Hannah Crafts

Last updated

Hannah Bond, also known by her pen name Hannah Crafts (born c. 1830s), [1] was an 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. [2] It is the only known novel by an enslaved woman. [3]

Contents

Written between 1853 and 1861, 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. [4] It rapidly became a bestseller.

Bond's identity was documented in 2013 by Gregg Hecimovich of Furman University, who found that she had been owned 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. [1]

Life

Hannah Bond, according to Gregg Hecimovich of Furman University, was born into slavery. Bond worked for Wheeler's wife Ellen as a lady's maid, and learned to read and write. [1] Her novel revealed close knowledge of the Wheeler household and his tenure as US Minister to Nicaragua. She quotes liberally from novels by prominent authors found to have been part of Wheeler's extensive library.

About 1857 Bond took on disguise with men's clothes, perhaps helped by someone in the Wheeler family, and escaped from the plantation, traveling as a white boy. She reached freedom in the North, living for a time in upstate New York with a couple named Crafts. She apparently took their surname as her pseudonym. [1] Later she settled in New Jersey. There she married and became a school teacher. [1]

External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Washington Journal interview with Henry Louis Gates on The Bondswoman's Narrative, April 18, 2002, C-SPAN

Bond wrote a novel, The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, Fugitive Slave from North Carolina. It is a fictional slave narrative, recounting the experiences of a young mixed-race woman slave who escapes to the North and gains freedom. Her manuscript was found years later in a New Jersey attic and held privately for some time. In 2001 it was purchased at auction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a professor of African-American literature and culture at Harvard University. He had the manuscript authenticated, and arranged publication in 2002.

Most literary scholars believed that the name Hannah Crafts was a pseudonym, and they have considered the work to be a fictionalized autobiography. [5] From her writing, Crafts appears to be self-taught. References in the work suggest that she may have been born in the 1830s.

The paper of the manuscript is a distinct one, identified by historians as from the library of North Carolina planter and slaveholder John H. Wheeler. [1] [6] This was part of the evidence found by Hecimovich that confirmed "Hannah Crafts" had lived at the Wheeler plantation. Bond apparently was able to read and to use the library, as her novel shows influences from other literature; she reflects elements of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott. [1] Hecimovich used "wills, diaries, handwritten almanacs and public records" and interviews to discover and document the life of Hannah Bond, and confirm her identity. Scholars familiar with the novel and the period, such as Gates, Hollis Robbins, and William L. Andrews, believe that he has demonstrated an accounting of her identity. [1]

Hecimovich learned that girls from a nearby school often boarded at the plantation; part of their curriculum required memorizing Charles Dickens' Bleak House, which influences Bond also expressed in her novel. She may have heard the girls reading aloud, or read the book herself. [1] It was serialized in Frederick Douglass's newspaper, which had wide circulation among fugitive slaves. [7]

Other scholars, including Joe Nickell, who authenticated the manuscript, had previously tied Crafts to John H. Wheeler. She had accurately described him as the US Minister to Nicaragua and his duties, as shown by his own diary. Believing that the novel was autobiographical, scholars speculated from its plot that Crafts had married a Methodist minister and lived in New Jersey. Her married name may have been Hannah Vincent, the wife of Thomas Vincent, as they were both listed in the census records of New Jersey in 1870 and 1880. [8] [ page needed ] [9]

Background of book

Research suggests the book was written some time between 1855 and 1869. For instance, the book shows knowledge of and adaptation from Dickens' novel Bleak House (1853). The surname Crafts, her pen name, was at one time thought to be a tribute to the slaves Ellen and William Craft, whose bold escape in 1848 was covered by the national press. [10] Hecimovich believes it is more likely Hannah took this name after living with a Crafts couple in upstate New York in her early time after reaching the North by the Underground Railroad. [1] Most scholars believe the manuscript was written before the American Civil War. They think Bond would have referred to the war if she had been writing her work during or after it. She referred to other contemporary events, as well as creating fictional ones.

See also

Related Research Articles

The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved persons, particularly Africans enslaved in the Americas, though many other examples exist. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as separate books or pamphlets. In the United States during the Great Depression (1930s), more than 2,300 additional oral histories on life during slavery were collected by writers sponsored and published by the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program. Most of the 26 audio-recorded interviews are held by the Library of Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillis Wheatley</span> African-born American poet (1753–1784)

Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.

<i>Uncle Toms Cabin</i> 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S., and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the [American] Civil War".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murfreesboro, North Carolina</span> Town in North Carolina, United States

Murfreesboro is a town in Hertford County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,835 at the 2010 census. The town is home to Chowan University.

Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, also known as James Albert, was an enslaved African man who is considered the first published African in Britain. Gronniosaw is known for his 1772 narrative autobiography A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, as Related by Himself, which was the first slave narrative published in England. His autobiography recounted his early life in present-day Nigeria, his enslavement, and his eventual emancipation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Box Brown</span> American slave, later abolitionist speaker and showman

Henry Box Brown was an enslaved man from Virginia who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

<i>Bleak House</i> 1852–1853 novel by Charles Dickens

Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853. The novel has many characters and several subplots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by an omniscient narrator. At the centre of Bleak House is a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which comes about because a testator has written several conflicting wills. In a preface to the 1853 first edition, Dickens said there were many actual precedents for his fictional case. One such was probably Thellusson v Woodford, in which a will read in 1797 was contested and not determined until 1859. Though many in the legal profession criticised Dickens's satire as exaggerated, Bleak House helped support a judicial reform movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet E. Wilson</span> African-American novelist (1825–1900)

Harriet E. Wilson was an African-American novelist. She was the first African American to publish a novel in North America.

