August 20, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1848, William and Ellen Craft were enslaved in Georgia and knew they could not start a family until they were free. Their escape plan was as risky as it was brilliant. Ellen, who was light-skinned, disguised herself as a wealthy white man traveling with an enslaved servant — her husband, William. Together they moved openly through hostile territory, riding trains and steamships toward the North. Every mile carried the threat of exposure, yet their courage and quick thinking brought them to freedom. Doug Peterson, author of The Vanishing Woman, shares the story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. William and Ellen
Craft knew they could never have children until they were free,
so they embarked on one of the greatest escapes in
the history of the underground railroad. Here to tell the
story is the award winning author of ninety six books,
including eight novels, historical comic books, and over forty children's
(00:30):
books for the best selling Veggietail series. Doug Peterson is
the author of The Vanishing Woman, the novel about the
Craft's courageous escape. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ellen's teeth chattered as she pulled the thin blanket around
her shoulders.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
She was cold and terrified.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
In the dim glow of a single candle, she sat
on a stool and watched her husband, William, emerge from
the darkness with a pair of scissors.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And his right hand.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Are you sure of this, William asked. Ellen ran a
hand through her long black hair. Her hair was her glory,
her pride, and without it she would wear shame upon
her head.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
But she had no choice. It had to be done.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The Lord would understand, I'm sure. She felt William's hand
a gentle tugging as he took up her hair. The
first cut, he warned. Ellen heard the metallic snip and
felt another tug, like a fish on the end of
a line. Already her head felt lighter, so strange, so foreign.
(01:37):
She tried to hold back the tears as her long
black hair fell to the floor. So begins the escape
of Ellen and William Kraft, one of the most incredible
escapes in the history of the underground railroad. Ellen attempted
an escape from Making Georgia by pretending to be a
white man while her husband, William, posed as her slave,
(01:59):
and one of the first steps in this transformation was
asking her husband to cut her hair. Ellen Craft's skin
was as white as her master, Major James P.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Smith.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
That's because Major Smith was also her father. Her mother
was a mixed race slave, so that made Ellen a
slave no matter what the color of her skin may be.
Slavery followed the lineage of the mother. But Ellen couldn't
escape by pretending to be a white woman. A woman
could not travel with a male slave, so if her
(02:30):
husband was going with her, she had to pretend to
be a white man. In addition to cutting her hair,
Ellen wore a top hat and men's pants, which William
purchased locally. William was a woodworker hired out in Macon
and allowed to keep a portion of his earnings. However,
a major obstacle remained. It was customary for travelers to
(02:51):
register their names in the visitors books at hotels, as
well as in the custom house book at Charleston, South Carolina,
but Ellen could not write. Ellen's solution was to bind
her right arm in a sling and ask officers to
sign for her. She also decided to wrap a poultice
around her chin like a toothache bandage to hide her smooth,
beardless face. She would tell people she was suffering from rheumatism.
(03:16):
As a finishing touch, she wore green tinted glasses to
conceal her feminine eyes. Ellen grew up in Clinton, Georgia,
not far from Macon. Her half sister, miss Eliza Cromwell Smith,
was ten years older. Eliza and Ellen had the same father,
but different mothers, and that made all the difference in
the world. Eliza's mother, Missus Smith, was white, so Eliza
(03:39):
was free. Sometimes visitors to the house would see Ellen
running around the yard and assume she too, was one
of the free Smith children, creating the most awkward of moments.
Missus Smith was difficult and domineering. When Eliza married the
wealthy doctor Collins from Macon, Missus Smith gave eleven year
old Ellen the news as a wedding present. A wedding present,
(04:04):
her sister took Ellen with them to Macon, putting distance
between them and the indomitable Missus Smith, but the move
also separated her from her beloved mother. In Macon, Ellen
met her husband, William, who later wrote their escape narrative,
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. As William put it,
it is true our condition as slaves was not by
(04:25):
any means the worst. But the mere idea that we
were held as chattels and deprived of all legal rights,
the thought that we could not call the bones and
sinews that God gave us our own. But above all
the fact that another man had the power to tear
from our cradle, the new born babe and then scourge
us if we dared to lift a finger to save
(04:46):
it from such a fate haunted us for years. William
called this division of parent and child the poisonous dagger
of separation. Because of the ever present threat of separation,
Ellen would not agree to have children until they were free.
