Hannah Crafts is both the protagonist and author of the text. The Bondwoman’s Narrative is her autobiography, lost for more than a century and then published after the turn of the millennium. Crafts is a formerly enslaved woman, who was born and raised in slavery, and she achieved self-liberation by fleeing from the South to the North.

Due to the complicated publication history of The Bondwoman’s Narrative, the lengthy introduction to the text adds further complexity to the character of Hannah Crafts. As Gates explains, she was likely a real person, and the elements of her autobiography which can be verified indicate that there is a great deal of truth to the book. This revelation makes Hannah’s story even more powerful: Not only did she undertake all the journeys described in the text, but she also overcame the huge barriers that would have prevented most other formerly enslaved African American women from writing a novel.

The search for the real Hannah Crafts as related by Gates demonstrates the danger she encountered. Trying to track down her name is a difficult task and a damning indictment of the institution of slavery. In the South, for example, trying to track down an enslaved person by name is complicated by poor record-keeping.