Few events are more thrilling than the discovery of a buried treasure. Some years ago, when scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was leafing through an auction catalog, he noticed a listing for an unpublished, clothbound manuscript thought to date from the 1850s: "The Bondwoman's Narrative, by Hannah Crafts, a Fugitive Slave, Recently Escaped from North Carolina."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 (there was no competing bid) and began the exhilarating task of confirming the racial identity of the author and the approximate date of composition (circa 1855-59). Gates's excited descriptions of his detective work in the introduction to The Bondwoman's Narrative will make you want to find promising old manuscripts of your own. He also proposes a couple candidates for authorship, assuming that Hannah Crafts was the real or assumed name of the author, and not solely a pen name.

If Gates is right (his introduction and appendix should convince just about everyone), The Bondwoman's Narrative is a tremendous discovery. But is it a lost masterpiece? No. The novel draws so heavily on the conventions of mid-19th-century fiction--by turns religious, gothic, and sentimental--that it does not have much flavor of its own. The beginning of chapter 13 is a close paraphrase (virtually a cribbing) of the opening of Dickens's Bleak House. This borrowing seems to have escaped Gates, although he does quote the assessment of one scholar, the librarian Dorothy Porter Wesley, who had owned the manuscript before he acquired it, that "the best of the writer's mind was religious and emotional and in her handling of plot the long arm of coincidence is nowhere spared." Although not a striking literary contribution, The Bondwoman's Narrative is well worth reading on historical grounds, especially since it was never published. As Gates argues, these pages provide our first "unedited, unaffected, unglossed, unaided" glimpse into the mind of a fugitive slave. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly
HNothing 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. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
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, NYCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The most interesting part of this audiobook is the material that runs before and after the reading of the novel itself. Hearing about the discovery and authentication of this 1850s manuscript makes the book a more valuable experience, for the idea that one is possibly listening to the first novel ever written by an African-American woman is powerful. The novel traces the trials of Hannah, a young slave woman who embarks on a quest for freedom but finds the road is long and filled with every imaginable obstacle. The book has a distinctively gothic style typical of its time, but it also can be overwrought and sentimental. In addition, the rendering of that style is at times choppy--Anna Deavere Smith sometimes stumbles over the awkward phrasing. Nonetheless, THE BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE is worth a listen for its historical significance. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
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. Written in the 1850's by a runaway slave, THE BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE is a provocative literary landmark and a significant historical event that will captivate a diverse audience.

Download Description
Told in the voice of a young female slave on a plantation in North Carolina, this story recounts her adventures as she makes her way to freedom in the North. Hannah Crafts is a house slave on a wealthy plantation, but her life is about to change when her master is betrothed to a woman who conceals a tragic secret. Running away with the mistress of the plantation, Hannah finds herself pursued by slave hunters, imprisoned by a mysterious and cruel captor, helped by sympathetic strangers, forced to serve a demanding new mistress and, finally, making her way to freedom. The Bondwoman's Narrative is a unique tale and perhaps the only known novel written by a fugitive female slave and provides a fascinating view into American life and literature in the mid-1800s.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Through a sequence of fortuitous events detailed in the introduction, noted scholar and author Henry Louis Gates Jr. has discovered what he and others believe may be the first novel written by an African-American woman -- a discovery made even more monumental by the fact that it was found in its original manuscript form, completely unedited. Extensive scientific testing has been completed to authenticate the manuscript and ascertain its origins, and experts agree that it was written between 1853 and 1859, by an African-American woman who had previously been enslaved. Gates has painstakingly sought to identify the author, Hannah Crafts, through historical research, and although he has been unsuccessful in determining her true identity, he has found that many of the places, dates, and characters in the novel can be linked reliably to real events and people.

A riveting story about a young slave woman on a Southern plantation, The Bondwoman's Narrative follows the title character as she escapes and makes her way to freedom. As a novel, it possesses all the charms and devices of popular mid-19th-century fiction, and the influences of gothic and romantic writers popular in the day are apparent throughout the text. But Crafts accomplishes more than mere mimicry in her book, adding her own voice to established traditions to create a unique style.

Throughout the 19th century, many slave narratives -- most notably The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass -- detailed the daily horrors of slavery. In choosing to write a novel rather than an autobiographical narrative, however, Crafts expresses the complete psychological and emotional breadth of the experience, transcending personal, private tortures to illuminate the inhumanity of "the peculiar institution." Her characters reflect upon and feel the experience of enslavement -- and because they are wholly rounded and fully developed, they also express the intellect and insight present in the best writings of Dickens, Poe, or Thoreau.

Discovered dallying in her master's portrait gallery by a white housekeeper, who comments that she is "[l]ooking at the pictures...as if such an ignorant thing as you would know any thing about them," the title character poignantly counters to herself, "Ignorance, forsooth. Can ignorance quench the immortal mind or prevent its feeling at times the indications of its heavenly origins? Can it destroy that deep abiding appreciation of the beautiful that seems inherent to the human soul? Can it seal up the fountains of truth and all intuitive perception of life, death, and eternity? I think not. Those to whom man teaches little, nature like a wise and prudent mother teaches much."

Regardless of its historical importance -- and the unavoidable questions and controversies about its authenticity -- the literary merits of The Bondwoman's Narrative are clear. A deeply engaging novel told with the clarity of a woman who has endured slavery's sorrows and the creativity of one who, at her core, was a gifted artist, it is a powerful story that leaves the reader simultaneously bereft and exhilarated, one that bears witness to the transcendent power of art. (Ann Kashickey)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., saw a modest auction catalogue listing for an "Unpublished Original Manuscript," he knew he could be on the verge of a major literary find. After exhaustive research, he found that the handwritten manuscript he had purchased was the only known novel by a female African American slave and possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. The Bondwoman's Narrative tells of a self-educated young house slave who knows all too well slavery's brutal limitations, but never suspects that the freedom of her beautiful new mistress is also at risk -- or that a devastating secret will force them both to flee the South and make a desperate bid for freedom.

SYNOPSIS

A major publishing event, this recently discovered novel written in the 1850s by a runaway slave is a fascinating story and a historically important piece of literature.

FROM THE CRITICS

NY Times Book Review

...a remarkable historical discovery...rich in insight...always interesting...

Dallas Morning News Review

...a work of sagacity and moral purpose...

Book Magazine

Written before the Civil War and bought in February 2001 at an auction by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., this novel is believed to be the work of a former slave. In the engaging introduction, Gates discusses how he came upon the handwritten manuscript, the extensive authentication process, as well as the ultimately fruitless investigation into the author's true identity. "[T]he life of the woman who just may have been the first female African American novelist will remain one of the most exciting mysteries of African American literature," he concludes. The book tells a presumably autobiographical story about a literate mulatto who serves as a waiting maid to several plantation mistresses in Virginia and North Carolina. While Hannah, the protagonist and first-person narrator, describes the dehumanizing conditions of slavery, she also writes much about the grand estates and social doings of white folks. She punctures their pretensions, but she doesn't always recognize her own snobbery about field hands, as when she comments on the "nobler order" of house slaves. Readers swept up by the excitement of Gates' potentially groundbreaking discovery may be disappointed by the degree to which the nineteenth- century conventions of white popular fiction stifle the black narrator's voice. —Tom LeClair

Publishers Weekly

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. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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