Barnard Professor Quandra Prettyman Interviewed by BBC, June 18

New York, NY June 27, 2002—Barnard English professor Quandra Prettyman was interviewed by BBC radio on June 18. The interview was in reference to The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, which is thought to be the first novel written by an African American woman. The novel was discovered recently but Crafts, possibly an escaped slave, wrote it in the 1850s.

In the interview, Prettyman compares Crafts with Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. "Both authors treat the sexual vulnerability of the slave woman," as opposed to the male authors of that time. She also discusses that by being a female slave, Crafts had more insight into the role of the women on the plantation. Prettyman thinks that Crafts writes with insight on the, "circumstance that women who owned slaves were owned themselves."

Click here to listen to the broadcast online.

Contact: Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
Alina Hamza, Office of Public Affairs, 212-853-2037