Books with author Ellen Craft

William and Ellen Craft were slaves from Macon who gained celebrity after a daring public escape in December 1848. The light-skinned Ellen Craft posed as a white woman traveling with her valet. The bold ruse worked and the couple were able to elude slave hunters and eventually cross the Mason-Dixon line. After many trials and tribulations, including pretending to be a married interracial couple, they eventually settled outside Savannah, Georgia where they were able to purchase land. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom is a fast-paced, suspenseful account of their incredible journey.

William and Ellen Craft were slaves from Macon who gained celebrity after a daring public escape in December 1848. The light-skinned Ellen Craft posed as a white woman traveling with her valet. The bold ruse worked and the couple were able to elude slave hunters and eventually cross the Mason-Dixon line. After many trials and tribulations, including pretending to be a married interracial couple, they eventually settled outside Savannah, Georgia where they were able to purchase land. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom is a fast-paced, suspenseful account of their incredible journey.

Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. William and Ellen Craft. The American Negro. His History and Literature. Ellen Craft (1826–1891) and William Craft (September 25, 1824 – January 29, 1900) were slaves from Macon, Georgia in the United States who escaped to the North in December 1848 by traveling openly by train and steamboat, arriving in Philadelphia on Christmas Day. She posed as a white male planter and he as her personal servant. Their daring escape was widely publicized, making them among the most famous of fugitive slaves. Abolitionists featured them in public lectures to gain support in the struggle to end the institution. As the light-skinned mixed-race daughter of a mulatto slave and her white master, Ellen Craft used her appearance to pass as a white man, dressed in appropriate clothing. Threatened by slave catchers in Boston after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Crafts escaped to England, where they lived for nearly two decades and reared five children. The Crafts lectured publicly about their escape. In 1860 they published a written account, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. One of the most compelling of the many slave narratives published before the American Civil War, their book reached wide audiences in Great Britain and the United States. After their return to the US in 1868, the Crafts opened an agricultural school for freedmen's children in Georgia and worked the farm until 1890. Their account was reprinted in the United States in 1999, with both the Crafts credited as authors, and it is available online at Project Gutenberg and the University of Virginia.

First published in 1860, “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom”, by William and Ellen Craft, is the fascinating true story of their escape from slavery in Georgia. Ellen was born into slavery in 1826 in Clinton, Georgia. As a result of her mother being a mixed-race slave and her father being a wealthy white plantation master, Ellen closely resembled her white half-siblings. William Craft was also born in Georgia and first met Ellen when he was 16 and he was sold to settle his owner’s gambling debt. The pair married a few years later and planned their escape so they could raise a family. In 1848, Ellen posed as a white male planter and William as her personal servant and the pair travelled openly by train and steamboat to Philadelphia. Their bold escape was widely publicized and became a popular story. Sadly, the Crafts came to fear for their safety and freedom when the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 and the couple moved to England, where they went on to have five children. Their thrilling tale of bravery and determination continues to be a compelling story of race, class, and gender in nineteenth-century America.

William and Ellen Craft were slaves from Macon who gained celebrity after a daring public escape in December 1848. The light-skinned Ellen Craft posed as a white woman traveling with her valet. The bold ruse worked and the couple were able to elude slave hunters and eventually cross the Mason-Dixon line. After many trials and tribulations, including pretending to be a married interracial couple, they eventually settled outside Savannah, Georgia where they were able to purchase land. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom is a fast-paced, suspenseful account of their incredible journey.

Having heard while in Slavery that "God made of one blood all nations of men," and also that the American Declaration of Independence says, that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" we could not understand by what right we were held as "chattels." Therefore, we felt perfectly justified in undertaking the dangerous and exciting task of "running a thousand miles" in order to obtain those rights which are so vividly set forth in the Declaration. I beg those who would know the particulars of our journey, to peruse these pages. This book is not intended as a full history of the life of my wife, nor of myself; but merely as an account of our escape; together with other matter which I hope may be the means of creating in some minds a deeper abhorrence of the sinful and abominable practice of enslaving and brutifying our fellow-creatures. Without stopping to write a long apology for offering this little volume to the public, I shall commence at once to pursue my simple story.

This carefully crafted ebook: "Running A Thousand Miles For Freedom – Incredible Escape of William & Ellen Craft from Slavery" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom" chronicles the daring escape of William and Ellen Craft which is often known as the most ingenious plot in fugitive slave history. While Ellen posed as a white male planter William, her husband, posed as her personal servant. The couple cleverly travelled by train and steamboat, escaped nail-biting detection and arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day.Excerpt:"It is a common practice in the slave States for ladies, when angry with their maids, to send them to the calybuce sugar-house, or to some other place established for the purpose of punishing slaves, and have them severely flogged; and I am sorry it is a fact, that the villains to whom those defenceless creatures are sent, not only flog them as they are ordered, but frequently compel them to submit to the greatest indignity."William Craft (1824–1900) and Ellen Craft (1826–1891) were slaves from Macon, Georgia in the United States who escaped to the North in December 1848. Their daring escape was widely publicized, making them among the most famous of fugitive slaves in America. But due to the controversial Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 they had to immigrate to Britain for safety where they continued to garner support for the abolishment of slavery.

Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, the escape of William and Ellen Craft from slavery is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Ellen Craft is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Ellen Craft then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

From the intro: "Having heard while in Slavery that "God made of one blood all nations of men," and also that the American Declaration of Independence says, that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" we could not understand by what right we were held as "chattels." Therefore, we felt perfectly justified in undertaking the dangerous and exciting task of "running a thousand miles" in order to obtain those rights which are so vividly set forth in the Declaration. I beg those who would know the particulars of our journey, to peruse these pages. This book is not intended as a full history of the life of my wife, nor of myself; but merely as an account of our escape; together with other matter which I hope may be the means of creating in some minds a deeper abhorrence of the sinful and abominable practice of enslaving and brutifying our fellow-creatures."

Ellen Craft (c. 1826-c. 1897) was a slave in Macon, Georgia. Her mother was a slave and her father was her mother's owner. She married William Craft (c1826-1900) in 1846. In 1848, Ellen daringly decided to use her light skin to pass as white in order to travel by train and boat to the North, with William posing as her slave. In order to carry out this plan, Ellen also had to pass as male since a single white woman would not have been travelling alone with a male slave at this time. Although they encountered several close calls along the way, the plan worked. Eight days after they began in Georgia, William and Ellen arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas day, 1848. In 1850, William and Ellen went to England for fear that the Fugitive Slave Bill would end their freedom. Their narrative, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860), is one of the most compelling of the many fugitive slave narratives. The Crafts continued to make appearances abroad, and made a life there, including having four children. In 1868 they returned to the U. S. and eventually bought land in Georgia and opened an industrial school for young African Americans.