The Bondwoman's Narrative, by Hannah Crafts

 The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts


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The Bondwoman's Narrative is a semi-autobiographic novel written in the form of a slave narrative. It is believed to have been written between 1853 and 1861, but it was not published until 2002. At the time of its being published the identity of the person behind the pen name Hannah Crafts was not known, but later research established her identity was Hannah Vincent, née Bond. It is believed that the book was partly written while she was still a slave and finished later after she had escaped bondage to live in New Jersey after a short stay in New York State. 

See my review of The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts, by Gregg Hecimovich for further comments about the author. 

The book details her experiences as a maid in several households in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and North Carolina, and her subsequent escape to the North, where she settled in New Jersey. The narrator also tells the stories of other slaves she knows or comes into contact with, and to some extent the histories of the families for whom she works. A large portion of the narrative concerns the pursuit of a slave mistress passing as white by a slave trader who discovers that she is of mixed race. Another substantial section describes her master's political fortunes in Washington DC. The description of her escape to freedom is filled with thrilling (and sad) adventure. 

The provenance of this book's original manuscript is what makes it particularly unique. This book is the only novel written by an American fugitive slave. The author states early in the book that it is her intent "to show how slavery blights the lives of whites as well as the black race." Indeed she has done so, and I found it to be an interesting and sentimental reading experience.

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