A review by katrinky
The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts

4.0

Only had time to read the introduction before returning this to the library, but the story of the acquisition and publishing of this narrative is equally as compelling as the work itself. I read particularly slack-jawed the parts where Gates details how historians came to feel for certain that Hannah Crafts was black, and not a white author passing for black, for abolitionist or other reasons. She treats blackness as the norm, first of all, and if she ever points out color at all, she does it after the personality (to say nothing of the humanity, which is also treated as default) of a character has been established. Gates points out that even an abolitionist like Beecher Stowe couldn't resist the unconscious 19th century racist vernacular, describing black characters FIRST as black, then MAYBE as worthwhile humans, and if worthwhile, than worthwhile IN SPITE of their color. I was so struck by the fact that this surprised even Gates, our generation's foremost African American scholar.

He says, "Although I had not thought about it much before, white writers of the 1850s (and well beyond) did tend to introduce Negro characters in their works in an awkward manner. Whereas black writers assumed the humanity of black characters as the default, as the baseline of characterization...white writers, operating on the reverse principle, used whiteness as the default for humanity..."

Any book that can teach Henry Louis Gates something can sure as heck teach ME something. Looking forward to reading the manuscript itself as soon as I can.