Henry Louis Gates, Jr

It’s the birthday of scholar and critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr., born in Keyser, West Virginia (1950). He is known for his books on literary history, and he wrote about the life and work of Phillis Wheatley, the first published black poet in the United States.

In the winter of 2001, Gates was looking through a New York auction catalog when a manuscript by a slave named Hannah Crafts caught his eye.

In the manuscript Crafts, an escaped slave, wrote from her own life about the distinctions slaves made among themselves based on skin color, house-versus-field jobs, and class. She wrote about sex, but argued against slaves marrying and having children on the grounds that slavery is hereditary and can’t be escaped. She portrayed the relationship of a white mistress and black slave as full of mutual intimacy.

Gates was convinced the manuscript authentic, and thus, was the first novel by a female slave and possibly the first novel written by any black woman. He purchased the manuscript at auction for $8,500 and turned Crafts’ manuscript into The Bondwoman’s Narrative. He published it in 2002 and It quickly became a national best-seller.