Wholesale Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom - Paperback

by William and Ellen Craft (Author) William Craft says of the classic slavery memoir, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom-Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, "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 (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 passed 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 quadroon daughter of a mulatto slave and her white master, Ellen Craft used her appearance to pass as a white man, dressed in male clothing, during their escape. As prominent fugitives, they were threatened by slave catchers in Boston after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, so the Crafts emigrated to England. They lived there 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. They worked at the school and its farm until 1890. Ellen planned to take advantage of her appearance to pass as white while the pair traveled by train and boat to the North; she dressed as a man and pretended illness to limit conversation. William was to act as her slave and personal servant. During that time period, domestic slaves frequently accompanied their masters during travel, so the Crafts did not expect to be questioned. Their escape is known as the most ingenious plot in fugitive slave history, even more ingenious than "Henry Box Brown". During their escape they traveled on first-class trains, stayed in the best hotels, and Ellen dined one evening with a steamboat captain.