Hannah Crafts (Books)

Hannah Crafts Books

Hannah Bond, writing under the pseudonym Hannah Crafts, was an African-American author who escaped from slavery and penned The Bondwoman's Narrative in the late 1850s. This work, potentially the first novel by an African-American woman, was only discovered and published for the first time in 2002. Bond's writing captures the experiences and perspective of a fugitive enslaved woman. Her literary legacy resides in its unique testament to life and resilience at a time when the voices of people like her were systematically silenced.

The Bondwoman's Narrative

400 pages
14 hours of reading

3.9(1694)Add rating

When her master is betrothed to a woman who conceals a tragic secret, Hannah Crafts, a young slave on a wealthy North Carolina plantation, runs away in a bid for her freedom up North. Pursued by slave hunters, imprisoned by a mysterious and cruel captor, held by sympathetic strangers, and forced to serve a demanding new mistress, she finally makes her way to freedom in New Jersey. Her compelling story provides a fascinating view of American life in the mid-1800s and the literary conventions of the time. Written in the 1850s by a runaway slave, the book is a provocative literary landmark. It provides a window into the psychology and perspective of a slave woman.