Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom

by Ellen Craft, William Craft, GP Editors (Editor)

First published in 1860, ‘Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom’ chronicles the audacious flight of William and Ellen Craft which is often known as the cleverest plot in fugitive slave history. Ellen Craft and William Craft were slaves in Macon, Georgia in the United States. With great daring and courage, they fled to the North in December 1848.
Their remarkable escape was widely publicized, making them among the most famous fugitive slaves. Abolitionists were featured to gain support in the struggle to end the institution in the United States. The Crafts themselves had to move to England for twenty years where they wrote and published their story. In 1868 it was safe enough for them to return to Georgia and opened an agricultural school for freedmen's children in Georgia.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

92 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 5, 2022

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant story of emancipation and survival. It was a little maudlin, clearly written for the sentimental English abolitionist. Ellen Craft is described as bursting into tears a little too often for a woman who held it together while pretending to be a white gentleman for days in the company of other white gentlemen who never suspected a thing. William and Ellen Craft were reluctant to marry and have a family while they were enslaved, and the book starts off with some soul-wrenching tales of parents and children ripped apart for the master's economic convenience. They spent years looking for a way to escape, finally hit on the perfect idea, at the perfect time, when they would both be able to be away for a few days without being missed, and put their plan into action. Mr. Craft secured the clothes his light-skinned wife would need to appear as a Southern white gentleman: tinted glasses, gentleman's clothing, a sling for her arm so she would be unable to sign her name with an excuse of injury, since, being enslaved, the Crafts could not read or write yet. They buy tickets for the first of a series of ferries, boats, and trains that will take them to Pennsylvania, while the first of a series of jerkwads warns Mrs. Craft that she should not bring her enslaved person north because he will use the opportunity to escape. Great book, pretty short, some difficulties escaping America and Canada after they are free. Am interested in reading Master, Slave, Husband, Wife to learn more, but glad they left a record of their own, overly sentimentalized by abolitionist editors as it be.

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being an English major, I had read several of the major slave narratives during my school years. But it was one I read on my own, “12 Years a Slave,” that I still point to as the most compellingly written of the narratives I have read. But Solomon Northup might have some competition from William and Ellen Craft, the husband and wife pair who escaped slavery a mere 8 days after conceiving of their brilliant plan to do so. In this short narrative (which I read alongside a longer book I’ve been reading for two weeks now), William writes (with help from Ellen, who only got co-writing credit afterward) as brutally honest a critique of slavers as I’ve read in a slave narrative. If other narratives contained such cutting (and even sarcastic) language, I’ve forgotten about it. The Crafts write that whites in the American South are more in need of humanity than any other people in any part of the world. They straight up call them monsters. And they absolutely shred masters who impregnate their slaves (cough cough Thomas Jefferson cough cough). They also call out, by name, free state clergymen who came out in support of the Fugitive Slave Law, doxing them for their rank hypocrisy. In the pages before they write about their escape, they relate horror stories of other slaves they had heard about. But the more compelling part is the story of this couple’s daring escape. As Ellen Craft was the daughter of her master and passed for white, they crafted a cunning plan to escape north under the guise of master and manservant. While Ellen’s skin tone was a great help in their escape, it also meant they’d be in close proximity to people who thought the worst of slaves. Ellen had to pretend to own her husband and fool dozens of people this way for an entire week. Their plan was bound to fail at any moment. But thanks to a great deal of commitment to the parts they were playing (and, no doubt, a lot of good luck), they made it safely to Philadelphia. I liked that William seemed to genuinely appreciate that he wouldn’t have made it out without his wife. At that time, even for those fighting for racial equality, it’s not a given that women would be given equal respect, but William seems to understand he’s no better than his partner. They write that, all things considered, they knew of many slaves who were treated worse by their masters than they were. But still, their support of abolition is the main thesis of their narrative. They don’t regale the reader with stories of whippings, but they present a firm and unequivocal defense of abolition. And they do so in a way that explains some aspects of slavery that might be well-known in America, but not in England, where this book was published first. This would be a great book for young readers unfamiliar with this horrible chapter in American history (one of many).

7/10

[Steven Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this at the same time I'm reading Ilyon Woo's book Master Slave Husband Wife. I'm still reading Ms. Woo's book, but both are excellent. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom was written by the husband in the book, William Craft, a slave in the 1840s who along with his wife Ellen devises an incredibly daring plan to escape from slavery in Macon, Georgia and head north to a free state and hopefully their freedom. Ellen's skin color is light because her mother was raped by her owner. Because she can pass for white, their plan is to have Ellen disguise herself as a disabled white male (!) with William along as her slave and caregiver. They do this because a white female could not travel without a white male! Believe it. They will travel by wagon, rail, and ship to get to their destination with many dangers ahead including the possibility of bounty hunters that will attempt to track them down and bring them back. They have to use all of their guile and intelligence in their travels. Their story is amazing. William Craft's writing is very good at telling what it was like for black lives in the 1800's as a slave, and how they managed to survive. Theirs is an important story to read. It is short at less than 100 pages. Read Ilyon Woo's book, too, which is more in depth. Both are excellent. They make nice companion pieces for this incredible story.

[Chris Montez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible but true.

[Jane Burkett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the exciting story of an enslaved husband and wife's escape to freedom. The story is really quite remarkable -- they should make a movie! Unfortunately, the book is also an abolitionist tract bordering on propaganda, published in 1860. There are many long deviations from the storyline intended to persuade the reader of the horrors and injustice of slavery. Being already convinced, I got bored slogging through these sections, even though I did learn some things from them.