The former maid, Lizzy, tells Hannah that Trappe has been hanging around the mistress for a long time and harbors a dreadful secret. Hannah, as the mistress’s main maid, notices Trappe’s malign influence on the mistress. Long after the wedding party guests have left, Mr. Trappe also arrives and acts strangely, particularly around Hannah’s new mistress. The linden tree still stands.Ī year after Aunt Hetty goes to jail, Hannah’s master marries, and a bridal party visits the estate. The slave woman cursed Sir Clifford with her dying breath. Legend has it that Sir Clifford, a former owner of the estate, once tied an old slave woman and her dog to a linden tree on the grounds, starving the pair to death. The estate Hannah lives on is under a curse, and when Hannah finds a room with the portrait of Sir Clifford, she has an ominous feeling. Unbeknownst to Hannah, the couple goes to jail. When the estate overseer catches the elderly Aunt Hetty teaching Hannah to read, he sends Hetty and her husband, Uncle Siah, away. Several factors, including the novel’s sentimental genre, spelling errors, descriptions of black characters, and scientific dating indicate that the text is an authentic piece written by a self-educated slave between 18.Īs the novel opens, Hannah is a house slave. Gates purchased the handwritten manuscript at an auction. Gates prefaces the novel with an introduction describing how he recovered, authenticated, and published Hannah Crafts’s manuscript.
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