February 16, 2011 • 29 mins
When Ellen and her husband William made their escape from a life of slavery in Georgia, they traversed over 1,000 miles to reach freedom. In this episode, Deblina and Sarah recount the astonishing journey of the Craft family. Tune in and learn more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm de Blane Choker Boarding, and
we're going to continue with the black history mark game
we've been working on. And initially, when I was trying
(00:22):
to pick out a topic, I was thinking I would
do something on a slave rebellion, and there are a
lot of interesting slave rebellions out there. I was trying
to pick between, you know, which one I wanted to cover,
but ultimately I ended up looking more into slave escapes,
and there are a lot of interesting slave escapes to um.
Some are really well known, like Harriet Tubman obviously, others
(00:44):
are just kind of bizarre, like this guy Henry box Brown.
He literally mailed himself to freedom, so that's pretty cool.
But I don't know if we could talk about that
for an entire podcast. But finally I settled on the
story of Ellen and William Kraft because they had this
really interesting story. Uh, it's really inspiring, but there's also
(01:06):
an element of complete bizarness to it too. I don't
know if that twist. Yeah, that's so much more eloquent
way of putting it um a twist, and it's a
it's a pretty interesting one. And once I, once I
discovered their story, I knew, like the Bad had to
be the podcast for the week. Yeah. So it involves
a woman named Ellen who was twenty two year old
(01:28):
slave who appeared to be white, and she would disguise
herself as a young, sickly well off white man and
travel by train and steamer to freedom. And she was
accompanied by her husband, William, who was playing a part
of a young man's Faithful slave. And the really just
mind boggling part about this to me anyway, is that
(01:49):
it was only eight days after thinking of this plan,
this escape plan that they hatched, that the couple was
completely free. Yeah, and I think the mind boggling part
to me is that they are escaping from making Georgia.
So it's one thousand miles from freedom or to freedom
to get to the free States. It's amazing. I just
(02:10):
if you think about going that far, and we're going
to talk about their journey and all of the slave
states they have to go through. This really long trip,
this really harrowing trip, in the obstacles that have to overcome. Yeah,
it's amazing. And that they were so um so ingenious
to think of this disguise, this masquerading Ellen as a
(02:32):
young man, and by doing that, breaking not only racial
and sex boundaries, but class boundaries as well, since she's
disguised as a pretty well off country gentlemanly cool story. Yeah, definitely,
and um, a lot of other people of their stories
as well. They went on to become Darlene's of the
Abolition movement, and they ended up publishing the narrative of
(02:54):
their journey called Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. So um,
but the escape definitely wasn't easy, as we mentioned, Um,
it took a lot of planning, a lot of a
lot of nerve, a lot of nerve, definitely, And so
we're gonna go a little bit into that right now. Yeah.
And the reason, the reason why they were willing to
risk it, aside from just achieving their own freedom, is
(03:16):
that they really couldn't stand the idea of having their
own family someday and having it broken apart, having their
children sold off, because that's how their early family lives
had been. So. Ellen was born in eight in Clinton, Georgia,
and she was the daughter of her Master, Major James Smith,
and his slave, Maria Smith by racial slave, and she
(03:41):
was often mistaken as a member of her master's white family,
which is something that his wife, the plantation mistress, did
not like it at all, and Maria suffered and Ellen
suffered because of this. They were not treated well on
the plantation by the mistress. And uh so, finally, when
(04:01):
Ellen is eleven years old, the mistress finally gets rid
of her. She gives her as a wedding present to
her own daughter, and so Ellen moves. She separated from
her mother, and uh she's all her family are and
all her family, yeah, and she's away from this original
very cruel mistress though. So the mistress's daughter lives in Macon, Georgia,
(04:25):
where it is where Ellen eventually moves, and it's there
that she meets William Kraft, who, at age sixteen, he's
already seen his family torn apart piece by piece as well.
First his master sells off his mother and father as
they grow older. Then they sell off his brother and
then a sister to William and another brother were apprenticed
to trades, though I think his brother became a blacksmith
(04:48):
and he learned cabinet making and actually became quite skilled
at it, so that was positive for him. Before his
apprenticeship was actually over, though, his master sold his brother
and mortgaged William as well as his fourteen year old
sister for cotton speculating money. The problem was, though, when
he eventually couldn't make that payment, the children had to
be sold off two different men to get the money
(05:10):
to make up that difference. So William actually had to
watch his sister stand on an auction block. They were
both auctioned off, and it's really poignant how he describes this.
