleverly is able to borrow what she needs from numerous great writers to whom she had been exposed.

Some may read this and be bored by the language or lack of a strong plot, but the history buff inside me really enjoyed this for what it was: a first-hand account of a dark and intersting time in our history, written from the perspective of a female slave, a class of people with a very small voice in the historical record. On those terms, this was a fascinating read, and to anyone of a like mind, I highly recommend it.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating this is both clearly based on autobiographical details and equally clearly contains embellished storylines. First novel written by an African American fugitive 'slave'. I quite enjoyed this. I read Gates research in uncovering and researching this amazing novel. Hannah is observant and her characterization of the Wheelers is well done. I found the beginning and end of the story somewhat silly, as was the style the novel was in. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed the story and was surprised how invested in became. Well done Hannah.

[Eliece · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the only known novel written by a female African American slave. It was bought at an auction and edited/published by Henry Gates. Half the book details the authenticity of the find and provides evidence for who Hannah Crafts really was. That in itself makes the book very interesting just in the fact that it exists. It tells the story of a self-educated house slave who eventually escape to the North. The main theme is that even a slave who is well-treated, etc. lives a sad life because our souls are meant to be free and the fear, anxiety, and unknown effect (affect) a slave even in the best of circumstances. Good point. The story is quite choppy, fascinating at times and drags at others; but I enjoyed it overall. I would recommend it on its historical merit.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, a real page-turner, by a gifted writer who just happens to have been a fugitive slave. It's probably the first novel written by a black woman, it dates from 1853-1861, and it was discovered by Henry Louis Gates in an unpublished, unedited handwritten manuscript, passed down from the estate of Dorothy Porter Wesley, a Howard University scholar of antebellum writing. The story of the manuscript's discovery is fascinating in itself (Wesley bought it for $85 in 1948), and Gates's notes comparing it to other antebellum writings by both whites and blacks help the reader realize just how unusual this book was for its time.

It is a cracking good story! It is told in the voice of Hannah Crafts, the slave in question, and her voice is perceptive, humorous, blunt, passionate and wise. I wish I had known her. Gates has preserved Hannah's self-editing in this edition and you feel that you are spying on her writing process. She had as models the Gothic and sentimental novels of her time, and Dickens' Bleak House was a great inspiration to her. But these models are transformed in a most individual and effective way.

Only two quotes from Dr. Gates, to show what an unusual work it is:
"Hannah Crafts writes the way we can imagine black people talked to -- and about -- one another when white auditors were not around, and not the way abolitionists thought they talked, or black authors thought they should talk or wanted white readers to believe they talked. This is a voice that we have rarely, if ever, heard before."

"For Crafts, slaves are always, first and last, human beings, 'people,' as she frequently puts it."

I am surprised and sad that this book is not more popular. It's a much better read than Uncle Tom's Cabin, which I've never been able to finish. Read it!

[Fionnuala · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bondswoman's Narrative is an important historical artifact, but what struck me most forcefully was the book's energy. I found the mix of genres exhilarating rather than amateur-if you are the first to imagine your culture's experience, you want to capture it all, in as many ways as you can. I thrilled to Crafts' allusions, mostly from memory it seems, to a range of literature from the Bible to Byron. There are wonderfully evocative scenes, and a cracking pace. Polished it ain't, but there's the kind of roughness here that we find in The Iliad, a writer trying to capture centuries of experience in a new medium.

As well as the novel, the book includes the story of how Henry Louis Gates (notoriously arrested for breaking into his Massachusetts home while being black) found the manuscript at auction and spent the next year tracking down its author. This detective story is gripping in its own right, and raises some uncomfortable questions about conventional views of the end of slavery in America and the slave and free black experiences.

If only more history books were like this!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was written by a fugitive slave who had escaped from North Carolina named Hannah Bond. It is the only known novel by a fugitive slave and the first written by an African American woman, probably sometime between 1853 to 1861. It is at least partially autobiographical.

I found it fascinating reading. it was definitely a novel of its times, heavy on gothic elements and on Christianity. It also though provided a look into slaves and the relationships between the different types and between them and their white owners. And often did so more openly and honestly abut some aspects than other writings by ex slaves.

It is well written, which is astonishing considering that it was illegal to teach slaves to read. She learned secretly how to read and more than likely secretly read much of her master's own personal library.

