William and Ellen Craft

3-7-2012 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom By William Craft and Ellen Craft Beginning in the principal slave bring up of Georgia, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom details the mishap and ultimate escape from slavery of William Kraft and his wife Ellen craft. In December of 1848, two received written passes from their owners allowing them a fewer days away together. They would hasten the most of it and never return to bondage. Ellen craft was the daughter of her first professional and as such was almost white.So much so that aft(prenominal) universe frequently mistaken as a child of the house she was condition to a daughter, her half-sister, as a wedding present when she was 11 geezerhood old. Though both William and Ellens Masters were moderately humane neither could point of view the thought of marriage or children darn world slaves. Ellen in eccentricicular, after being separated from her own mother at such a tender age, could not stomach the thought of her own ch ild being taken away from her in a similar manner. But as they saw no escape from their positions, they eventually were married.William Kraft focuses on the adventure of their escape and how the mindset of American slaveholders seemed to continually oppress his race while giving written appreciation to those who helped in securing their freedom along the way. William, himself, was a cabinet maker who watched as his entire family was sold one by one for money or to pay his masters debt. Through this great concern or more so because of it, he devised a plan to cloak his nearly white wife as an invalid white gentleman and he as a servant slave to him.Leading up to their few days pass, William purchased Ellens overwhelm a piece at a clock from different parts of the city. At the appointed time, she put on trousers, a gentlemans jacket, and a top hat. Some bandages about her face, spectacles, and sling on her composing hand completed the outfit and their journey began. First they b oarded a drive to savannah, Georgia, and then took an omnibus to the steamer bound for Charleston, South Carolina. They traveled by dint of Richmond to Baltimore, with not one person seeing through Ellens disguise though they were questioned several times and both were scared and sleep deprived.Their biggest trial run came in Baltimore while securing tickets to Philadelphia as this was the last port before they would go far in a free state. William was questioned by an officer who saw him on the train and both he and Ellen had to satisfy the man that Ellen, playing the part of a Mr. Johnson, had the right to take his slave to Philadelphia with him for the purpose of seeking checkup advice for Mr. Johnsons supposed rheumatism. Through sheer will and determination they were open to continue this facade and allowed to board the train, where they arrived in the free state of dada on Christmas day.With the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Bill their safety was no longer guaranteed and they left America after two years in Boston. They sailed to England, where they would live in exile for the next 19 years and gain numerous children. They would be abolitionists, teachers, authors, and speakers for the rest of their lives. The author gives thanks to the abolitionists and the anti-slavery movement leadership by including their names and the specific event and manner in which their assistant was given.He directly expresses how he and his wife could not have completed this journey without it. He is very descriptive yet conveys their story not from the spot of a violated victim of slavery- but from an enlightened position of knowledge having overcame the trappings of bondage. It is of particular note the irony and shame of a state founded on the principles of freedom, having fought and died for that cause of escape from England, forcing these honorable human beings to that same outlandish in order to preserve their own freedom.