The Bondwoman's Narrative (Virago Modern Classics) [Paperback]

THE BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE is an extraordinary literary event. (SCOTSMAN )

Extraordinarily interesting and valuable. (THE TIMES )

Its pages are full of telling observations of the peculiar psychological effects of slavery. (SUNDAY TIMES )

Remarkable for its revelations of the day-to-day life of a house slave shortly before the Civil War outlawed such an existence. (IRISH EXAMINER )

* The first novel ever written by a woman who had been a slave! * An historically important literary event. * A gripping autobiographical novel.

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 BONDSWOMAN'S NARRATIVE is a provocative literary landmark and a significant historical even that will captivate a diverse audience. It provides a window into the psychology and perspective of a slave woman. David Brion Davis, a Yale professor and historican of slavery, said, 'We have relatively few authentic slave narratives, and certainly a novel written by a black woman and former slave is almost sensational.

Hannah Crafts may be a pseudonym for the female slave who wrote this novel in the United States in the mid-19th century. Editor Henry Louis Gates Jr, one of the US's leading African-American academics, bought and authenticated the MS. He lives in Massachusetts.