Reid-Pharr, Robert F., ed. Black Gay Man: Essays. New
York: New York University Press, 2001.
Lawrence Potter
Bradley, David (1950– )
Like many African-American writers, David Brad-
ley centers his work on essential questions per-
taining to family, community, history, and racism.
Bradley’s work is distinguished by its immediacy
and the profound effect of his awareness and treat-
ment of the intersection between the burdens of
history and the difficult promises of individual
existence. His first book, South Street (1975), writ-
ten while he was an undergraduate, went out of
print soon after publication. His second novel, The
Chaneysville Incident (1981), winner of the PEN/
Faulkner Prize and a Book-of-the-Month Club
Alternate Selection, quickly established Bradley’s
reputation as a major 20th-century African-
American author.
David Bradley, the only son of Reverend D. H.
Bradley and Harriet M. Jackson Bradley, was born
and raised in Bedford, Pennsylvania, where he
attended public school. He graduated from Bed-
ford Area High School in 1968 and attended the
University of Pennsylvania as a creative writing
and English major, graduating summa cum laude
in 1972. He attended the University of London,
studying at the Institute for United States Stud-
ies; in 1974, he received his M.A. in area studies,
United States, from Kings College, London. Brad-
ley had begun in earnest his study of 19th-century
American history, laying the foundation for what
would become The Chaneysville Incident, a novel
he planned to center around the local legend of 13
runaway slaves he had heard in Bedford.
Bradley became interested in this legend when
his mother, while researching the history of Bed-
ford’s black community for the local bicentennial,
came across the story and then found the actual
graves of the fugitive slaves in Bedford County.
Mrs. Bradley’s discovery confirmed the well-
known legend: While making their way to freedom
through Bedford on the Underground Railroad,
13 fugitive slaves asked to be put to death to avoid
their impending recapture. Although Bradley first
recorded the story of their tragic choice in his un-
published collection of short stories, written while
he was in college, his interest in this legend did not
end there. He would make it central to the narra-
tive of The Chaneysville Incident.
Bradley wrote four versions of The Chaneysville
Incident over a 10-year period. The final version is
a compelling story of a young black man’s search
for meaning in the history of his family, particu-
larly his father, and his community. The protag-
onist, John Washington, a young black history
professor living in Philadelphia, returns home to
Chaneysville to care for and then bury his surro-
gate father, Jack Crawley. While home, John visits
his parents’ house, where he examines the his-
torical documents, papers, and journals of his late
biological father, Moses. Through this research,
John works toward a better understanding of his
father’s suicide and its connections to the death of
the 13 fugitive slaves many years before. Through
a process of self-discovery and examination, in-
volving Judith, the white psychiatrist he is dating,
John comes to a deeper understanding of the true
meaning of communal and personal history. By
comprehending what led the fugitive slaves to for-
feit their lives, John comes to understand why his
father, Moses, chose to take his own life.
In The Chaneysville Incident Bradley weaves
numerous stories together into a central narra-
tive thread. Central characters John and Jack are
storytellers, weavers of a good yarn. John’s return
home begins a series of memories and flash-
backs—to his own childhood and adolescence
and to other stories told by Jack. In a multiplic-
ity of telling and remembering, Bradley weaves
together John’s memories, Jack’s stories, Moses’
history, conversations with Judith, and John’s vi-
sion of the Chaneysville incident into a narrative
tapestry depicting the violence and cruelty that
not only often typified slavery but also typifies life
within a racist culture.
A former Temple University professor and
currently a visiting faculty member at the Uni-
versity of Oregon, Bradley has also written eight70 Bradley, David