So as Christmas of eighteen forty eight approached, William came
(05:08):
up with an audacious plan for Ellen to pass herself
off as a white man while he pretended to be
her slave. To set the escape in motion, William and
Ellen each obtained passes to be away for a few
days at Christmas, a practice often allowed by masters in Macon.
Then on September twenty first, eighteen forty eight, the night
(05:29):
before their escape, William cut Ellen's hair square at the
back of the head. When she put on her complete disguise,
William said, I found that she made the most respectable
looking gentlemen. When it came time for them to start,
he said, we blew out the lights, knelt down and
prayed to our heavenly Father mercifully to assist as he
(05:51):
did as people of old.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
To escape from cruel bondage.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
At the Macon train station, Ellen boarded the whites only car,
while William rout in the baggage car where slaves and
free blacks were relegated. Peering through the window of the
baggage car, William was shot to see a man who
worked alongside at the woodworkers shop. This man appeared to
be searching for someone on the train, fully believing.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
We were caught.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
William said that I shrank into a corner, turned my
face from the door, and expected in a moment to
be dragged out as the Lord's mercy would have it.
The bell rang before the cabinet maker could peer into
the baggage car, and the train moved off. William breathed
a sigh of relief, but not Ellen. As the train
took off for Savannah, she faced a problem of her own.
(06:38):
Ellen was terror stricken to see mister Cray, an old
friend of her master, enter the train car and sit
down next to her. Mister Cray had dined with the
family of Ellen's master the night before. It's a fine morning, sir,
mister Cray said to Ellen. Ellen just stared out the window.
She didn't turn, didn't move, didn't answer. She prayed for
(07:02):
mister Craig to go silent. I said, it's a very
fine morning, sir. Probably the entire coach.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Heard those words.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
A man in the road directly in front of them laughed,
and Ellen sensed growing agitation. To mister Craig, you're wasting
your breath, Mistres, said the man in the next row.
I think the poor guy's mostly deaf. Ellen felt a
gentle tap on her shoulder, and she knew she had
to respond in some way, so she turned and looked
directly at him.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yes it is, Yes, it is.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Then she turned back to the window and resumed staring out.
Mister Cray gave up talking to her. From that point on,
she had passed her first test.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
When the train.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Reached Savannah, Ellen and William boarded a steamer to Charleston.
While Ellen excused herself to retire to the cabin, William
went to the kitchen to warm the flannels and treat
them with opodeldoc, a foul smelling medicine standard treatment for
someone with rheumatism. William and Ellen needed to keep up appearances.
(08:06):
The steward said there was no place for slaves or
free blocks to sleep, so William paced the deck until
he climbed a mound of cotton and curled up near
the ship's funnel. In the morning, Ellen had breakfast in
a saloon with the other gentlemen people she would be
serving under normal conditions. Because of Ellen's slaying, William cut
up her food. You have an attentive slave, noted the
(08:30):
ship's captain, If you want to sell that slave, I
am your man. Just to name your price. If it
isn't out of the way, I will pay for him
with hard silver dollars. I don't wish to sell, sir,
Ellen said, deepening her voice. I cannot get on well
without him. When Ellen said thank you to William for
cutting her food, a military officer leaned across the table.
(08:53):
You'll excuse me, sir for saying, but I think you
are very likely to spoil your slave by saying thank
you to him. The way to make him toe the
mark is a storm of him like thunder.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And you've been listening to Doug Peterson tell the story
of William and Ellen Craft. They were pulling off well,
one of the great masquerades of all time, to pursue
their freedom. When we come back, more of this remarkable
story here on our American story and we continue with
(09:40):
our American stories and the story of William and Ellen Craft.
And telling the story is Doug Peterson. He's the author
of The Vanishing Woman, the novel about Craft's escape, one
of the greatest escapes in the history of the underground railroad.
