William and Ellen Craft were a married couple in Georgia. They had two different enslavers, but they had been given permission to marry. In some ways, they were very lucky, because they had skills as a carpenter (William) and a seamstress (Mary) that made their lives much easier than if they were forced to work in the fields. However, this didn't protect them from the harrowing ordeal of having your family torn apart at auction when an enslaver died, was short of money, or felt like getting rid of his slaves--which happened to both Ellen's and William's families. It was probably this fear that pushed them escape when they did. In fact, Ellen did not want to have children with William because of the fear of having that child taken from her.
There were many slaves fleeing their captivity, but Ellen and William Craft stand out for the way they escaped. Ellen's mother was half white, and her father was her mother's enslaver (not uncommon, at all), so Ellen had very light skin and had been mistaken as white often before. In fact, it enraged the mistress of the house that Ellen was sometimes mistaken for one of her own children. When Ellen's half-sister was married, Ellen was given to her half-sister as a wedding present, even though she was still a young child. Ellen left her mother and moved with her half-sister to her new husband's house in another town.
So, Ellen could pass for white, but a white woman could not travel alone with a black man. So, they decided that Ellen would dress as a white slave master, and William would be "his" slave. They made her into a young invalid man with a broken arm, so she wouldn't have to sign anything--as it had been illegal for her to learn to read or write. Then they daringly took trains and ferries up the long journey North. They told no one and had no one helping them. This was one of the most exciting parts of the book. The journey was harrowing and stressful, and they faced dire consequences if they were caught.
Once they arrived in Boston, Ellen and William connected with antislavery groups and began a circuit of lectures up North. Ellen was especially sought after because of her skin tone and was sometimes billed as the "white slave." I did think the book slowed down here a bit. Although it was interesting to get a glimpse of the antislavery movement, I lost interest in the details of every lecture.
But in 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, a desperate bone thrown to the Southern states to keep them from seceding. This act required Northern states to assist in bringing fugitive slaves back to captivity in the South. Suddenly, enslavers were back up North, specifically trying to capture William and Ellen and drag them back into slavery. This part of the book was just as fascinating as their escape. The lengths the antislavery people went to in order to keep them from being sent back into slavery was impressive. Also, I learned about the Fugitive Slave Act in school, but reading how it directly impacted and threatened the lives of two people you've been rooting for the entire book was very powerful.
Because Ellen and William were no longer safe up North, they took a ship to England where they spent some more time lecturing. Once again, I was not as engrossed in the lectures, but it was interesting to read about their experiences in England--where slavery had been abolished and race had different connotations.
Sometimes this book struggled because there was simply not enough historical information. Woo could find plenty of information on the Crafts' enslavers, but there was relatively little on the Crafts themselves--even though they'd written a book about their experiences. In addition, Woo sometimes used Ellen and William as a jumping off point to hit on other important historical aspects of slavery. This included the Fugitive Slave Act, other daring escapes of the time, the treatment of slaves, and the auctioning off of families. I feel like I learned a lot. Despite some of the slower portions of this book, I do think this book was worth reading.
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