The preface and appendixes are about how the manuscript was discovered and authenticated and an analysis comparing parts of Ms.Bond's novel with what was in her master's library. Note, at the time the copy of the book I read was published they had not firmly identified who the actually author the book was, that did not happen until 2013.

Ms. Bond's observations on slavery and its impact on both blacks and whites are well done. For example, on page 200 she writes:

"This is all the result of that false system which bestows on position, wealth, or power the consideration only due to a man. And this system is not confined to any one place, or country, or condition. It extends through all grades and classes of society from the highest to the lowest. It bans poor but honest people with the contemptuous appellation of "vulgar". It subjects other under certain circumstances to a lower link in the chain of being than that occupied by a horse."

Although written in reference to slavery, it seems to me to be also have a wider relevance, a trait of good novels and writings.

It is well worth the time to seek out and read.

[KeenReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really two books in one. The first is a fictionalised memoir of a slave in the USA, that was written by an African American woman. It was also an account of how the manuscript came to light and was authenticated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. So I am going to write the review in 2 parts, first dealing with the fictionalised memoir and then the factual account of finding and researching it.

I found the narrative difficult to read, partly due to the subject matter and partly due to the styles in which it was written. It was mostly an odd mix of the sentimental style used in a lot of Victorian writing and the gothic style (what I mean is using weather to foreshadow events, legends of curses, suggestions of ghosts and paranormal events and the like). Unfortunately I struggle with the overblown emotional outpourings of Victorian sentimental novels and I found that aspect of the memoir difficult to work through. However, the research part of the book explained how the author (who had definitely been a slave) was using the story-telling conventions that they had come across in other books to tell their story, so I struggled on. I think it was worthwhile making the effort.

The research part of the book, which showed how the manuscript was authenticated and described the efforts made to identify who wrote it (Hannah Crafts was quickly identified as a penname), was fascinating. The level of detail that went into the research was extremely thorough. When my edition of the book was written, the true identity of the author had not been found. Her real identity is known now and the fictionalised memoirs have been shown to be largely autobiographical. For me, this is a very satisfying end to the research part of the book, even though it happened after my edition was published.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2001, scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. bought a previously unpublished manuscript from the 1850s, which he believed and it appears now is the first novel written by a fugitive slave. Gates provides a long and detailed introduction explaining the research he did into the manuscript's history, trying to find its author, and the introduction and notes are every bit as interesting as the novel itself.

The novel is told, in the first person, by a young slave who flees with her mistress when her mistress's terrible secret is discovered and who experiences a whole host of terrors before reaching safety in the North. Considered purely as fiction, it does leave something to be desired; it's structurally disorganized, and the plot is contrived and, like many Gothic novels, overly dependent on coincidence. Crafts borrows freely from a wide variety of sources, most notably Dickens' Bleak House, and it's interesting to see (using the extensive and useful notes) how she changes her borrowings in order to fit them in to her narrative. The Gothic bits (especially the cursed tree) are often very effective, though, and more than that, the viewpoint and opinions are fascinating. I found the book as a whole reasonably enjoyable on a narrative level and very interesting indeed as a historical document.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the 70 page introduction and editor's notes almost more than the actual story. However, this novel should be required reading in all k-12 education programs. A first person narrative (non-autobiographical) of a female "house slave" in the Antebellum South written presumably by an actual female house slave shortly before the civil war broke out. It has beautiful prose, clear narrative, and lots of historical tid-bits that are counter-intuitive to what it is like to be a slave that you won't find in books written by white people such as Uncle Tom's Cabin. The unusual mixed style of gothic and romantic typical of the 1800's provides a fun drama to the story. While the gothic and romantic elements more often that not are used brazenly to move the narrative along, it is never awkward. In fact, the clarity and accessibility would makes it a prime example for use in teaching about these styles and and introduction to literary analysis/critical thinking. Not a difficult or a long book. Overall, highly recommended! I originally picked this up to get perspective on Toni Morrison's Beloved and I am glad I did!

[Briana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing simply for what it is; possibly the first and only narrative written by a female African American slave. The literary analysis and discussion at the beginning is fascinating. Very interesting.