Let's pick up where we last left.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
When William and Ellen arrived in Charleston, the plan was
to take another steamer directly to Philadelphia. Imagine their shock
when they found that the vessel didn't run to Philadelphia
during the winter, so they headed for the custom house
near the wharf to buy tickets to.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Wilmington, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
When the customs man handed the tickets to Allen, he
pointed to the register and commanded her to sign her
name and pay the dollar duty for her slave. I'm
unable to do it, Ellen said, motioning toward her sling.
Fy it. The customs man slapped his hand palm down
on the register opened in front of Ellen. Then a
(10:40):
voice spoke up, A familiar voice. What's the problem here,
I know this man. Ellen saw with surprise that the
voice belonged to the young military officer from the steamboat.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You see his arm in a sling.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
The officer said, you have eyes, don't you You mean
you know this fellow, the customs man asked, softening in
the presence of the two officers. He's mister Johnson, of course,
mister William Johnson. I know his kin like I know
a book, so I suggest you let him through if
you know it's good for you. Ellen had introduced herself
(11:13):
on the steamboat as William Johnson. Then the captain of
all people stepped forward and volunteered to sign for Ellen.
The customs man finally back down, and the crafts continued
their journey to freedom. After the steamboat reached Wilmington, Ellen
and William took the train to Richmond, Virginia. Several passengers
(11:35):
lavish comfort on Ellen because of her rheumatism, encouraging her
to lie down while the ladies use their extra shawls
to make a pillow for her head. In Richmond, Ellen
nearly lost her composure when an elderly lady spotted William
on the train station platform and shouted, bless my soul,
there goes my boy ned. The lady was certain that
(11:57):
William was her escaped slave, but Ellen quickly corrected the
mistake and the old woman withdrew her claim. The real
trouble didn't arise until they reached Baltimore, the last slave
port of any.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Note on their route.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
On arriving there, we felt more anxious than ever, because
we knew not what the last dark knight would bring forth.
William later wrote, it is true we were near the goal,
but our poor hearts were as if tossed at sea.
According to William, they are particularly watchful at Baltimore to
prevent slaves from escaping into Pennsylvania, which is a free state.
(12:34):
After William helped Ellen onto the train carriage, a full
blooded Yankee rushed up to him, tapped him on the shoulder,
and demanded.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Where are you going, boy?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
To Philadelphia? Sir William replied, but what are you going
there for? I'm traveling with my master, who is in
the next carriage. Sir Well, I calculate you had better
get him out and be mighty quick about it, because
the train will soon be starting. It is against my
rules to let anyone take a slave past here unless
he can satisfy them in the office that he has
(13:06):
a right to take him along. William was terrified that
they were going to be stopped so close to freedom,
but as he put.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It, it soon occurred to me.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
That the good God, who had been with us thus far,
would not forsake us at the eleventh hour. The conversation
attracted the attention of other passengers, who thought the officer
was burdening a poor, invalid gentleman. Embolded by the support
of the crowd, Ellen said, I bought tickets in Charleston
to pass us through to Philadelphia, and therefore you have
(13:37):
no right to detain us here. For a few minutes,
perfect silence prevailed, this officer had the power to throw
them into prison. Suddenly the bell rang for the train
to leave.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
All at once.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The officer thrust his fingers through his hair and said,
I really don't know what to do. I calculated its
all right if you bored, and Ellen darted for the
train before the man could change his mind, and before
the train could leave without them.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
The next stop Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
By the time they pulled into the Philadelphia station, the
full light of Christmas morning had crept across the land.