We're talking a little bit about that earlier, about watching
his sister being taken away and she's being loaded onto
a cart to go home to her new master, and
he just kind of has to watch. And since he's
being auctioned off at the time, he can't even say
(05:30):
goodbye Toime. He just wants to say goodbye. He asked
another slave to ask the cart to wait for a second.
He asked the guy who's auctioning to let him go
and say goodbye, and nobody lets him. He just has
to watch her drive away. It's very probably one of
the saddest parts of the narrative. Yeah, heartbreaking, But then
he's purchased by a bank cashier who sends him back
(05:52):
to his apprenticeship. So that's kind of where he ends up.
But in the narrative, William actually later admits that he
and Ellen postpone their marriage for quite some time, even
after they met and got to know each other, because
they were afraid of having children that could be bought
and traded as well. That was sort of a deal.
If a mother had children and she was a slave,
they were sort of already part of that way of life. Yeah,
(06:14):
they were the property of whoever owned her. And he
even writes about this in the narrative quite poignantly. He writes, quote,
but after puzzling our brains for years, we were reluctantly
driven to the sag conclusion that it was almost impossible
to escape from slavery in Georgia and travel one thousand
miles across the slave states. We therefore resolved to get
(06:36):
the consent of our owners, be married, settled down in slavery,
and endeavor to make ourselves as comfortable as possible under
that system. But you know, no surprise here. They obviously
don't settle down. They keep on thinking of a way
to escape this system, even though they are so far
away from free states. And finally, in December eight will
(07:00):
Lamb hatches a plan, and it's a pretty amazing plan.
It's that well, Ellen could pass as white and William
could act as their slaves. But white women didn't travel
unaccompanied with a male slave. It just wasn't proper, It
wasn't how things worked, and it wouldn't fly. So for
this plan they're trying to cook up to actually work,
(07:23):
Ellen would have to pass off not only as a
white person, but as a man, because that's no surprise
at all, a young white country gentleman traveling with his slave. Well,
there was another problem as well too that they had
to overcome. Even after they figured out the perfect costume,
time was a big factor. The best opportunity for them
(07:45):
to leave would be at Christmas time, since that was
the time when slaves were most likely to get time
off from their masters. So after a little convincing, Ellen
decides to go for this plan, decides maybe maybe it'll work,
and they quickly start to go to work on her
disguise that they've devised. Yeah, when she decides she's okay
with it, they really swing into action. It's funny though.
(08:07):
In the narrative, William makes a really strong point of
emphasizing that Ellen only agreed to this disguise, this cross
dressing disguise, because it was the only way possible. She
was not like into it or something. And I just
think that's that's it's kind of funny to to look
at certain um ideas that that people try to put
(08:27):
into their own narrative. Make sure they set the story straight.
He wants her to still seem proper and not tarnish
her character at all, that this thing that she had
to do, Yeah, a proper Victorian lady. But in the meantime,
you know, and when this was actually going down, they
were working hard on a disguise that would make her
a convincing man. And so Ellen, who worked as a
(08:48):
seamstress for her family, um got to work on sewing
men's pants. And then William went about talent. He went
to all these different suppliers so he wouldn't attract suspision
by buying too much from one person, and bought her
hat and a coat and these high heeled men shoes
to give her a little bit of extra height. And
(09:09):
even my favorite touch, I think is green spectacles because
she says that, you know, she's going to be in
the company of men quite a bit, and she might
feel a little more comfortable if she at least had
some kind of eye shake, you know, something to hide
behind or at least make her feel more comfortable. Yeah,
it was kind of an ingenious touch, and they it's
interesting because they really thought about the little details like that.
(09:31):
They thought about everything. They even just so she wouldn't
be asked to register their names and log books because
they were literate, they couldn't read and write. At that point,
Ellen made a sling for her right arm so that
she wouldn't be asked to sign things. She'd have a
good excuse, right and to hide her beardless face and
avoid long conversations with people, she wrapped her cheeks and
(09:53):
chin and poultices and a white handkerchief. So good way
to deter anyone who wants to get too close to you. Definitely,
and right before they left on December one that same year,
with their you know, they've obtained their passes from their masters.
William cuts Ellen's hair about shoulder length, and all of
(10:13):
a sudden, down she looked like this very sickly well
off country gentleman. It was a convincing disguise for sure.
And so that morning they left their house where they
left Ellen's house, and they parted ways because obviously they
didn't want anybody to catch them going from her house
right to the train station, and they arrived there separately.