[Marni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel likely based on the author's life. The manuscript was found at auction and was the subject of a thesis. It was written by a slave woman who escaped slavery in the 1850's.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

An autobiographical novel discovered as a handwritten manuscript in the early 20th century and acquired at auction by Gates in 2001. There had been suspicions that this was a novel written by an escaped female slave and Gates' investigation seems to confirm that, including an analysis he had done by Dr. Joe Nickell, an investigator and historical-document examiner, which confirmed that the document had most likely been written in the late 1850s by a young African woman intimately familiar with slavery and the locations cited in the book. Gates' also manages to find historical figures and events to corroborate those in the novel. The novel itself provides interesting information regarding the institution of slavery, though the narrative is burdened with religious ideation and lacks in the way of suspence. I found myself, however, feeling greatly appreciative of the protagonist and her tutor, "Aunt Hetty", for their outstanding efforts that made possible the fact that I could read this story so many years later. I learned of this book through a mention on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac.

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating peek into American history, women's literature, slave narratives and gothic novels. I gave it five stars because I'm not going to judge the author's sometimes fractured grammar and spelling. The book was spell-binding.

"Hannah Crafts" was a literate slave woman, light-skinned, able to pass for white when she needed to. The extensive research Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. puts into tracking down the author of The Bondwoman's Narrative reads itself like a detective novel, and one can almost feel his joy when certain clues cause information to click into place, authenticating the veracity of the tale.

Part of what makes The Bondwoman's Narrative so interesting is how Crafts brings a woman's perspective to the story in her discussion of relationships between mistress and maidservant, and her frank inclusion of the sexual abuse slave women faced from both their white masters and sometimes, from fellow slaves.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Antebellum US history.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was actually expecting a more non-fiction analysis by Gates, but the book truely is the novel Crafts set to paper. For an unpublished work, the story is surprisingly good and there is a decent amount of action and suspense mixed with the trials of slavery. I can see this novel used in the classroom (probably for high school as there is a lot of material concerning sex) as Crafts touches upon many of the trials of slavery - from the withholding of education (and even religion) to the separation of married couples and the division between house slaves and field slaves. Overall, the book reads like a Bronte novel - it has mixture of the gothic/sublime with the realism concerning the toils of a house slave. Also, it is not a wordy novel as some Victorian works tend to be and is fairly quick to read.

[Heera Rajavel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this! Finished it on Monday but really enjoyed reading this from a gothic perspective

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the most weirdly put together book publications that I've come across in the last five years. According to the title page, it was published by a telecommunications merger, and features such highfalutin namedrops as "Harvard," "New York Times Book Review," and Maya Angelou. And yet, the text has no clear year publication, no certifiable author, and for all the get-rich-quick tech glitziness of its promoters, has less than 2000 ratings on its fellow ostensibly-about-books-but-really-in-it-for-the-data-mining website. Still, to anyone not sipping the economy-is-all koolaid, it makes sense that a piece that would be a much better fit for Antiques Road Show isn't going to do the numbers no matter how much clever JPEG editing and violating of customers' privacy rights you do in your marketing, and the best you're going to do is with academic outsiders such as me who went through enough of the status quo rigmarole to have tools necessary for appreciation but not enough to forbear from laughing at the more poorly cobbled together parts of the enterprise. For if one gives credit to the degrees and accreditations and bills of transactions, this is a 21st c. presentation of a 19th c. text that various authorities would have us rank with the likes of Brown's Clotel and Wilson's Our Nig in terms of contextual quality and fictioneering ability, as well as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in terms of textual authenticity and authorial credibility. This edition takes great care in laying out just why the reader should care so much, and while I certainly rated the work higher due to such efforts, describing it as coming off as "forced" is rather an understatement. So, something that could have been great and instead is rather middling, and I have to wonder whether this is a project that will ever see full resolution with a set historical personage and/or concrete trail before the 1940s, or just be conscribed to lack of funding hell like everything else that doesn't lend itself well to neoliberal brainwashing or disaster capitalism.

