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Searching for Hannah Crafts the Wheelers' Recorded Trip to the Plantation from Washington T but with Several Other Unique Events and Circumstances in Their in the U.S

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Searching for Hannah Crafts the Wheelers' Recorded Trip to the Plantation from Washington T but with Several Other Unique Events and Circumstances in Their in the U.S Introd,ucti.on Introduction March 21 and May 4,1857. This period corresponds not only with Searching for Hannah Crafts the Wheelers' recorded trip to the plantation from Washington t but with several other unique events and circumstances in their In the U.S. census of 1860 for Washington, D.C.,.[ohn Hill lives during this time, such as Wheeler's recent dismissal from his \Mheeler is listed as the head of household, occupation "clerk." government post. Negative evidence supporting the year 1857 for Wheeler has no slaves. What this means in our search for Hannah the escape is provided by the lack of known visits by the Wheelers (lrafts is that sometime between 1855, whenJaneJohnson liber- to the plantation during the years 1855, 1856 (only the first half rrted herself in Philadelphia, and the taking of this census in Wash- of the diary is extant, but Mr. Wheeler was still in Nicaragua until ington in 1860, the slave the Wheelers purchased after Jane November of that year), and 1858 (only the last half of his diary cscaped, like Jane, escaped to the North and wrote an autobio. survives). Trips were made by the Wheelers to North Carolina in graphical novel about her bondage and her freedom. Judging 1859 (with PresidentJames Buchanan in earlyJune), 1860 (in the liom evidence in \,tr/heeler's diary, it seems reasonable to conclude latter half of December), and 1861 (aboutJuly, from which point llrat her escape occurred between March 2l and May 4,1857. If Wheeler stayed in North Carolina). But Mr. \Arheeler's continual lhese assumptions are correct, as I believe the manuscript and employment as clerk of the Interior Department in Washington <locumentary evidence suggest, then Hannah Crafts was living in from 1857 would not have occasioned Hannah's reference to his tlre gravest danger of being discovered by Wheeler and returned recent dismissal from office during any of these years. Further, the to her enslavement under the Fugitive Slave Act. Under this act, a much- relative proximiw in time between the departure ofJane, :rs David Brion Davis writes, "any citizen could be drafted into a valued servant of Mrs. Wreeler, and the acquisition of Hannah as posse and any free black person seized without a.fury trial."26 a competent replacement (less than two years) logically supports Wheeler had sued to recoverJane, Daniel, and IsaiahJohnson the year 1856 as the date of Hannah's service with the \Alheelers rrrrcler this act, which entitled slaveholders to retrieve fusitive slaves and her subsequent escape in the spring of 1857. Quite tellingly, .'vcn in the North. The passage of the act led several well-known Crafts writes that the Wheelers took her to North Carolina from lrrgitive slaves-William and Ellen Craft, and Henry "Box" Brown, Washington by boat. \Aheeler's diary confirms that he did in fact ,unong them-to flee to Canada or England. (The Crafts went to Lry 1857. travel to North Carolina boat early in lxrth.) The Fugitive Slave Act effectively sought to cancel the srares What is clear is that the portrait Crafts draws of Wheeler and rrorth of the Mason-Dixon Line as a sanctuary against human sketches of himself are re- the portrait that Wheeler unwittingly lxrndage; it meant that privileged fugitive slaves, such as HarrietJa- markably similar. In other words, there can be little doubt that the r obs, were forced to allow friencls to purchase their fi'eedom from his author of The Bondwoman's Narratiue, as Dr. Nickell argues in tlrr:ir former masters. But for most of the slaves who had managed authentication report, was intimately familiar with Mr. and Mrs. ro make their way by foot to the North, it meant a life of anxie[z, John Hill \{heeler. It^ar, disguise, altered identity, changes of name, and fabricated 1r:rsts. The Fugitive Slave Act of lB50 made life in the norrhern free strttes-like freedom itself-a necessary tabula rasa for many fugi- tivc slaves, and a state of being fundamentally imperiled. I began this search for Hannah (lrafts because I was intrisued lvi lvii Introduction Introduction by the notes left by the scholar and librarian Dorothy Porter con- Tb rny ast.onishmcnt, one llannah F'rafi (spelled rvith a A) was cerning her belief that crafts was both a black woman and a fugi- listcd as living in Baltimore Counry Maryland, in 1880. She was tive slave, all of which made me want to learn more' Although rnarried to Wesley lfuaft. (t{ow clever, I