The Great Escape

by Fran Withrow 04.2023

Many enslaved people bravely attempted to escape to freedom during America’s long and terrible history of slavery. Most of their stories are lost to the annals of time, but not all of them, fortunately. One of the more fascinating true stories is “Master Slave Husband Wife,” which chronicles the 1848 escape from slavery of Ellen Craft and her husband William.

Ellen Craft was enslaved by her father and her half sister in Georgia. Her husband, William Craft, was a gifted cabinet maker enslaved on a nearby estate. On December 20, 1848, they made a daring and ingenious escape. Ellen, who was very light skinned, dressed as an ailing white gentleman, while William posed as her enslaved servant. Together they traveled from Macon, Georgia to Philadelphia and then on to Boston and freedom.

In New England, with the help of activist William Wells Brown, the Crafts learned to tell their story as a way of supporting the abolitionist movement and joined the lecture circuit, despite being in danger from slave hunters. They learned to read and write and penned a book about their experience: “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom.”

Then the United States passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which required all citizens to return Black people to bondage in the South. The danger multiplied not just for the Crafts but for all formerly enslaved people in the North. Tensions boiled over throughout the country, with southerners fearing for their way of life, northerners supporting the abolishment of slavery (though they too had their prejudices against Blacks), and politicians arguing about whether to legalize slavery in the new territories and states out west.

Ilyon Woo has written a fascinating chronicle about this couple’s story within the backdrop of the country’s turmoil: the difficulties they faced during their escape, their struggles to find safety and work in New England, and the exhaustion of traveling the country telling their story.

Woo has carefully researched this subject and seamlessly notes places in the story where there is no supporting documentation to verify events. She paints a picture not only of the Crafts and their enslavers, but also of Congress wrestling with the problem of slavery. Readers can see how opposing views of slavery permeated the capital, anger and fear simmering and sometimes exploding as the country drew ever closer to Civil War.

The Crafts eventually settled in England and started a family, not returning to the United States until after the war. Still, now back home and no longer enslaved, they faced discrimination, financial struggles, and even civil suits. Woo wonders if this is why their story is not better known.

Yet this story should be more widely told. How this couple pulled off a brilliant escape, became renowned activists, wrote a book, raised a family, and returned to their homeland in the midst of Reconstruction and racism is worth telling. Their story of love and survival despite the odds is a profound testament to the courage and ingenuity of people who just want to be free.