He stood in the doorway and looked down in the
crowd for anyone who might be searching for two runaway
slaves from Georgia. Then he took the plunge and walked
into freedom. As William said in his narrative, we poured
out our heartfelt gratitude to God for his goodness in
(14:31):
enabling us to overcome so many perilous difficulties in escaping
out of the jaws of the wicked. William and Ellen
had reached freedom and they soon departed for Boston, where
they would put more distance between themselves and the nearest
slave state. But they weren't entirely out.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Of the jaws of the wicked.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
In eighteen fifty, Congress passed a Fugitive Slave Bill, which
required citizens in the Free States to assist in returning
fugitives back to the South. Anxious Bostonians met at the
African Meeting House on October fourth and organized a League
of Freedom. Lewis Hayden was elected president and William Craft
became vice president. While many fled to Canada, William refused
(15:16):
to flee Boston because, as he put it, our people
have been pursued long enough.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
If I can't live here and be free, I will die.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Meanwhile, Ellen's master, mister Collins, sent two slave hunters from
Macon to Boston to nab William and Ellen and drag
them back to slavery. The slave hunters were Willis Hughes,
the Macon town jailer, and John Knight, the man who
once worked in the woodshop alongside William. William was stunned
when Knight showed up out of the blue at his
(15:46):
Boston cabinet makers shop, acting as if they were old
friends reunited. Knight asked William if he could take him
on a tour of Boston, but William didn't fall for
the ruse, so Knight invited William and Ellen to meet
him at the United States Hotel where he was staying. Again,
they didn't fall for it. When the Crafts didn't show
(16:06):
up at the hotel, Knight and Hughes went off in
search of a judge or United States commissioner who would
issue a warrant for their arrest. Boston's Vigilance Committee sprang
into action, putting obstacles in the path of the slave hunters.
Two lawyers had Hughes and Knight arrested for slandering William Kraft.
The slave catchers were soon freed on bail, but the
(16:27):
Vigilance Committee was only getting started. The committee had Knight
and Hughes arrested again and again for slandering Ellen, for
damaging William's business, for smoking in the streets, for carrying
concealed weapons, for driving too fast right sterling. Every time
they were arrested, they were bailed out by pro slavery friends,
(16:50):
but once they were back on the streets of Boston,
members of the Vigilance Committee hounded them. This led to
a dramatic climax when the slave hunters arrived at the
Hayden house only to find two kegs of gunpowder on
the front porch. I'll blow us all up before we
let you take William Craft back into slavery, Hayden told
the slave catchers. To prove his intentions, Hayden lit a
(17:13):
torch and held it perilously close to the kegs of gunpowder.
That night, the two slave catchers gave up and were
soon on a train back to Macon, Georgia. William and
Ellen Craft had survived for now. Robert Collins appealed to
President Fillmore to get the Crafts back, and when the
newspaper said the President was sending troops to Boston, William
(17:35):
and Ellen decided to lead the country. In the throes
of winter, they traveled to Canada, putting them out of
reach of the slave hunters. From there they sailed to Liverpool, England.
In England, they became celebrities of a sort, meeting with writers, entertainers,
and even a famous astronomer who let them view the
solar system through his telescope. They had certainly come a
(17:56):
long way from Macon, Georgia, Him and Ellen finally settled
in Ockham, a small English village, where they learned to
read and write.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Ellen also became pregnant. Three years earlier, they had.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Escaped from Macon because Ellen would not give birth to
a child in slavery.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
But now they received their greatest reward.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
This was what it was all for, she told William
before she gave in to the tears. His name Charles
Estlyn Phillips Kraft. The names were given in honor of
the friends who had helped them along the way. William
and Allen returned to America in eighteen sixty nine after
nineteen years in England. They rented a farm, the Hickory
(18:38):
Hill Plantation in South Carolina and started a school, But
in eighteen seventy, the ku Klux Klan burned down their house, barn,
and school, so they salvaged what they could and moved
to Savannah. They started a new school in Woodville, Georgia,
modeled after the Okham School in England. William and Allen
retired in Charleston, South Carolina, and their daughter Ellen Kraft
(19:00):
Crumb went on to become a prominent civil rights leader,
founding the National Federation of Afro American Women. Ellen passed
away in eighteen ninety seven at the age of seventy
one and was buried beneath her favorite pine tree in Woodville, Georgia.
William followed her to glory in nineteen hundred. They had
five biological children, three adopted African children, and many descendants,
(19:26):
all of one.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Blood and a terrific job on the production, editing and
storytelling by our own Greg Hengler and a special thanks
to Doug Peterson. It should be a movie for goodness sakes,
just the travel alone that twists, that turns, the fear,
that final stop in Baltimore. With God at their back
(19:49):
hand on their side, they got to freedom and ultimately
to England. The story of the woman who pretended to
be a white man as her husband posed as her slave.