(10:35):
It's interesting, I've actually been to this making train station.
I think it's a museum today, but I feel like
I've got a little part of history here. And um,
Ellen buys their tickets, a ticket for her and for
her slave, her supposed slave. She got into one of
the nicer cars. William boarded one of the cars for slaves,
(10:57):
and um, they're almost lost right from the start, all
this careful planning they've put into it the past few days,
they're almost betrayed before they even leave town. Yeah, it's
a really scary experience. Actually, William spots the owner of
the cabinet shop that he's worked for standing on the platform,
and the guy actually has a little suspicion and starts
(11:20):
walking through the train. But luckily he doesn't notice Ellen
at all. I guess was in fact pretty good. Um,
and the whistle blows right before he gets to William's car,
So pretty close call there. Apparently the cabinet maker ums
his suspicions are allayed as soon as he realizes they're
not on the train, or as soon as he thinks
(11:40):
they're not on the train, goes home, doesn't give it
any thought for the next few days, since they do
have passes. But meanwhile Ellen is running into a little
trouble of her own. She realized that she was sitting
right next to a guy named Mr Cray who was
a friend of her master's, and a guy who had
been at the house recently for dinner, and who knew
her since she was a child, so somebody who seems
(12:03):
like pretty likely he could recognize her. So she doesn't
want to chat with him because she's afraid that if
he hears her and looks at her, it'll be enough
to betray who she really is. So she feigns deafness,
and he asks a few times how about this weather
along the lines of that, and she doesn't answer, and
finally he just about shouts it, and she's, oh, it's nice,
(12:25):
and then he assumes she's deaf and doesn't try to
chat any longer. Um, But she spends the rest of
the trip listening to him and his friends talk about
cotton and slaves and abolitionists. So my wedding bullet snow doubt. Yeah,
I must have been a very, very uncomfortable ride. So
they reached Savannah safely, and from there Ellen and William
(12:46):
take a steamer bound for Charleston. Ellen is the master
sleeping in the birth of course, and William is on
cotton bags on the deck. So it's here where the
charade gets really interesting if you didn't already think it
was interesting enough before to explain Ellen's bandages, her early bedtime,
and the lack of social mingling on board the steamer,
William spreads the word around that his master had terrible
(13:08):
rheumatism and that they were on their way to Philadelphia
for medical consultation. So William plays the part two publicly
heating the bandages and really talking about it a lot. Yeah, definitely,
gossiping almost about the situation with so called master. And
he did the job so well that people really took notice.
At this point, the captain told Ellen, while she was disguised,
(13:32):
you have a very attentive boy, sir, but you had
better watch him like a hawk when you get onto
the north and a slave dealer actually came up to
her an offered to take William off of her hands,
since she'd certainly lose him when she got on Free Soil. Yes,
I try to buy William from her. I mean, it's
kind of ridiculous. I think she says I couldn't get
on without him. Yeah, but Ellen is is pretty popular too,
(13:54):
is this young gentleman invalid? There's this chatty young officer
who sort of tries to befriend her and give her
pointers on how to treat her slave. He hears her
thanking William and tells her you never talked to your
slave like that. You you have to be harsh with them.
And you can imagine what Ellen is probably thinking to that.
(14:17):
But once they get to Charleston, she stays in this
nice hotel and the staff preens on her him as
they think for being so sickly, you know, warming up
the pultices, and and William is still playing that part,
spreading the word, making everyone think this, this young man
really needs to be carefully attended to. And uh. But
(14:38):
they run into another hitch here because from Charleston they're
supposed to take a steamer all the way to Philadelphia,
which would be their final free destination. But unfortunately the
steamer that went to Philadelphia didn't run in the winter,
and to make things even scarier for them, the last
run that had been made, uh stowaway had been found
(15:01):
out a runaway slave. So suspicious, every everyone is kind
of on edge, and I'm sure they were at this
point too, So they changed their plan and instead they
end up taking the steamer to Wilmington, North Carolina instead,
but they run into trouble there too. The ticket seller
was not cool with them signing their names William Johnson
(15:22):
and slave or what they had been doing with him
signing the name for them right exactly. He was suspicious
because there had been kind of a crackdown on whites
at that time traveling with unidentified black slaves with no
proof of ownership. They could have been abolitionists after all. Yeah.