My following a weirdly winding path through books that are certainly old but are also largely not of the white author variety means that I've churned through much of what material there is available for any member of the public audience or one who is not writing a thesis. When it comes to the 19th c. plain of view, you tend to have your slave narratives, your Chinese fictions and memoirs, your various European/Latin American authors that the establishment would prefer to forget that, these days, would be called Black, and anything beyond of the increasingly inaccessible/poorly maintained variety. So, to stumble across a whole and complete (if not fully edited) text that combines antebellum escape narrative with influences (or sometimes full liftings) from Charlotte Brontë, Walter Scott, and Charles Dickens that managed to escape mice and moths into the light of the public sphere of a century of a half later seems rather outlandish even to such a literary "diversity" dilettante such as myself. In addition, snooty as it may be, the look of my own copy doesn't exactly inspire confidence, seeing as how one would sooner expect this particular edition to come fully equipped with book discussion QR code and corporate sponsorships than well vetted bibliography and other indicators of quality authenticity. Still, that didn't stop me from sliding this into the 1850s section of century of reading women quest, and the contextualizing pieces accompanying the main text were rather interesting in their detective quest qualities. I just wish this work didn't feel like the remains of an effort that admirably put forth a great deal of genuinely professional effort and attempted to refrain from the more predatory aspects of corporate marketing and ended up failing (and greatly saddening its disillusioned participants) in the end.

All in all, this text serves as an unfortunate example of how much the US has been shooting itself in the foot when it comes to valuing the viability of its infrastructure dedicated to critical thought ever since white boys stopped being the only ones in academia. It's interesting, as well as extremely useful for book challenges, but it's not going to stop academics from generating a brain drain in the homeland by fleeing pell-mell for the far more economically supportive private sector, or encourage the general reading public to put more value into cultural heritage than the quick buck. Of course I'd love to see more of these kinds of efforts as can be exemplified by the Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers, but it's going to take more than the most heartless marketing scheme to make a publishing effort such as generally appreciated as it should be. Who knows when that will be, but if Amazon's yesterday April Fool's upset is anything to go by, things may get a lot more enjoyably interesting much more quickly than I could have imagined, and that's always something to look forward to.

[Bonnie Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's no question - for me at least - that reading this narrative is a chore. It commits the worst sins of 19th Century novels in torrential waterfalls of adjectives, pious reflections, and (Oh, Reader!) unlikely coincidences. Even with rapid skimming for essential plot points, I could only ever read a few pages at a time between reading about four other books.

But then, I am not a scholar, have a low tolerance for boredom, and am particularly put off by religiosity. Even so, as an artifact it is interesting, and the introduction about the search for the real author, and the appendices about the manuscript authentication are really fascinating.

[Cindy (BKind2Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my March book club meeting. I had not heard of it, although it was published in 2002. The book is almost 2 books in one - there is the novel likely written in the mid-1850's by a female African American slave; and there is the extensive research and authentication under done by Harvard Professor Gates when he uncovered the manuscript.

The novel is remarkable for its writer - a self-taught enslaved woman. She relates the tale of Hannah Crafts who eventually escapes from bondage. The tale seems typical of other works of that time period - the writing is a bit melodramatic, but it is not difficult reading. Crafts tells of her bondage and the privations and experiences of the slaves around her.

The other part of the book is a long (75 pages) introduction by Professor Gates that details the discovery of this manuscript and the research done to narrow when it was written and by whom as well as annotations and other information at the back of the novel. While there are no definitive answers as to the author, there are a few likely candidates and perhaps someday more evidence will come to light. My main criticism of the book is its structure. The introduction was very meticulous about the details and it took me a long time to slog through it, especially because it came *before* I'd read the novel. For me, I think the introduction would have had much more meaning and interest if it had been placed after the novel. I also did not notice the 'Textual Annotations' that were placed at the back of the novel until I was through much of it. I would have preferred footnotes or some other indicator of these expositions so I could appreciate the nuances of the book.

All in all it was an important book historically as well as a good story. If you read it, start with the novel and then read the intro when it will make a lot more sense.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Printable Tire]

This will probably sound weird, but I listened to the audio book of this when I went to the gym. It may not be the kind of audiobook you'd usually associate with that activity, but more than a mere historical document, the Bondwoman's Narrative is actually a riveting story of sex, violence, intrigue, and... faith. Crafts situates her slave protagonist within the tradition of the Victorian novel heroines of her time, embodying her with a dignity and intellect in bewildering and frightening contrast to the unfair oppression she endures for the color of her skin. The evil and baseless cruelty of slavery is never more apparent than when our plucky heroine, dehumanized by others, appears more human than nearly everyone. Slavery entangles everyone's lives in this book, like a plague whose sadistic whims are amoral and without reason. There are so many parts that are difficult to hear, sad, sickening, and Hannah the protagonist breaks the fourth wall on occasion with a righteous fury (reminiscent of passages in Yonnondio) to admonish the hypocrites and so-called learned men who turn a blind eye toward the suffering humanity.

