The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts
"The Bondwoman's Narrative" is a significant 19th-century novel by Hannah Crafts, recognized as one of the earliest works authored by an African American woman. The narrative is believed to have autobiographical elements, as it follows a young enslaved girl named Hannah living on a North Carolina plantation. The story unfolds with Hannah's yearning for education, her secretive instruction by a kind couple, and the subsequent repercussions they face when discovered. The plot thickens as Hannah's life intertwines with her new mistress, who harbors a devastating secret that puts both women in peril. As they attempt to escape the clutches of a manipulative lawyer, Mr. Trappe, their journey leads them through harrowing trials, including imprisonment and eventual madness.
The novel provides insights into the complexities of slavery, highlighting the emotional bonds between the enslaved and their mistresses, as well as the psychological toll of their circumstances. The manuscript of "The Bondwoman's Narrative" was rediscovered in the late 20th century, leading to its publication in 2002, and has since been celebrated for its historical importance and literary merit. Scholars have noted its Victorian style and its place in the canon of African American literature, emphasizing the challenges of categorizing it purely as fiction or autobiography. Overall, the work invites reflection on themes of resilience, identity, and the quest for freedom amid oppressive realities.
The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts
First published: 2002 (written c. 1855)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Bildungsroman
Time of work: Mid-nineteenth century
Locale: North Carolina
Principal Characters:
Hannah Crafts , a runaway slaveThe Mistress , Hannah’s unnamed mistress, who, although a slave, attempts to pass for whiteMr. Trappe , an evil lawyer, who knows the Mistress’s secret and attempts to blackmail her and sell her into slaveryMrs. Wheeler , a vain, upper-class woman and the wife of a minor government official, who buys Hannah and orders her to work as a field hand and to marry another slaveAunt Hetty , a kind, old, white woman who teaches the child Hannah to read and write and later helps her escape to the North
The Novel
The Bondwoman’s Narrative, a nineteenth century novel by Hannah Crafts, is believed to be at least partly autobiographical, and its narrator shares the name of the author. It is impossible, however, to determine how much of the text is a factual account of the Crafts’s life and how much is fiction based on the author’s general experience. In the novel, Hannah—a young slave girl on a North Carolina plantation—demonstrates an unusual desire to learn to read. A kind old couple that lives nearby breaks the law by teaching her. They also convert her to Christianity. However, the couple’s actions are discovered, and they are sent to jail. The deeply saddened Hannah, however, grows up working as a trusted house slave.
At her master’s large wedding, Hannah notices Mr. Trappe, a stern-looking older man dressed in black, following the bride, who is Hannah’s new mistress. Soon after the wedding, Mr. Trappe is ensconced in a room of his own at the plantation: The mysterious lawyer rarely lets the young bride out of his sight. Hannah’s new mistress is miserable, and Hannah comes to believe that Mr. Trappe holds an enormous secret over her head. As time goes on, Hannah and the Mistress become devoted to each other. The Mistress becomes ill and rarely leaves the house. Then, Hannah discovers her secret: Her mistress is biracial. Under North Carolina law, she is a slave. Unless the Mistress obeys him, Mr. Trappe has threatened to tell the bride’s husband her secret.
Hannah tells the Mistress that she must flee and promises to go with her. They plan to escape at night, run to the river, and take a boat to safety in the North. However, they get lost in the woods and walk in circles for hours. The following day, they continue wandering and come across a hospitable home in which to spend the night. When they discover that Mr. Trappe is trailing them, they take off again into the woods, where they find an unoccupied shack. For months, they remain hidden, forced to eat whatever they can scrounge. Hannah’s mistress begins to go insane. In the springtime, hunters discover them and take them off to jail. Horace, one of the hunters, tells Hannah that her master committed suicide after Mr. Trappe informed him of his wife’s secret.