The idea was that any white abolitionists could come to
the South, pick up a slave, pretend it was his own,
(15:45):
and then travel north freedom. So they wanted proof of
ownership and all this documentation, so consequently travelers would be
way laid for quite some time. Um, And that's that
looks like what was going to be Maybe happening to
to Ellen and William. Fortunately that wasn't the case, though,
because several of Ellen's new cronies that she'd met on
(16:07):
her previous rides stepped up to the plate. The young
officer vouched for Mr Johnson, pretending to know him very
well that he knew his kin, and the steamboat captain
volunteered to write the name for Ellen. So they were
on board and in Wilmington's by morning. Yeah. And once
they were in Wilmington's they kept on going, taking a
(16:27):
train to Richmond, Virginia. And Ellen rode in this car
with an old gentleman and his two daughters. And this
might be one of the lightest or potentially, I mean,
if you can have a light part of this narrative,
I think this is it. Ellen is in this car
with this old gentleman and his two lovely daughters, and again,
all three of them are really concerned about this poor
(16:49):
sickly young man and his rheumatism. And judging by the narrative,
it seems almost like the two daughters get a bit
of a crush on this young Mr Johnson. Um, I
must have just felt so sorry for him. But William
writes quote they fell in love with the wrong chap
(17:09):
And I like William's little interjections of humor throughout the narrative.
But even when things are going pretty well, you know this,
this old country gentleman giving his recipe for rheumatism relief
to Ellen. Uh, there's still some close calls. And it Richmond.
This old woman misidentified William that's her runaway slave, and
(17:31):
Ellen has to correct her, say, no, that's my slave,
not your ned. And after this there's one little bit
in the narrative that I find a little hard to swallow.
And if you've read, if you've read several slave narratives before,
you know that sometimes it breaks down into a dialogue,
which is more like a novel than than a personal account.
(17:53):
And this is this is that spot in Ellen and
Williams narrative, because reluctant to talk, Ellen, who has been
feigning deafness and tying her head up with poultices, apparently
asks the slew appointed questions to this woman who has
had her own slave run away and is looking for him,
(18:14):
Questions like where was your slave married? What happened to
his wife? Oh, you've sold his wife? Things like that,
trying to sort of make the old woman see the
wrong of her ways, almost get a rise out of
her and get it right. Yeah, so not only engaging
in a long conversation, but a contentious conversation trying to
make this woman realize what she'd done. I don't know
(18:37):
if I if I totally buy that it might have
been more of um to the point conversation if she
was having it. It does seem a little tough to believe.
But nevertheless, they pressed on to d C from there
and took the train to Baltimore. At this point where
at Christmas Eve, it's the last slave port before freedom.
(18:59):
But because it was the last slave port before Pennsylvania,
it was really tough to get through. Ellen and William
were removed from the train. Ellen had to speak with
the railroad officer who asked them to prove ownership at
that point, and they argued that. She argued, in fact,
that she had already bought tickets in Charleston to go
all the way through to Philadelphia. But the guy wouldn't budge,
(19:22):
and when the departure bell rang, he suddenly just broke
he he'd let them go. He says, this guy is
clearly not well, let's just let him through. I don't
see any harm in it. Yeah, I mean, they just
scraped by very very close call. And there's a really
frightening part in the narrative when Ellen, who has been
(19:42):
arguing admirably with this uh, this railroad officer, finally doesn't
know what else to say and just looks at William,
and they're both terrified they're going to do something, make
some faux paw or just be betrayed by their emotions
finally and be lost right here at the very end.
But yeah, Fortunately they get on the train and they
(20:03):
arrived in Philadelphia free and as soon as they were
out of the station, you can imagine the relief, Ellen
breaks down sobbing, and they traveled to an abolitionist run
boarding house in the city. Interestingly, a free black man
on the train had told William about it, urging him
to to run away from his master as soon as
he got onto Free Soil. It proved to be useful information,
(20:27):
and once they were in Pennsylvania, they were really welcomed
by the abolitionist network and kind of shuttled about two
different towns because even though Pennsylvania was a free state,
it was not a safe place to be because it
was a border state. It was someplace where slave hunters
could run in essentially grab slaves and and take them
(20:48):
back into the South. So luckily, with the help of
this abolitionist network there they kind of dodge around a
little bit. They're shuttled about, and during that time they're
giving reading lessons. Finally they're sent to Boston though, since
Pennsylvania is unsafe, but Boston wasn't exactly safe either, especially
after something called the Fugitive Slave Act of eighteen fifty. Now,
(21:08):
Congress passed this law in exchange for Southern support of
California entering the Union as a free state and the
slave trade ending in the district. It meant that federal
commissioners were allowed to hunt down runaways in any state,
no matter how long the slave had been free. Yeah,
so it put Ellen and William at risk even in
relatively safe Boston. And uh, not long after that, Ellen
(21:31):
and Williams former masters hire these slave hunters named Willis
Hughes and John Knight, and they essentially stalk the couple.