That is the story of William and Ellen Craft Here
on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. William and Ellen
Craft knew they could never have children until they were free,
so they embarked on one of the greatest escapes in
the history of the underground railroad. Here to tell the
story is the award winning author of ninety six books,
including eight novels, historical comic books, and over forty children's
(00:30):
books for the best selling Veggietail series. Doug Peterson is
the author of The Vanishing Woman, the novel about the
Craft's courageous escape. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ellen's teeth chattered as she pulled the thin blanket around
her shoulders.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
She was cold and terrified.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
In the dim glow of a single candle, she sat
on a stool and watched her husband, William, emerge from
the darkness with a pair of scissors.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And his right hand.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Are you sure of this, William asked. Ellen ran a
hand through her long black hair. Her hair was her glory,
her pride, and without it she would wear shame upon
her head.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
But she had no choice. It had to be done.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The Lord would understand, I'm sure. She felt William's hand
a gentle tugging as he took up her hair. The
first cut, he warned. Ellen heard the metallic snip and
felt another tug, like a fish on the end of
a line. Already her head felt lighter, so strange, so foreign.
(01:37):
She tried to hold back the tears as her long
black hair fell to the floor. So begins the escape
of Ellen and William Kraft, one of the most incredible
escapes in the history of the underground railroad. Ellen attempted
an escape from Making Georgia by pretending to be a
white man while her husband, William, posed as her slave,
(01:59):
and one of the first steps in this transformation was
asking her husband to cut her hair. Ellen Craft's skin
was as white as her master, Major James P.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Smith.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
That's because Major Smith was also her father. Her mother
was a mixed race slave, so that made Ellen a
slave no matter what the color of her skin may be.
Slavery followed the lineage of the mother. But Ellen couldn't
escape by pretending to be a white woman. A woman
could not travel with a male slave, so if her
(02:30):
husband was going with her, she had to pretend to
be a white man. In addition to cutting her hair,
Ellen wore a top hat and men's pants, which William
purchased locally. William was a woodworker hired out in Macon
and allowed to keep a portion of his earnings. However,
a major obstacle remained. It was customary for travelers to
(02:51):
register their names in the visitors books at hotels, as
well as in the custom house book at Charleston, South Carolina,
but Ellen could not write. Ellen's solution was to bind
her right arm in a sling and ask officers to
sign for her. She also decided to wrap a poultice
around her chin like a toothache bandage to hide her smooth,
beardless face. She would tell people she was suffering from rheumatism.
(03:16):
As a finishing touch, she wore green tinted glasses to
conceal her feminine eyes. Ellen grew up in Clinton, Georgia,
not far from Macon. Her half sister, miss Eliza Cromwell Smith,
was ten years older. Eliza and Ellen had the same father,
but different mothers, and that made all the difference in
the world. Eliza's mother, Missus Smith, was white, so Eliza
(03:39):
was free. Sometimes visitors to the house would see Ellen
running around the yard and assume she too, was one
of the free Smith children, creating the most awkward of moments.
Missus Smith was difficult and domineering. When Eliza married the
wealthy doctor Collins from Macon, Missus Smith gave eleven year
old Ellen the news as a wedding present. A wedding present,
(04:04):
her sister took Ellen with them to Macon, putting distance
between them and the indomitable Missus Smith, but the move
also separated her from her beloved mother. In Macon, Ellen
met her husband, William, who later wrote their escape narrative,
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. As William put it,
it is true our condition as slaves was not by
(04:25):
any means the worst. But the mere idea that we
were held as chattels and deprived of all legal rights,
the thought that we could not call the bones and
sinews that God gave us our own. But above all
the fact that another man had the power to tear
from our cradle, the new born babe and then scourge
us if we dared to lift a finger to save
(04:46):
it from such a fate haunted us for years. William
called this division of parent and child the poisonous dagger
of separation. Because of the ever present threat of separation,
Ellen would not agree to have children until they were free.
