The Bondwoman’s narrative / by Hannah Crafts, a fugitive slave recently escaped from North Carolina

Description

Bound holograph draft, revised, of a fictional or semi-fictional autobiography of a former slave. It 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 she works for, identified as the De Vincents, the Henrys, and the Wheelers. A large portion of the narrative concerns the pursuit of Mrs. De Vincent by a slave trader who discovers that she is of mixed race. Another substantial section describes the Wheeler’s political fortunes in Washington.

This handwritten version of the book is available to read/download for free.

This manuscript was acquired ad published by Henry Louis Gates.  The typeset version is available for sale via https://www.amazon.com/Bondwomans-Narrative-Hannah-Crafts/dp/0446690295