The Bondwoman's Narrative (51 page)
Austen, Jane.
Pride and Prejudice: A Novel
. London: Printed for T. Egerton, 1813.
Rusticus, Nicholas.
Pride, or, A Touch at the Times: A Satirical Poem, Addressed to All Genuine Reformers in This Glorious Age of Anti-ism
. Boston: John Marsh & Co., 1830.
Soane, George.
Pride Shall Have a Fall; A Comedy, in Five Acts—with Songs
. London: Hurst, Robinson, & Co., 1824.
54. Dickens, Charles.
American Notes
. New York: Wilson and Company, 1842.
55. Lever, Charles J.
The Knight of Gwynne
. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson and Bros., 1844.
56. Lever, Charles J.
Arthur O’Leary
. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1847. (Also New York: W. H. Colyer, 1847.)
57. Gore, Mrs. (Catherine Grace Frances Gore).
The Banker’s Wife; or, Court and City, A Novel …
New York: Harper, 1843.
58. Grey, Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline).
The Gambler’s Wife. A Novel
. New York: Harper, 1845.
59. Grey, Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline).
The Little Wife. A Record of Matrimonial Life … Complete in One Volume
. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson, 1840.
60. Grey, Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline).
The Duke and the Cousin
. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson, 1850.
61. Grey, Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline).
Fanny Thornton, or Marriage, a Lottery
. New York: W. H. Graham, 1849.
62. Wheeler records
Sketches of Everyday Life
as a title. This is most likely
Dickens, Charles.
Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Everyday Life and Everyday people.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1850.
63. Scott, Harriett Anne.
The Hen-pecked Husband
. New York: H. Long and Brothers, 1848.
64. Wheeler records this title as
Nina Brewer
. Though no such titles appear in the LOC, OCLC, or
National Union
catalogues, some possibilities for this entry are
Brewer, Nicholas.
A narrative of the life and sufferings of Nicholas Brewer, of the town of Cardiff, in the county of Glamorgan, master mariner,
and of the oppressions he has suffered at the hands of the Custom House officers of the said town of Cardiff, by their wrongfully
seizing and detaining his vessel, under the false and malicious pretence of her bowsprit being longer than by law allowed,
whereas it was upwards of three feet under the length prescribed by the act: together with copies of correspondence between
the said Brewer, and the Hon. the Commissioners of Customs, the secretary to the Right Hon. the Lords of the Treasury, &c.:
also, a copy of the case as laid before Samuel Marriott, Esq. and his opinion thereon.
England: s.n., 1823.
Female marine.
The Adventures of Lucy Brewer, Alias Louisa Baker
. Boston: Printed for N. Coverly, 1816. (This book was published in over twenty-five American editions.)
65. Oxenford, John, tr.
Tales from the German, Comprising Specimens from the Most Celebrated Authors
. Translated by John Oxenford and C. A. Feiling. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1844. 66. Wheeler records
The Jew
as a title. Some possibilities for this record are
Cumberland, Richard.
The Jew, a Comedy, in Five Acts
. Philadelphia: T. H. Palmer, 1823.
The Jew, At Home and Abroad
. Revised by the Committee of Publication. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1845.
The Jew
, by the author of “The Egyptian.” Philadelphia: James Callen & Sons [date unknown, but is between 1844 and 1858].
(This is a juvenile book.)
Spindler, Carl tr.
The Jew: Translated from the German
. New York: Harper & Bros., 1844.
67. Mayhew, Horace.
Whom to Marry and How to Get Married, or, the Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Husband
. London: D. Bogue, 1847–48. (Published at the office of the
New York World
in 1848.)
68. Blanchard, Jerrold and Hablot Knight Browne.
The Disgrace to the Family, a Story of Social Distinctions
. London: Darton and Co., 1848.
69. À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott and George Cruikshank.
The Comic Blackstone
. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1844.
70.
Texas and Her President
.
71. Grey, Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline).
The Belle of the Family
. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson, 1843.
72. Brackenridge, Hugh Henry.
Modern Chivalry, Containing the Adventures of Captain Farrago and Teague O’Regan
. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by John M’Culloch, 1792–97.
73. Wheeler records
Animal Magnetism
as a title. Some possibilities for this entry are
Animal Magnetism: Its History to the Present Time
. London: Dyer, 1841.
Animal Magnetizer, or History, Phenomena and Curative Effects of Animal Magnetism, with Instruction for Conducting the Magnetic
Operation by a Physician
. Philadelphia: J. Kav. Jun. and Brother, 1841.
Bell, John.
Animal Magnetism: Past Fictions—Present Science
. Philadelphia: Haswell, 1837.
Inchbald, Elizabeth Simpson.
Animal Magnetism: A Farce, in Three Acts
. Philadelphia: Neal and Mackenzie, Mifflin and Parry, printers, 1828.
Lang, William and Chauncey Hare Townshend.