I mean, they are looking for them and presumably would
have taken them back to make in by fourth and
abolitionists are hiding Ellen and William and again shuttling them
about to keep them away from these slave hunters. And
(21:53):
this is this is another harrowing detail of this story.
But when they're finally legally married and November seventh, eighteen
fifty because of course, um, their first marriage wasn't a
legal ceremony. But when they're finally legally married, the officiant
gave William a revolver and a knife and told him
defend yourself and defend your wife with this if slave
(22:17):
hunters try to get you. Pretty scary. So they end
up moving to England. While they're there, they have five kids,
they have a boarding house and an import business for
West African goods. They end up publishing their memoirs we
already know, and they release Ellen's portrait in her disguise,
and this sells really, really well, so well in fact
(22:38):
that William mentions he hopes he might use the funds
one day to buy his sister out of slavery. So
this is one thing that he's held onto, the sad
idea of seeing a sister say goodbye, and um, he
ends up finding out where she is in Mississippi and
trying to find a way to to get her back. Yeah,
and about the portrait too, I mean you can you
can search for this online and find it. But there's
(23:00):
Ellen in her top hat and she's depicted without the
facial pulses, so you can you can see what she
looks like. I think they made the decision that picture
might sell a little better. Um. But yeah, they're they're
doing well for themselves in England and they really used
their fame and connections to promote the anti slavery cause too.
(23:21):
They even appeared in the Crystal Palace exhibit, which was
of course the fifty one London World's Fair, and it
wasn't in sort of the exhibitionist way you might expect
them to be shown as as part of a World's fare. Instead,
they just walked around the Crystal Palace arm in arm
with really famous prominent abolitionists of the opposite gender. So
(23:46):
I think it it caused quite a stir because for
for Ellen and the abolishnists, she's walking with it. It
looks like a white man and a white woman just
strolling about London together, US equals and and that was
the that was the point of of having their display
like that, to show that the abolitionists in England considered
(24:07):
them their equals. They respected their story of escape, so,
like you said, they have some respect to there, and
they seem to have acquired a pretty good life. But
after the fifteenth Amendment was ratified in eighteen seventy, they
actually came home to Georgia with two of their kids
and set up a school for former slaves and a farm.
And Devlena and I were speculating on this a little
earlier about why why they came back, and I mean,
(24:30):
I can I guess I can see a few different reasons.
They might have wanted to live in their home again
as free people. Um, they might have wanted to prove
a point like we can go back and so we will,
we don't have to be fugitives anymore. But I guess
I kind of think the most likely explanation is maybe
they wanted to help their their people, so slave former
(24:50):
slaves from Georgia who could get the opportunities they had gotten,
like learning how to read and write and established trades.
I don't know, though, Yeah, we can't know for sure,
but what we do know is that things weren't that
easy for them really. When they came back. Their farm
ended up failing because cotton prices started to drop, their
school had to close, and William was actually accused at
(25:11):
one point of using school funds for personal for personal gain,
and the KKK threatened them as well. I mean, that's
not that surprising, I guess, but it occurred also, and
in eighteen ninety ended up moving to Charleston to live
with their daughter. Ellen died in eighteen nine and William
in n Yeah, and out of this whole narrative. If
(25:32):
if you go and read the whole thing, which is
all available online, I'd recommend doing it. It's not only
an interesting story, but it is interesting to hear William's
own words. But we've got to point out that you
don't really get Ellen's out of the story, out of
the whole thing, because even though she's the one who
is keeping up this elaborate ruse, you know, the one
(25:53):
arguing with the railroad officer and feigning deafness and chatting
with the young army officer, it's it's very much William's
story in the account, and the stress of it was
apparently so much that she she was sick for quite
some time after they arrived in the Free State. So
(26:13):
I wish we had a little more from her, you know,
I wish we did too, especially because apparently there were
rumors circulating that she had turned herself over to an
American in London and that she missed slavery. Yeah. Well
that's one point though, where we where we do get
to hear a little bit from her, and it's such
an interesting glimpse into into who this woman was, who
(26:34):
had sort of faded into the background after the exciting escape.
