Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, violence, enslavement, rape, torture, suicide, and abuse.

In the introduction, Henry Louis Gates Junior describes how he bought and verified the manuscript, called The Bondwoman’s Narrative, and researched the author, Hannah Crafts.

Gates purchased the manuscript at an auction held by Swann Galleries. Gates was attracted to the manuscript for several reasons, including that it came from the collection of Dorothy Porter Wesley, a highly respected librarian and historian, and was potentially written by an enslaved person, and that the routes described in the novel were confirmed as having been used by people liberating themselves from slavery. Gates posits that it may be the first novel written by a formerly enslaved woman. The text was entirely handwritten, thus free from the influence of an editor or printer. Gates wondered whether a work written by a formerly enslaved woman would demonstrate a different perspective free from “the web of racist connotations associated with slaves, blackness, and the ‘natural capacities’ of persons of African descent” that marked works written by white authors (12).

Gates was the only bidder and acquired the novel for less than the original asking price.