Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom

Abstract

In this short work of 1860, William Craft (c.1825–1900), assisted by his wife Ellen (c.1825–91), recounts the remarkable story of how they escaped from slavery in America. Having married as slaves in Georgia, yet unwilling to raise a family in servitude, the couple came up with a plan to disguise the light-skinned Ellen as a man, with William acting as her slave, and to travel to the north in late 1848. This compelling narrative traces their successful journey to Philadelphia and their subsequent move to Boston, where they became involved in abolitionist activities. Later, the couple sought greater safety in England, where they lived for a number of years and had five children. A success upon its first appearance, the book touches on the themes of race, gender and class in mid-nineteenth-century America, offering modern readers a first-hand account of how barriers to freedom could be overcome.

Women Philosophers in Nineteenth-Century Britain

“…For example, take Ellen Craft. She and her husband William escaped from slavery, emigrated to Britain, gained an education (assisted by Martineau), and wrote a narrative of their escape, which although told only from William's perspective was actually co-authored by Ellen (see Craft 1860).…”

Eurocentrism, Racism and Knowledge

“…Du Bois homestead in Massachusetts is commemorated with a small monument. There are far fewer sites dedicated to 'great women' of African American history though there is the Harriet Tubman museum in Georgia, where the fascinating story of the escape from slavery of Ellen Craft and her husband is told (Craft and Craft, 1999). Another Harriet Tubman museum can be found in Maryland.…”

Democratic Indignation

“…It quenched my tears, and appeared to set my brain on fire, and made me crave for power to avenge our wrongs!" 15 James Baldwin's phrase for this "fiery indignation" that goes "seething through [the] brain" is "the rage of the disesteemed." It is, he writes, "personally fruitless, but it is also absolutely inevitable; this rage, so generally discounted, so little understood even among the people whose daily bread it is, is one of the things that makes history.…”