So as Christmas of eighteen forty eight approached, William came
(05:08):
up with an audacious plan for Ellen to pass herself
off as a white man while he pretended to be
her slave. To set the escape in motion, William and
Ellen each obtained passes to be away for a few
days at Christmas, a practice often allowed by masters in Macon.
Then on September twenty first, eighteen forty eight, the night
(05:29):
before their escape, William cut Ellen's hair square at the
back of the head. When she put on her complete disguise,
William said, I found that she made the most respectable
looking gentlemen. When it came time for them to start,
he said, we blew out the lights, knelt down and
prayed to our heavenly Father mercifully to assist as he
(05:51):
did as people of old.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
To escape from cruel bondage.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
At the Macon train station, Ellen boarded the whites only car,
while William rout in the baggage car where slaves and
free blacks were relegated. Peering through the window of the
baggage car, William was shot to see a man who
worked alongside at the woodworkers shop. This man appeared to
be searching for someone on the train, fully believing.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
We were caught.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
William said that I shrank into a corner, turned my
face from the door, and expected in a moment to
be dragged out as the Lord's mercy would have it.
The bell rang before the cabinet maker could peer into
the baggage car, and the train moved off. William breathed
a sigh of relief, but not Ellen. As the train
took off for Savannah, she faced a problem of her own.
(06:38):
Ellen was terror stricken to see mister Cray, an old
friend of her master, enter the train car and sit
down next to her. Mister Cray had dined with the
family of Ellen's master the night before. It's a fine morning, sir,
mister Cray said to Ellen. Ellen just stared out the window.
She didn't turn, didn't move, didn't answer. She prayed for
(07:02):
mister Craig to go silent. I said, it's a very
fine morning, sir. Probably the entire coach.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Heard those words.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
A man in the road directly in front of them laughed,
and Ellen sensed growing agitation. To mister Craig, you're wasting
your breath, Mistres, said the man in the next row.
I think the poor guy's mostly deaf. Ellen felt a
gentle tap on her shoulder, and she knew she had
to respond in some way, so she turned and looked
directly at him.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yes it is, Yes, it is.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Then she turned back to the window and resumed staring out.
Mister Cray gave up talking to her. From that point on,
she had passed her first test.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
When the train.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Reached Savannah, Ellen and William boarded a steamer to Charleston.
While Ellen excused herself to retire to the cabin, William
went to the kitchen to warm the flannels and treat
them with opodeldoc, a foul smelling medicine standard treatment for
someone with rheumatism. William and Ellen needed to keep up appearances.
(08:06):
The steward said there was no place for slaves or
free blocks to sleep, so William paced the deck until
he climbed a mound of cotton and curled up near
the ship's funnel. In the morning, Ellen had breakfast in
a saloon with the other gentlemen people she would be
serving under normal conditions. Because of Ellen's slaying, William cut
up her food. You have an attentive slave, noted the
(08:30):
ship's captain, If you want to sell that slave, I
am your man. Just to name your price. If it
isn't out of the way, I will pay for him
with hard silver dollars. I don't wish to sell, sir,
Ellen said, deepening her voice. I cannot get on well
without him. When Ellen said thank you to William for
cutting her food, a military officer leaned across the table.
(08:53):
You'll excuse me, sir for saying, but I think you
are very likely to spoil your slave by saying thank
you to him. The way to make him toe the
mark is a storm of him like thunder.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And you've been listening to Doug Peterson tell the story
of William and Ellen Craft. They were pulling off well,
one of the great masquerades of all time, to pursue
their freedom. When we come back, more of this remarkable
story here on our American story and we continue with
(09:40):
our American stories and the story of William and Ellen Craft.
And telling the story is Doug Peterson. He's the author
of The Vanishing Woman, the novel about Craft's escape, one
of the greatest escapes in the history of the underground railroad.
Let's pick up where we last left.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
When William and Ellen arrived in Charleston, the plan was
to take another steamer directly to Philadelphia. Imagine their shock
when they found that the vessel didn't run to Philadelphia
during the winter, so they headed for the custom house
near the wharf to buy tickets to.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Wilmington, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
When the customs man handed the tickets to Allen, he
pointed to the register and commanded her to sign her
name and pay the dollar duty for her slave. I'm
unable to do it, Ellen said, motioning toward her sling.
