ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Former Winthrop University English Professor Gregg Hecimovich returns to Rock Hill on Feb. 27 to talk about his award-winning book, “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts,” and its significance as a foundational work in American Black literature.
Hecimovich spent part of his time at Winthrop researching the book and even included Winthrop students in some of his archival research. “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts,” which reveals the identity of an escaped slave who became America’s first Black female novelist, was named as a Washington Post Ten Best Books of the Year when it came out in 2023.
Hannah Crafts’ modern story started back in 2002 when a novel titled “The Bondwoman’s Narrative” penned by the pseudonymous Hannah Crafts became a New York Times bestseller. Renowned scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. first purchased “The Bondswoman’s Narrative” at auction in 2001 and authenticated its authorship circa 1850.
When the book exploded onto the bestseller list, readers speculated widely about the author’s identity, known then only as a “female fugitive slave.” Hecimovich, now an English professor at Furman University, joined forces with Gates and narrowed down the potential authors to a group of enslaved women at the Wheeler Plantation in North Carolina.
Search for Mystery Author
Hecimovich spent a decade poring over plantation records all over the South, consulting wills, diaries, handwritten almanacs, and public records to find the author. He announced in 2013 that he had found the mystery author and set about to write “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts,” a work that is part thriller, part mystery and part biography.
Crafts’ intriguing story starts with her work as a slave where she taught herself to read and honed her literary skills in an environment that did not respect her humanity.
After making her escape to the North, she sought refuge in New York with a Quaker family who worked with the Underground Railroad. At their home, she worked on the pages she kept during her journey to freedom, “The Bondwoman’s Narrative.” Her narrative borrows inspiration from Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte to tell the story of her and other women’s enslavement on the Wheeler Plantation.
Gates writes that Hecimovich’s book unfolds like a riveting detective story. “Hecimovich is unapologetic in recognizing the depth of the accomplishment of the author’s work, aligning ‘The Bondwoman’s Narrative’ as a founding document—along with ‘Our Nig’ by Harriet Wilson—that forms the foundation of the Black female tradition of the novel stretching forward to Toni Morrison and beyond.”
Hannah Crafts' Contributions Recognized
“The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts” is an important testimony to the horrors of slavery, a monumental discovery in literature, and a chance to finally give the first Black woman novelist in America her deserved recognition.
Winthrop Department of English Chair Amanda Hiner, who participated in a writers’ group with Hecimovich when he was writing his book, noted: “It is so gratifying to see Dr. Hecimovich’s painstaking and careful research, some of it completed during his time as a Winthrop English faculty member, crystalize into this remarkable, bestselling book. We are thrilled that he will be able to share his groundbreaking findings with the larger Winthrop community.”
The Feb. 27 event is planned for 7 p.m. in Dina’s Place in the DiGiorgio Campus Center. It is sponsored by the Department of English and the African American Studies Program.
For more information, contact Amanda Hiner at hinera@winthrop.edu.
