 |  | | | Sojourner Truth | 21 January 2005 | | |
Who was the unknown author of The Bondswoman's Narrative
In 2001, a US academic made a chance discovery that set American publishing circles alight - he found a handwritten manuscript of the earliest novel written by a slave.
Hannah Craft's unpublished and ignored 301 page epic novel dates from the late 1850s and tells the story of a mulatto slave who escapes her cruel owners in the American south by disguising herself as a man. It's full of spelling mistakes, the grammar is patchy and the plot is melodramatic but it shot up the US best-seller lists, helped by the fact that it may be the first novel by a black woman anywhere.
Jennifer Chevalier set out to find out more about the author of the Bondswoman's Narrative.
Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Penguin Classics
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