by Ilyon Woo
"A rich narrative of the Crafts, an enslaved couple who escaped from Georgia in 1848, with light-skinned Ellen disguised as a disabled white gentleman and William as her manservant, exploiting assumptions about race, class, and disability to hide in public on their journey to the North, where they became famous abolitionists while evading bounty hunters." —The Pulitzer Prizes
Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, and Oprah Daily
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.
Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.
But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.
With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation's core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us even now.
"A rich narrative of the Crafts, an enslaved couple who escaped from Georgia in 1848, with light-skinned Ellen disguised as a disabled white gentleman and William as her manservant, exploiting assumptions about race, class, and disability to hide in public on their journey to the North, where they became famous abolitionists while evading bounty hunters." —The Pulitzer Prizes
Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, and Oprah Daily
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.
Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.
But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.
With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation's core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us even now.
Reviews-
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August 1, 2022
Recipient of a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Writing Grant, Woo ( The Great Divorce) tells the story of an enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, who achieved freedom by traveling openly from Georgia to the North, with the fair-skinned Ellen disguised as a young white male cotton planter accompanied by the enslaved William. Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act forced them to flee again, this time to England.
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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September 19, 2022
Historian Woo (The Great Divorce) seamlessly knits together an in-depth portrait of antebellum America and a thrilling account of an enslaved couple’s escape to freedom. In 1848, William and Ellen Craft, a dark-skinned cabinet maker and his wife, a light-skinned maid owned by her half-sister, escaped from Macon, Ga., to Philadelphia by hiding in plain sight. Ellen disguised herself as a young and wealthy, yet sickly, white gentleman, while William posed as her servant. Traveling more than 1,000 miles in four days on steamships, carriages, and trains, the couple experienced close calls (William’s employer searched their train before it left Macon, but did not recognize Ellen in her disguise and ran out of time before reaching William in the “Negro car”) and amusing ironies (two young women accompanying their elderly father swooned over Ellen). After the Crafts reached New England and joined the abolitionist lecture circuit, their former enslavers tried to reclaim them through the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, but the couple fled to Canada and then England. Throughout, Woo expertly portrays the gruesome details of slave auctions; the rigors of the antislavery lecture circuit, where protestors subjected speakers to the “abolitionist baptism” of “rotten eggs and fist-sized stones”; and the exploits of antislavery activists including William Still and Mifflin Wistar Gibbs. This novelistic history soars. Agent: Julie Barer, the Book Group. -
December 1, 2022
In the years before the American Civil War, the abolitionist movement thrived on narratives of self-emancipated people, who could recount from their own experience the physical and emotional tolls of slavery and the risks they took to flee from it. Here, Woo (The Great Divorce) recounts the lives of one such enslaved couple, little remembered today despite publishing their narrative in 1860. William and Ellen Craft escaped slavery by disguising the fair-skinned Ellen as a wealthy white man traveling with William as her enslaved attendant. Both skilled craftspeople, the Crafts hoped to make a home in Boston, where they connected with abolitionist activists and shared their story with enraptured audiences. Ellen's former enslaver, determined to pursue the couple, eventually forced the Crafts to immigrate to the United Kingdom, where they found work as lecturers and teachers. At every step of their journey, they were sustained by bravery, determination, and their firm love for each other. Never losing sight of slavery's quotidian horrors, this book tells a quintessentially American story of Black love, courage, and agency.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from December 1, 2022
Historian Woo (The Great Divorce) details the daring plan that William (1824-1900) and Ellen Craft (1826-91) executed to escape the institution of slavery. The two started in Macon, GA, where they had two different enslavers. Ellen, a light-complexioned woman, dressed in the finery of a Southern, disabled man, and William, her husband, acted as her loyal servant, as they set out on a four-day, 1,000-mile journey to Philadelphia. Once there, the Crafts began a grueling tour with abolitionist speakers, where their story thrilled audiences. Eventually they settled in Boston, but the appearance of Georgia hunters, looking to return them to their enslavers, forced their move to Canada and then Britain. After the Civil War, the Crafts returned to the United States. In this superbly researched and masterfully written book, Woo gives William and Ellen Craft's story the detailed attention it so richly deserves. She expertly places their tale, especially their experiences as abolitionist speakers facing hostile and sometimes violent crowds, in the social conditions of antebellum America. VERDICT Readers interested in studies about the enslaved, abolitionism, and antebellum history should read this insightful new work.--Chad E. Statler
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from November 15, 2022
An engaging tale of one enslaved couple's journey to freedom and a love that conquered all. What do enduring love and devotion look like, and how can determined lovers overcome their circumstances? Woo, the author of The Great Divorce, answers those questions by taking readers on a gripping adventure with Ellen Craft (1826-1891) and William Craft (1824-1900), who risked their lives to escape slavery in Georgia in 1848. Refreshingly, the text "is not fictionalized. Every description and line of dialogue originates in historic sources, beginning with the Crafts' own 1860 account, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom." With debates about slavery raging nationally, the Crafts slipped away, beginning a long, arduous journey to claim their emancipation. "No Underground Railroad assisted them out of the South," writes the author. "They moved like clockwork harnessing the latest technologies of their day: steamboats, stagecoaches, and, above all, an actual railroad, riding tracks laid by the enslaved, empowered by their disguise as master and slave, by the reality of their love as husband and wife." Ellen, who "could pass for White," disguised herself as wealthy "invalid" Mr. Johnson, and William played the role of Johnson's devoted slave. Along their journey from Macon, Georgia, and up through Philadelphia, Boston, and Halifax, they evaded nosy onlookers and determined slave catchers working under the aegis of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Crafts also joined the abolitionist speaking circuit. Speaking to packed halls, they risked being caught and returned to their owners, one of whom was Ellen's half sister. Sheltered and celebrated by local abolitionists, the Crafts learned to trust those working within the abolitionist system. They agreed to lead public lives, and eventually, they landed in England, where they settled, started a family, and continued to share their story. Throughout, Woo's narrative is suspenseful and wonderfully told. A captivating tale that ably captures the determination and courage of a remarkable couple.COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