Fy it. The customs man slapped his hand palm down
on the register opened in front of Ellen. Then a
(10:40):
voice spoke up, A familiar voice. What's the problem here,
I know this man. Ellen saw with surprise that the
voice belonged to the young military officer from the steamboat.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You see his arm in a sling.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
The officer said, you have eyes, don't you You mean
you know this fellow, the customs man asked, softening in
the presence of the two officers. He's mister Johnson, of course,
mister William Johnson. I know his kin like I know
a book, so I suggest you let him through if
you know it's good for you. Ellen had introduced herself
(11:13):
on the steamboat as William Johnson. Then the captain of
all people stepped forward and volunteered to sign for Ellen.
The customs man finally back down, and the crafts continued
their journey to freedom. After the steamboat reached Wilmington, Ellen
and William took the train to Richmond, Virginia. Several passengers
(11:35):
lavish comfort on Ellen because of her rheumatism, encouraging her
to lie down while the ladies use their extra shawls
to make a pillow for her head. In Richmond, Ellen
nearly lost her composure when an elderly lady spotted William
on the train station platform and shouted, bless my soul,
there goes my boy ned. The lady was certain that
(11:57):
William was her escaped slave, but Ellen quickly corrected the
mistake and the old woman withdrew her claim. The real
trouble didn't arise until they reached Baltimore, the last slave
port of any.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Note on their route.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
On arriving there, we felt more anxious than ever, because
we knew not what the last dark knight would bring forth.
William later wrote, it is true we were near the goal,
but our poor hearts were as if tossed at sea.
According to William, they are particularly watchful at Baltimore to
prevent slaves from escaping into Pennsylvania, which is a free state.
(12:34):
After William helped Ellen onto the train carriage, a full
blooded Yankee rushed up to him, tapped him on the shoulder,
and demanded.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Where are you going, boy?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
To Philadelphia? Sir William replied, but what are you going
there for? I'm traveling with my master, who is in
the next carriage. Sir Well, I calculate you had better
get him out and be mighty quick about it, because
the train will soon be starting. It is against my
rules to let anyone take a slave past here unless
he can satisfy them in the office that he has
(13:06):
a right to take him along. William was terrified that
they were going to be stopped so close to freedom,
but as he put.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It, it soon occurred to me.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
That the good God, who had been with us thus far,
would not forsake us at the eleventh hour. The conversation
attracted the attention of other passengers, who thought the officer
was burdening a poor, invalid gentleman. Embolded by the support
of the crowd, Ellen said, I bought tickets in Charleston
to pass us through to Philadelphia, and therefore you have
(13:37):
no right to detain us here. For a few minutes,
perfect silence prevailed, this officer had the power to throw
them into prison. Suddenly the bell rang for the train
to leave.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
All at once.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The officer thrust his fingers through his hair and said,
I really don't know what to do. I calculated its
all right if you bored, and Ellen darted for the
train before the man could change his mind, and before
the train could leave without them.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
The next stop Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
By the time they pulled into the Philadelphia station, the
full light of Christmas morning had crept across the land.