So, yes, sometimes hearing all of this is taxing... but (for the audiobook at least) narrator Anna Deavere Smith always keeps things lively, and there are enough plot twists (one I did NOT see coming about 1/4 of the way through the book concerning an until-then main character) and location changes to keep things moving. And Hanna's near Pollyanna-like disposition and faith in God, while nearly unfathomable considering her miserable circumstances, keeps the story from getting too dark. Then there are too all the happy but improbable coincidences that await Hannah the protagonist near the end of the narrative, but as unlikely as they are one can't really complain if they direct her to a well-deserved "happily ever after," as thankfully seems to have occurred to Hannah, the author of this book.

(no such happy ending for this audiobook, alas; I had constant difficulty playing the end of every tape, in so much that I had to go to the library at one point and read the ending of Chapter 19 because the tape of it wouldn't play. As such, it has been unceremoniously buried in the trash.)

[Yair · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I can be an English Grad student for a moment, let me say that this text is salubrious by way of its inhering sense of the deleterious. The latter aspect, of course, comes from the fact that this is a novel written against and because of slavery in the United States. The former comes from the fact that bucking against its own origins (much like the author herself) this text makes itself known as the impassioned plea of a mixed race woman's humanity under the auspices of one of the more dehumanizing epochs of our civilization's history. Though lacking a bit in the urgency of Frederick Douglass' "Narrative of the Life" this is only due to Crafts, unfortunate, hitching her authorial self to Charles Dickens' star (mostly by way of Bleak House which despite my views of Dickens I want to read) in the manner of sentimentalist tropes and just too damn contrived seeming plot twists. This fact is ameliorated more than slightly by the presence of many Gothic storytelling tropes that buoy the proceedings above the standard of sentimentalist fiction.

The only other aspect I can add at this juncture is the book, powerful as it is, is a bit spoiled by its own history and context. By that I mean that Henry Louis Gates Jr's quest to find the text, authenticate it, and then go to war (of words) with other African-American literary critics about his glaring omission of the text's inhering 'intertextuality' . Granted, he was more than a little essentialist and even absolutist to the point of naievete in his initial assessment of the text....but honestly it all felt like academic pettifogging (on both sides) after a while.

All in all it's a more than worthwhile text and should you want the full (at times onerous) history behind it regarding is search, authentication, debate, and even the case notes of the investigator brought out to help verify the work...well, it's there for you. But as a novel it's a powerful and singular work of one woman standing against a system, a culture and a nation that would strip of her everything and more for the sake of keeping things 'just fine the way they are,'.

[Kelis Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book on tape...

So, my first day with the book on tape was cool. I had to learn how to use the cassette player in my car...there's no pause button, which is strange...surprised that VW wasn't up on that. What if you get a call (which I did) or go through a drive-thru (which I did--for Starbucks, not junker food)? Understandably, not everybody's rockin' it out to cassette tapes anymore, but still...it was very inconvenient.

The novel d'audio is really interesting. Strange though, 'cause I'm sure I'd enjoy it more if I got to make up the voices of the characters in my head. You know what I mean? It's kinda spoiled it for me a little...like seeing the movie before reading the book. I feel like I still want to actually read the book for the full effect. Plus the lady who's telling the story is quite obviously from Canada, or wherever else "about" is pronounced "aboot". It's distracting. I think people who do books on tape should have an English accent...or be James Earle Jones. Why not? The English accent is the most pleasant accent to listen to hours on end is it not? And James Earle Jones...I don't even have to explain that one. He would be the perfect voice of God in movies. Remember him in Lion King? Didn't he do the Bible on tape too?

Anyway, aside from the Canadian accent, the book on tape thing is really working out, or oot.. I bet a romance novel on tape would be pretty awkward to listen to.