thought, to have rendered Porter purchased the manuscript in 1948 from a rare-book dealer lrer husband, Wesley, metaphorically as a Methodist minister- in New York City, the manuscript had been located by a "book rrfterJohn Wesley-in her novel!) Both Wesley and Hannah were scout" in NewJersey. Since Crafts claims at the end of the tale to listed as black. \Mhat's more, Hannah claimed to have been born be living in a free colored community in NewJersey, it seemed rea- irr Virginia, just as the author oI The Bondwoman's Narratiue had, sonable to continue my search for her there. lrccn! This had to be Hannah Crafts herself, at last. I was so ec- The obvious name for which to search, as you might expect, slatic that I took rny wif'e, Sharon Adams, ancl my best friend ancl was Hannah crafts. But no Hannah craftses are listed in the en- r olleagrre, Anthony Appiah, out to celebrate over a bit too much tire U.S. federal census berween 1860 and lBB0. Several women t lrnnrpagne shortly after ordering a copy of'the actual census 1860 census named Hannah Craft, however, are listed in the r t'r'ord for this lone-lost author. We had a glorious celebration. to my index. As I would learn as my research progressed, much 'l'hree days later, the photocopy of the page in the 1BB0 census the chagrin, Hannah Craft was a remarkably popular name by :rrrir,ed from the Morrnon Family History Library in Salt Lake these Hannah crafts middle of the nineteenth century. All of { )ity. I stared at the document in disbelief: not only was Hannah South. But one Hannah were white, and none had lived in the s:rirl to be thirty years of age-born in 1850, while the novel had New.]ersey in 1860. I eagerly searched craft was indeed living in lrt't^n written between 1855 and 1B6l-but the record noted that records. She was living in the town of Hills- for her in the censlrs tlris Hannah Kraft could neither read nor write! Despite all of the in Somerset County. She was thirty-four years of age and borough, r('1rs()ns that census data were chclck {ull of errors, there were far was married to Richard Craft. Both were white. This Hannah Craft tr)() rn2lny discrepancies to explain away to be able to salvage this was not living in New.fersey before 1860. And her entry listed no Il;rrrrrah Kraft as the possible author of T'he Bonclutom,nn's Nrtrratiue. birthplace, the sole entry on this page of the census in which this \ lv lrangover returned. information was lacking. I could not help but wonder if this Han- Irr thr: miclst of rny urowing frustration, I examined the Freed- nah Craft could be passing for white, "incognegro," as it were, nr;rn s Bank records, made newly available or-r CD-ROM by the given her imperilecl and r,'ulnerable status as a fugitive slave' \lor rnon Family History Librari,. 'fhe Freedman's Bank tvas chal- vvhile I was trying to derermine if the Hannah craft living irr rcr < rI by C)ongress on Marctr 3, 1865. Founded by white abolition- NewJersey in 1860 could be passing, it suddenly occurred to m(: rrls;uld businessmen, it atrsorbecl black ntilitary banks ancl to broaden my search to 1880. After all, if Hannah crafts had sought r,, a mlltual savinss bank firr fieecl people. By 1874 there been in her mid to late twenties when she wrote her novel (Fred- l)r()vide rt'72,000 dcpositors i,vith over erick Douglass was twenty-seven when he published his 1845 slavt' '', $3 nrillion. The bank's white narrative), then she would be between fifty-five or so and sixty irt rrust('es arnended the charter to specuiate in stocks, bonds, real 1880, assuming that she had survived. Perhaps I would find her' r st.rtt', zrnd unsecured loans. ln the fin:rncial panic of 1873, the there, living openly under her own name, now that slavery-anrl lr,rrrk struggled to survive, and Frederick Douelass was named the Fugitir,e Slave Act-was long clead. prcsirlent in a futile attempt to maintain confidence. The bank lviii lix Introduction Introduction collapsed onJune 2,lB74,with most depositors losing their entire be our author.) And in the case of Mary H. Crafts we have no savings. record of what the initial ,Ilstands for. Still, the handwriting simi- \{hile no Hannah Craft or Crafts appears in the index of the larities are intriguing, as is the fact that this Maria H. Crafts was a bank's depositors, a Maria H. Crafts does. Her application, dated schoolteacher, and hence a potential author. March 30,l\74,lists her as opening an account in a bank in New I now decided to return to an early lead that had once seemed Orleans. Her birthplace is listed as either Massachusetts or Missis- t'xtremely promising. While typing the manuscript, my research sippi (the handwriting is not clear), and she identified herself as rtssistant, Nina Kollars, suggested that I look for I{annah under a schoolteacher.
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