He stood in the doorway and looked down in the
crowd for anyone who might be searching for two runaway
slaves from Georgia. Then he took the plunge and walked
into freedom. As William said in his narrative, we poured
out our heartfelt gratitude to God for his goodness in
(14:31):
enabling us to overcome so many perilous difficulties in escaping
out of the jaws of the wicked. William and Ellen
had reached freedom and they soon departed for Boston, where
they would put more distance between themselves and the nearest
slave state. But they weren't entirely out.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Of the jaws of the wicked.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
In eighteen fifty, Congress passed a Fugitive Slave Bill, which
required citizens in the Free States to assist in returning
fugitives back to the South. Anxious Bostonians met at the
African Meeting House on October fourth and organized a League
of Freedom. Lewis Hayden was elected president and William Craft
became vice president. While many fled to Canada, William refused
(15:16):
to flee Boston because, as he put it, our people
have been pursued long enough.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
If I can't live here and be free, I will die.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Meanwhile, Ellen's master, mister Collins, sent two slave hunters from
Macon to Boston to nab William and Ellen and drag
them back to slavery. The slave hunters were Willis Hughes,
the Macon town jailer, and John Knight, the man who
once worked in the woodshop alongside William. William was stunned
when Knight showed up out of the blue at his
(15:46):
Boston cabinet makers shop, acting as if they were old
friends reunited. Knight asked William if he could take him
on a tour of Boston, but William didn't fall for
the ruse, so Knight invited William and Ellen to meet
him at the United States Hotel where he was staying. Again,
they didn't fall for it. When the Crafts didn't show
(16:06):
up at the hotel, Knight and Hughes went off in
search of a judge or United States commissioner who would
issue a warrant for their arrest. Boston's Vigilance Committee sprang
into action, putting obstacles in the path of the slave hunters.
Two lawyers had Hughes and Knight arrested for slandering William Kraft.
The slave catchers were soon freed on bail, but the
(16:27):
Vigilance Committee was only getting started. The committee had Knight
and Hughes arrested again and again for slandering Ellen, for
damaging William's business, for smoking in the streets, for carrying
concealed weapons, for driving too fast right sterling. Every time
they were arrested, they were bailed out by pro slavery friends,
(16:50):
but once they were back on the streets of Boston,
members of the Vigilance Committee hounded them. This led to
a dramatic climax when the slave hunters arrived at the
Hayden house only to find two kegs of gunpowder on
the front porch. I'll blow us all up before we
let you take William Craft back into slavery, Hayden told
the slave catchers. To prove his intentions, Hayden lit a
(17:13):
torch and held it perilously close to the kegs of gunpowder.
That night, the two slave catchers gave up and were
soon on a train back to Macon, Georgia. William and
Ellen Craft had survived for now. Robert Collins appealed to
President Fillmore to get the Crafts back, and when the
newspaper said the President was sending troops to Boston, William
(17:35):
and Ellen decided to lead the country. In the throes
of winter, they traveled to Canada, putting them out of
reach of the slave hunters. From there they sailed to Liverpool, England.
In England, they became celebrities of a sort, meeting with writers, entertainers,
and even a famous astronomer who let them view the
solar system through his telescope. They had certainly come a
(17:56):
long way from Macon, Georgia, Him and Ellen finally settled
in Ockham, a small English village, where they learned to
read and write.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Ellen also became pregnant. Three years earlier, they had.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Escaped from Macon because Ellen would not give birth to
a child in slavery.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
But now they received their greatest reward.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
This was what it was all for, she told William
before she gave in to the tears. His name Charles
Estlyn Phillips Kraft. The names were given in honor of
the friends who had helped them along the way. William
and Allen returned to America in eighteen sixty nine after
nineteen years in England. They rented a farm, the Hickory
(18:38):
Hill Plantation in South Carolina and started a school, But
in eighteen seventy, the ku Klux Klan burned down their house, barn,
and school, so they salvaged what they could and moved
to Savannah. They started a new school in Woodville, Georgia,
modeled after the Okham School in England. William and Allen
retired in Charleston, South Carolina, and their daughter Ellen Kraft
(19:00):
Crumb went on to become a prominent civil rights leader,
founding the National Federation of Afro American Women. Ellen passed
away in eighteen ninety seven at the age of seventy
one and was buried beneath her favorite pine tree in Woodville, Georgia.
William followed her to glory in nineteen hundred. They had
five biological children, three adopted African children, and many descendants,
(19:26):
all of one.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Blood and a terrific job on the production, editing and
storytelling by our own Greg Hengler and a special thanks
to Doug Peterson. It should be a movie for goodness sakes,
just the travel alone that twists, that turns, the fear,
that final stop in Baltimore. With God at their back
(19:49):
hand on their side, they got to freedom and ultimately
to England. The story of the woman who pretended to
be a white man as her husband posed as her slave.
That is the story of William and Ellen Craft Here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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