The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as "his" slave.
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.
