The Bondwoman's Narrative

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, violence, enslavement, rape, torture, suicide, and abuse.

In the introduction, Henry Louis Gates Junior describes how he bought and verified the manuscript, called The Bondwoman’s Narrative, and researched the author, Hannah Crafts.

Gates purchased the manuscript at an auction held by Swann Galleries. Gates was attracted to the manuscript for several reasons, including that it came from the collection of Dorothy Porter Wesley, a highly respected librarian and historian, and was potentially written by an enslaved person, and that the routes described in the novel were confirmed as having been used by people liberating themselves from slavery. Gates posits that it may be the first novel written by a formerly enslaved woman. The text was entirely handwritten, thus free from the influence of an editor or printer. Gates wondered whether a work written by a formerly enslaved woman would demonstrate a different perspective free from “the web of racist connotations associated with slaves, blackness, and the ‘natural capacities’ of persons of African descent” that marked works written by white authors (12).

Gates was the only bidder and acquired the novel for less than the original asking price. The text is an autobiography that resembles a sentimental novel, a popular genre in the 1850s. It proves to be a knowledgeable portrait of a Virginia plantation, and Gates notes that the author treats African American characters differently than a white author might. Crafts doesn’t note the race of all her characters, writing with the assumption that her characters are Black. Similarly, Gates notices Crafts’s amateurish grammar, writing, and combination of styles.

Intending to authenticate the age and authorship of the manuscript, Gates consults with manuscript and paper experts. A textual analysis suggests that the author wrote the novel before the Civil War, as it makes no reference to the conflict or secession. Additionally, the manuscript’s literary style, handwriting, and paper and ink help the experts to date the novel between 1850-1860. Analysis suggests that the author was “a young woman who lacked a formal education […] a self-educated former slave, whose encounters with reading and writing would be informal, interrupted, intermittent, and furtive” (24-25).

Tracking down the author is more difficult, as “Hannah Crafts” may have been a pseudonym. Through census records, Gates finds John Hill Wheeler, an enslaver from the correct period who fits the description of the novel’s character, Mr. Wheeler. Historically, Wheeler was associated with the case of Passmore Williamson, in which Wheeler sued abolitionist Passmore Williamson for assisting people whom Wheeler had enslaved, Jane Johnson and her two sons, to liberate themselves while they were traveling in a free state. Wheeler complained he never retrieved Jane, despite the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which determined that free states must assist in returning self-emancipated people to their enslavers. This record coincides with a mention of an enslaved person named Jane in the novel, whose departure motivates Mrs. Wheeler to purchase the novel’s protagonist, Hannah Crafts.

Gates discovers that Wheeler also kept a diary, now housed in the Library of Congress. In it, Wheeler documents Jane’s self-liberation and his lawsuit against Passmore Williams and Jane. Wheeler also notes the rising tensions in the Union and, as the case drags on, becomes concerned about how the issue of slavery is “shaking the Union to its center” (44).

Gates’s research suggests that Wheeler bought Hannah in 1856, and Hannah achieved liberation in the spring of 1857. Hannah Crafts would have been under threat from the Fugitive Slave Act and, given his litigious nature and commitment to slavery, Wheeler would have wanted Hannah returned to his household. For many enslaved people in similar positions, this led to “a life of anxiety, fear, disguise, altered identity, changes of name, and fabricated pasts” (47), all of which might make tracking down the real Hannah Crafts difficult. After many dead ends, Gates decided to research the history of Black Methodists in New Jersey. Though one lead—a woman named Hannah Vincent—seemed promising, the trail also ran cold.

Next, Gates explores why the author never published the novel. It’s possible that the time period, specifically “the intensely political climate of the anti-slavery movement of the 1850s” (52), would have made publication difficult, especially considering Crafts’s blunt, negative portrayal of slavery. It’s also likely that revealing the stories of Hannah and other enslaved people in the book would have endangered them. The author hated Wheeler, and Gates supposes that she wished “to leave a record of [her] hatred for posterity” (53).

Gates closes the introduction with several certainties that he believes are supported by the evidence: The author was female, had both Black and white ancestry, was enslaved by John Hill Wheeler, was an autodidact, and was a keen observer of the dynamics of slavery. As to the remaining mystery surrounding the life and work of Hannah Crafts, Gates describes it as “one of the most exciting mysteries of African-American literature” (58).