Animal Magnetism; or, Mesmerism; Its History, Phenomena, and Present Condition; Containing Practical Instructions and the
Latest Discoveries in the Science
. New York: Mowatt, 1844.
Leger, Theodore.
Animal Magnetism; or, Psycodunamy
. New York: D. Appleton: Philadelphia: G. S. Appleton; 1846.
74. Wheeler records
Love and Marriage
as a title. Some possibilities for this entry include
Buckston, John Baldwin.
The Rake and His Pupil, or, Folly, Love, and Marriage, A Comedy in Three Acts
. London: W. Strange, 1834.
Hale, Sarah. “The love marriage,” in
The Token
. New York: Edwards, 1842.
Snyder, George.
Love, Courtship and Marriage
. Baltimore: F. P. Audoun, 1829.
75. Philipon, Charles, Louis Huart and Eugène Sue.
The Comic Wandering Jew
. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1840.
B
RYAN
C. S
INCHE
is currently a doctoral student in early-American literature and American studies at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill; he also holds a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan. He is the managing editor of
a/b: Auto/Biography Studies
and conducts research in nineteenth-century American life writing.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Bryan Sinche’s compilation of the belletristic texts in John Hill Wheeler’s library provides a rare opportunity for scholars
to trace with great specificity the echoes, allusions, and borrowings that this exslave drew upon to construct her novel.
Among the authors that Crafts appropriated and revised, Dickens seems to have been second to none.
Wheeler’s library, as of June 10, 1850, included three books by Dickens—
The Old Curiosity Shop
,
Barnaby Rudge
,
American Notes
, and probably,
Sketches by Boz
. It is quite likely that Wheeler obtained a copy of
Bleak House
when it was published in America in 1853, after being serialized in 1852 and 1853. As Hollis Robbins, a graduate student
at Princeton, pointed out to me, Dickens— and
Bleak House
in particular—was a fertile source for Hannah Crafts. For example,
The Bondwoman’s Narrative
contains several borrowings from
Bleak House
, some verbatim or nearly so, as in the following two examples: 331
| Bondwoman’s Narrative | Bleak House |
|---|
| Gloom everywhere. Gloom up the Potomac; where it rolls among meadows no longer green, and by splendid country seats. Gloom down the Potomac where it washes the sides of huge warships. Gloom on the marshes, the fields, and heights. Gloom settling steadily down over the sumptuous habitations of the rich, and creeping through the cellars of the poor. Gloom arresting the steps of grave and reverend Senators; for with fog, and drizzle, and a sleety driving mist the night has come at least two hours before its time… | Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners….Most of the shops lighted two hours before their time… (Chapter 1) |
| Is it a stretch of imagination to say that by night they contained a swarm of misery, that crowds of foul existence crawled in out of gaps in walls and boards, or coiled themselves to sleep on nauseous heaps of straw fetid with human perspiration and where the rain drips in, and the damp airs of midnight fatch and carry malignant fevers…. | Now, these tumbling tenements contain, by night, a swarm of misery. As on the ruined human wretch, vermin parasites appear, so, these ruined shelters have bred a crowd of foul existence that crawls in and out of gaps in walls and boards; and coils itself to sleep, in maggot numbers, where the rain drips in; and comes and goes, fetching and carrying fever…. (Chapter 16) |
No doubt further investigation of the works listed above will unearth additional example of Crafts’s influences and borrowings,
and lead to a richer understanding of the sources from the canon of American and English literature that inspired a fugitive
slave to dare to tell her tale.
Allibone, S. Austin, ed.
Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1897.
Andrews, William L.
To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography.
Urbana: University of Illinois, 1986.
Anonymous.
The Sisters of Orleans: A Tale of Race and Social Conflict.
New York: Putnam, 1871.
Arnim, Ludwig Achim, Freiherr von.
Isabella von Ägypten.
1812.
Bigelow, Harriet Hamline.
The Curse Entailed.
Boston: Wentworth, 1857.
Blassingame, John W.
Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.
Brown, William Wells.
Clotel
. London: Partridge and Oakley, 1853.
Burkett, Randall and Nancy and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Black Biographical Dictionary Index.
Alexandria, Va.: Chadwyck Healy, 1985.
The Case of Passmore Williamson.
Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 1855.
Cathey, Cornelius Oliver.
Agricultural Developments in North Carolina.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956.
Child, Lydia Maria.
The Romance of the Republic.
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
Clemens, Samuel L.
Pudd’nhead Wilson.
Hartford: American Publishing Co., 1894.
Davis, David Brion. “The Enduring Legacy of the South’s Civil War Victory.”
New York Times,
August 26, 2001.
Denison, Mary.
Old Hepsy.
New York: A. B. Burdick, 1858.
Dictionary of American Biography.
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928–58.
Douglass, Frederick.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845.
———.
The Heroic Slave.
Boston: Jewett, 1853.
Elwin, Lizzy M.
Millie, the Quadroon.
Clyde, Ohio: Ames’ Publishing Co., 1888.