Gloria Naylor's "Sapphira Wade": An Unfinished Manuscript from the Archive

We introduce a handwritten manuscript draft of Gloria Naylor's long-promised historical novel "Sapphira Wade," situating excerpts from the unfinished work in the context of Naylor's life and literary career. Gloria Naylor intended for this novel to explore the history of Willow Springs alluded to in her 1988 Mama Day: the means by which an enslaved woman, Sapphira Wade, gained the deed to island from Bascombe Wade. The opening section, written between 2004 and 2006 and included among the papers Naylor donated to Sacred Heart University in 2009, recounts Bascombe's upbringing in Norway during the early nineteenth century.