In praise of ‘The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts’

When Henry Louis Gates published “The Bondwoman’s Narrative” in 2003, the identity of its author remained elusive. “The Bondwoman’s Narrative,” likely written in the late 1850s, is the first known novel by a Black woman. Through decades-long research, Gregg Hecimovich, an English professor at Furman University, unveiled the author’s identity and told the story of her enslavement in “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of the Bondwoman’s Narrative” (Ecco/HarperCollins). Kelly Scott Franklin, associate professor of English at Hillsdale College in Michigan, wrote a review of the book for The Wall Street Journal.

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