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. The story behind The Bondwoman's Narrative's authorship is equally as engaging as the actual novel, and I just have so many strong feelings surrounding it. Thank God Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was made aware of the manuscript and went through such lengths to bring it to light. Thank God Gregg Hecimovich was able to determine the true identity of who Hannah Crafts was. The research surrounding Hannah's novel (for both historical and literary purposes) is just stellar.

As for Hannah's novel itself, I was moved throughout the whole thing. I felt so protective of Hannah Crafts the character, and to know that Hannah Crafts the author was actually Hannah Bond, a woman who put much of her own life into this novel, made me feel protective of Hannah Bond, too. Hannah the author's literary skill is exemplary, and the way she describes the events of the novel as well as the emotions of Hannah the character through each thing she experiences is lovely. The elements of Bleak House by Dickens as well as other novels of the time period are present throughout, which shows just how in tune Hannah the author was with popular literature.

I highly recommend this book both for the novel itself and the story of the research behind it!

[Kyle Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hannah Crafts' work is a well told narrative of slavery in Virginia and North Carolina during the 1850s. This is a particularly great find because it is from a Black woman's perspective. According to Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., this is likely the first literary work of a Black woman in the United States and is one of a few narrative accounts of slavery form the perspective of a Black woman.

The book makes it clear that the sexual oppression and exploitation endured by enslaved Black women was rampant and very much normalized in the slaving culture of the south. This reminds me of the fact that sexual violence was FAR more likely to be suffered by Black people throughout this country's history - contrary to the more recent depiction of a sexually predatorial Black man.

The narrative is a pearl in it's poignant descriptions of slavery, colorism, societal power dynamics, and greed. Mrs. Crafts' narrative has a strong reverence for faith which undoubtedly carried many through the unfathomable times she described.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may be one of the more historically important books I've read, being one of the earliest examples of a novel written by a woman who was a slave in the US. What's more, it's a fictionalized autobiography that's a fairly ripping read and highly recommended for fans of gothic novels, since the author (who may or may not be a woman named Hannah Crafts) borrows tropes liberally from that popular literary form. It's not the most elegantly-written or subtle of books to be sure, but I find the narrator/protagonist compelling, despite her over-the-top piety, which I recognize as an inexperienced author's ploy to force her audience to like the protagonist. The scholarly articles in this volume are also an interesting read as editor/scholar Louis Gates writes at length on his efforts to authenticate the manuscript and offers historical and circumstantial evidence that the book is what it purports to be. All in all, I found this to be an interesting and satisfactory read.

[Bonnie_blu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this is entitled "A Novel," recent findings indicate that it is truly a memoir, and was indeed written by a slave woman (Hannah Bond) who lived in the Antebellum South. The Introduction to the book (written in 2002) calls into question the authorship and even postulates that it may have been written by a white abolitionist. This has been disproven, as stated above. Since the story is written in the style of the mid-nineteenth century, it can at times be cumbersome and frustrating to modern readers. However, the tale is absolutely worth reading. Hannah's story of her life as a slave and her attempts to escape to freedom are horrifying, exciting, and at times heartwarming. She gives a first-hand account of what it meant to be a slave, the slave culture of the South, and how it not only destroyed millions of black lives, but also how it twisted Southern society. This is a truly moving book, and one that should be required reading in Middle School.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five stars for the stellar research and detail of authenticating the book.

Three stars for the story itself, as far as stories go.

Yes, this book should be judged not on the story's face value, but rather what this book represents, as a fictionalized account, written by what is more than likely a former slave that escaped from her bondage. I realize this, and appreciate what this book means in terms of history and what this book can tell us. There were some truly, truly heartbreakingly honest and brutal parts (the unforgiving descriptions of the field slaves, for example), but, as most will know from the forward and afterward, this book is heavily influenced by gothic and romanticism themes from the time period, which just does not appeal to me.

[Sonja · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing that I found so fascinating about this book is quarter or so of the book itself proving who this woman was and how they came about this information. The writer of those first pages purchased this handwritten manuscript at an auction and discovered that was the only known novel by a female African American slave and possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. The story itself is an interesting read, but the thing that hooked me in general, is all the history and research that went around the the author and her story.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first 92 pages were indroduction.....the narrative was 246 pages....and textual annotations 54 pages......then there was appendix A/b/c...at the end acknowledgments....all except the narrative tried to convince you that this was the authentic novel by a slave Hannah Crafts.....was it?