African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. Olaudah Equiano was an African man who wrote The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, an autobiography published in 1789 that became one of the first influential works about the transatlantic slave trade and the experiences of enslaved Africans. His work was published sixteen years after Phillis Wheatley's work. She was an enslaved African woman who became the first African American to publish a book of poetry, which was published in 1773. Her collection, was titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.

<i>Clotel</i> Novel by William Wells Brown

Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is an 1853 novel by United States author and playwright William Wells Brown about Clotel and her sister, fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson. Brown, who escaped from slavery in 1834 at the age of 20, published the book in London. He was staying after a lecture tour to evade possible recapture due to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Set in the early nineteenth century, it is considered the first novel published by an African American and is set in the United States. Three additional versions were published through 1867.

<i>Iola Leroy</i> 1892 novel by Frances Harper

Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted, an 1892 novel by Frances E. W. Harper, is one of the first novels published by an African-American woman. While following what has been termed the "sentimental" conventions of late nineteenth-century writing about women, it also deals with serious social issues of education for women, passing, miscegenation, abolition, reconstruction, temperance, and social responsibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Johnson (slave)</span> African-American slave who gained freedom

Jane Johnson was an African-American slave who gained freedom on July 18, 1855, with her two young sons while in Philadelphia with her slaver and his family. She was aided by William Still and Passmore Williamson, abolitionists of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and its Vigilance Committee.

Nellie Yvonne McKay was an American academic and author who was the Evjue-Bascom Professor of American and African-American Literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she also taught in English and women's studies, and is best known as the co-editor of the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature.

Solomon Bayley was a formerly enslaved African American who is best known for his 1825 autobiography entitled A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America. Published in London, it is among the early slave narratives written by enslaved people who gained freedom before the American Civil War and emancipation. Bayley was born into slavery in Delaware. After escaping and being recaptured, he bought his freedom, including his wife and children. He worked as a farmer and at a sawmill. In their later years, he and his wife emigrated in 1827 to the new colony of Liberia, where he worked as a missionary and farmer. His short book about the colony was published in Delaware in 1833.

<i>The Bondwomans Narrative</i> 19th-century slave narrative by Hannah Crafts

The Bondwoman's Narrative is a novel by Hannah Crafts whose plot revolves around an escape from slavery in North Carolina. The manuscript was not authenticated and properly published until 2002. Scholars believe that the novel was written between 1853 and 1861. It is one of the first novels by an African-American woman, another is the novel Our Nig by Harriet Wilson, published in 1859, while an autobiography from the same time period is Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, published in 1861.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John H. Wheeler</span> American politician, North Carolina

John Hill Wheeler (1806–1882) was an American attorney, politician, historian, planter and slaveowner. He served as North Carolina State Treasurer (1843–1845), and as United States Minister to Nicaragua (1855–1856).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hollis Robbins</span> American academic

Hollis Robbins is an American academic and essayist. Robbins currently serves as dean of humanities at University of Utah. Her scholarship focuses on African-American literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Iredell</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1790 to 1799

James Iredell was one of the first Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President George Washington and served from 1790 until his death in 1799. His son, James Iredell Jr., was a Governor of North Carolina.

<i>Our Nig</i> 1859 autobiographical novel by Harriet E. Wilson

Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is an autobiographical novel by Harriet E. Wilson. First published in 1859, it was rediscovered in 1981 by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and was subsequently reissued with an introduction by Gates. Our Nig has since been republished in several other editions. It was long considered the first novel published by an African-American woman in North America, though that record is now contested by another manuscript found by Gates, The Bondwoman's Narrative, which may have been written a few years earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Louis Gates Jr.</span> American literary critic, professor and historian (born 1950)

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is a trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He rediscovered the earliest known African-American novels and has published extensively on the recognition of African-American literature as part of the Western canon.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Bosman, Julie (September 18, 2013). "Professor Says He Has Solved a Mystery Over a Slave's Novel". The New York Times .[ original research? ]
  2. ↑ Foner, Eric (February 2, 2016). Gateway to freedom : the hidden history of the underground railroad. National Geographic Books. p. 144. ISBN   978-0-393-35219-1. OCLC   1086231994.
  3. ↑ Rodriguez, Crystal (2013). "Hannah Bond". NCPEDIA. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  4. ↑ Crafts, Hannah; Gates, Henry Louis (2003). The bondwoman's narrative (1. trade print ed.). New York, NY: Warner Books. ISBN   978-0-446-69029-4.
  5. ↑ Gardner, Eric (2009). Unexpected Places: Relocating Nineteenth-century African American Literature. Margaret Walker Alexander series in African American studies. University Press of Mississippi. p. 173. ISBN   978-1-60473-283-2.
  6. ↑ Crafts, Hannah (April 2, 2002). The Bondwoman's Narrative; Preface by Hecimovich. Grand Central. ISBN   9780759527645.
  7. ↑ "Blackening Bleak House: Hannah Crafts's The Bondwoman's Narrative," in In Search of Hannah Crafts: Critical Essays on the Bondwoman's Narrative, eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Hollis Robbins. Basic/Civitas, 2004
  8. ↑ Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Hollis Robbins, editors, In Search of Hannah Crafts (2003)
  9. ↑ Beaulieu, Elizabeth Ann (2006). Writing African American Women: A-J. An Encyclopedia of Literature by and about Women of Color. Vol. 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 229–232. ISBN   0-313-33197-9.
  10. ↑ Gray, Richard J. (2007). A Web of Words: The Great Dialogue of Southern Literature. Mercer University Lamar Memorial Lectures. University of Georgia Press. p. 93. ISBN   978-0-8203-3005-1 . Retrieved April 7, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.