The Bondwoman’s Narrative
Hannah Crafts
published 2002
336 pages
Set in the mid-nineteenth century and written by a runaway slave, this story chronicles the flight and subsequent resettlement as a free woman. A historically important discovery; this is possibly the the earliest known book written by an African-American woman and created between 1853 and 1861.
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.