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Discussion About Novel Written by Slave Woman

Aired April 25, 2002 - 11:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now there have been dozens of books written about the era of slavery here in America from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to work by authors, like Frederick Douglass, but never has there been a novel written by a slave woman, until now. Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. (ph) learned about the writing of a former slave in an auction listing. Now this describes an unpublished manuscript, a fictionalized biography, purporting to be the story of the early life and escape of one Hannah Crafts, who is described as a mulatto.

Now that woman's firsthand story is now the new novel "The Bondswoman's Narrative," and Henry Louis Gates Jr., editor of the book, and he is here with us in studio here in Atlanta.

Good to see you.

HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.: Nice to be here.

HARRIS: finally meet you face to face. I have admired your work for years, and finally get a chance to meet you. It's a great opportunity for me.

GATES: Thank you.

HARRIS: I must ask you first of all, how did you even find out about all this?

GATES: Well, I was confined to home. I had a hip replacement. And my hip replacement got infected, and so I didn't have a hip. I couldn't travel, and I was busying my time by reading auction catalogs and rare book catalogs, and there it was in the Swan (ph) auction gallery catalog for February of the year 2001.

HARRIS: Well, what about it convinced you that it was authentic, though?

GATES: She said she was black. Now why in the world would anyone claim to be black in the middle of the 19th century if they weren't black. There is no good reason for a white people to claim to be black today. How many white people pass black. It's black people passing for white.

HARRIS: That's true.

GATES: So I have a brilliant observation. (LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: OK, that's why you're the smart guy.

Well, as I understand it, it was all written in longhand.

GATES: Yes, it's the only handwritten manuscript we have for any black writer before 1900.

HARRIS: That's amazing.

GATES: And we don't have that many hand written manuscripts for white authors. In the 19th century, the printer would buy your manuscript. Say you were writing a novel, I'm the printer, I would buy your manuscript. I'd print the book. Why do I need your manuscript. I'd throw it in the trash.

HARRIS: Yes, and as a matter of fact, what you've been done as I've looked through the book this morning. I unfortunately didn't have time to read much of. You even kept in here the editing that Hannah Crafts was actually doing. You can't make this out, folks, but you will see segments or places in the pages where words are crossed out or lined out.

GATES: Right. It was a working manuscript.

HARRIS: Why would you keep that in there?

GATES: Because I wanted to recreate the experience of reading the book over her shoulder at her kitchen table the way she actually wrote it. I wanted it to be authentic. It's the first time we've encountered the pure, unedited mind of the slave, even Frederick Douglass was edited by an abolitionist. But this is no editing whatsoever; nothing stands between us and Hannah Craft's mind.

HARRIS: Before we move on, I want to show these here folks here a sample of some of the writing you're going to find in this book. We have a little excerpt here that we clipped out of it. This is in her own hand. It is what you found here.

"I was employed about the house. Consequently, my labors were much easier than those of field servants. While the other children of the house were amusing themselves, I would quietly steal away to ponder over the pages of some old book or newspaper.

GATES: That's right.

HARRIS: Now how is it that this slave became educated, and not just educated, but apparently quite literate?

GATES: This is the most sophisticated novel written before Charles Chestnut. One-hundred slaves published books between 1760 and 1865, and they all, in the worlds of Frederick Douglass, stole a little learning from the master. And she had a kindly white lady who taught her how to read or write on the -- it was illegal to teach the slaves to read and write, and that's how she learned, and she practiced on her own, and she read books out of her master's library. We haven't found the catalog for her master's library. And many of the books listed in that library are echoed, are quoted in this book.

HARRIS: All right, I have to ask you this last question, because we have to move on, because we have other news going on. But what did you learn that you did know before about either slave life or about slave mindsets or whatever, from reading -- from going through this document.

GATES: Two things. One, the extent of sexual exploitation of the slaves by the white slave master. She is very explicit about sexuality. By 19th century standards, this is triple X. And she is very honest about sexuality. And the second thing was class tensions between house servants and field servants.

HARRIS: Unfortunately, we have breaking news and we have to go on, but Dr. Henry Louis Gates, we thank you very much for this incredible -- "A Bondswoman's Narrative." Check it out.

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