In prison, the two women encounter Mrs. Wright, who has been imprisoned for attempting to help a slave girl escape. Mrs. Wright has become deranged, and she believes that she is living in a palace and that Hannah and the Mistress are her guests. Similarly, Hannah’s mistress continues her own descent into madness. Slowly, both women become friendly with the guards and are moved to a house where their life is better; it hardly seems like a prison. However, Mr. Trappe shows up, and the women find themselves back in his power. The Mistress can no longer stand the stress; she has a stroke and dies.
After Trappe’s latest victim dies, he is forced to sell Hannah. However, the slave dealer is killed and Hannah is severely injured in an accident involving a horse and cart. The kind Mrs. Henry cares for Hannah, who, in time, comes to love her. However, Hannah is eventually sold to a Mrs. Wheeler from Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Wheeler makes Hannah’s life a nightmare. She sends her to purchase a special face powder that, through a strange chemical reaction, makes her face turn black. The outraged Mrs. Wheeler orders Hannah to work in the fields, to live in a slave cabin, and to marry a rough field hand. Hannah cannot endure this punishment, so she decides to flee to the North. During her flight, she is rescued by Mrs. Hetty, the same woman who taught Hannah to read as a child. Eventually, Hannah escapes to the North, where, happily, she manages to find her long-lost mother.
The Characters
Scholars maintain that the narrator of The Bondwoman’s Narrative, Hannah, is based on the book’s author, Hannah Crafts. The book’s manuscript was discovered and published more than a century after it was written, however, and little is known of the author’s actual life. It is therefore difficult to categorize the work definitively as either a novel or an autobiography, although generically and stylistically it resembles a nineteenth century novel.
Hannah is a complex character who deeply loves her mistress. However, the character Hannah has received literary rebuke for her subservience toward any white person who is kind to her. She works without complaint as a house slave, and she rebels only when Mrs. Wheeler orders her to demean herself by working in the fields and marrying a field hand.
The Mistress is motivated largely by weakness. Although Hannah is able to endure slavery and find some joy in simple things, the Mistress simply cannot live such a life. After her ill-planned escape with Hannah, she descends into madness. When she is recaptured and faced with the prospect of becoming a slave, she dies. Hannah, on the other hand, bides her time and eventually escapes to freedom.
Mr. Trappe strongly resembles Mr. Tulkinghorn, a manipulative character from Charles Dickens’s contemporary novel Bleak House (1852-1853). He wears black throughout the book and lurks in the shadows, ready to pounce when least expected. As his name indicates, Mr. Trappe “traps” people and feeds on them like a bird of prey.
Critical Context
The Bondwoman’s Narrative was discovered by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., after he acquired the manuscript through an auction. It is believed to be the earliest novel written by an African American woman. As such, the work is of immense historical significance, quite apart from its literary value. Victorian in style, some scholars argue that the novel is indeed an autobiographical account of Hannah Crafts, a slave who passed for white after escaping from North Carolina to freedom in the North.
Before its publication in 2002, Professor Gates went to great lengths to authenticate the manuscript and to determine that it was written in the mid-1850’s. The 2002 edition includes an detailed scholarly introduction by Gates, in which he details his discovery of the novel and the subsequent steps he took to authenticate it, including commissioning a scientific investigation of the manuscript’s ink, binding, and paper. The edition concludes with several appendixes that provide evidence to back up Gates’s evaluation.
Bibliography
Ballinger, Gill, Tom Lustig, and Dale Townshend. “Missing Intertexts: Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative and African American Literary History.” Journal of American Studies 39, no. 2 (Summer, 2005): 207-37.
Fisch, Audrey, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Slave Narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Records the experience and history of slavery in the United States while comprehensively examining the slave narrative’s relation to abolitionism, Anglo-American literary traditions such as autobiography and sentimental literature, and the larger African American literary tradition.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Hollis Robbins, eds. In Search of Hannah Crafts: Critical Essays on The Bondwoman’s Narrative. New York: Basic Books, 2003. Written by authorities on African American history and literature, this collection of scholarly articles analyzes Craft’s novel.