Any book with an American female protagonist is also likely to be about the United States more generally; approximately half the population of the country is female, so works about women are of broad interest. Many of the character Hannah’s experiences in Hannah Crafts’s novel were shared by thousands of enslaved African American persons. While some pertain to women specifically, others apply to enslaved people of any gender.

One aspiration that Hannah has, for example, is learning to read. As literacy was generally denied to enslaved people, that aspect is a common problem within US history. Another plot component, racial “passing,” was also experienced by thousands of people. In the novel, the biracial character who lives as a white person is a woman, but biracial men also had this experience. Another generally applicable historical reality was the character Hannah’s effort to escape from slavery by fleeing North, as many men did as well.