You know, she had assumed the role of the proper
Victorian wife who when William would present their story during lecture,
she would stand quietly by his side and did a
little bit of work out out of the home, but
mostly was working as a wife and mother. It is
interesting when we finally get to hear her stand up
(26:57):
for her for her own freedom. Yeah, and we have
a quote from her here. She says, I never had
the slightest inclination whatever of returning to bondage, and God
forbid that I should ever be so false to liberty
as to prefer slavery in its stead. In fact, since
my escape from slavery, I have gotten much better in
every respect than I could have possibly anticipated. Though had
(27:19):
it been to the contrary, my feelings in regard to
this would have been just the same, for I had
much rather starve in England a free woman than be
a slave. For the best man that ever breathed upon
the American continent, yours very truly, Alan Craft. I think
that's probably the best way to end a podcast like
this in Ellen's own word, I hardly agree. And um, yeah,
(27:41):
So if you if you have any other great runaway
slave stories you want to share with us, I mean,
I think these are are so fascinating and touching. We'd
love to hear your favorites or maybe some that you'd
like us to try to cover at some point. You
can contact us through Twitter at Misston History. You can
send us an email at History Podcast at how stuff
(28:02):
works dot com, and we're also on Facebook. And if
you want to learn a little bit more about how
the more classic runaway slave escape went not this elaborate disguise,
although there were a few other women who cross stressed
their way to freedom Clarissa Davis and Mary Milbourne and
Maria Weims. But if you want to learn more of
(28:24):
the classic story about the underground railroad, we do have
an article on that. It's called How the Underground Railroad Worked,
and you could find it by searching for Underground Railroad
on our homepage at www dot how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
(28:46):
how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast,
click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner
of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone up has
a rise. Download it today on iTunes. Can be
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm de Blane Choker Boarding, and
we're going to continue with the black history mark game
we've been working on. And initially, when I was trying
(00:22):
to pick out a topic, I was thinking I would
do something on a slave rebellion, and there are a
lot of interesting slave rebellions out there. I was trying
to pick between, you know, which one I wanted to cover,
but ultimately I ended up looking more into slave escapes,
and there are a lot of interesting slave escapes to um.
Some are really well known, like Harriet Tubman obviously, others
(00:44):
are just kind of bizarre, like this guy Henry box Brown.
He literally mailed himself to freedom, so that's pretty cool.
But I don't know if we could talk about that
for an entire podcast. But finally I settled on the
story of Ellen and William Kraft because they had this
really interesting story. Uh, it's really inspiring, but there's also
(01:06):
an element of complete bizarness to it too. I don't
know if that twist. Yeah, that's so much more eloquent
way of putting it um a twist, and it's a
it's a pretty interesting one. And once I, once I
discovered their story, I knew, like the Bad had to
be the podcast for the week. Yeah. So it involves
a woman named Ellen who was twenty two year old
(01:28):
slave who appeared to be white, and she would disguise
herself as a young, sickly well off white man and
travel by train and steamer to freedom. And she was
accompanied by her husband, William, who was playing a part
of a young man's Faithful slave. And the really just
mind boggling part about this to me anyway, is that
(01:49):
it was only eight days after thinking of this plan,
this escape plan that they hatched, that the couple was
completely free. Yeah, and I think the mind boggling part
to me is that they are escaping from making Georgia.
So it's one thousand miles from freedom or to freedom
to get to the free States. It's amazing. I just
(02:10):
if you think about going that far, and we're going
to talk about their journey and all of the slave
states they have to go through. This really long trip,
this really harrowing trip, in the obstacles that have to overcome. Yeah,
it's amazing. And that they were so um so ingenious
to think of this disguise, this masquerading Ellen as a
(02:32):
young man, and by doing that, breaking not only racial
and sex boundaries, but class boundaries as well, since she's
disguised as a pretty well off country gentlemanly cool story. Yeah, definitely,
and um, a lot of other people of their stories
as well. They went on to become Darlene's of the
Abolition movement, and they ended up publishing the narrative of
(02:54):
their journey called Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. So um,
but the escape definitely wasn't easy, as we mentioned, Um,
it took a lot of planning, a lot of a
lot of nerve, a lot of nerve, definitely, And so
we're gonna go a little bit into that right now. Yeah.
And the reason, the reason why they were willing to
risk it, aside from just achieving their own freedom, is
(03:16):
that they really couldn't stand the idea of having their
own family someday and having it broken apart, having their
children sold off, because that's how their early family lives
had been. So. Ellen was born in eight in Clinton, Georgia,
and she was the daughter of her Master, Major James Smith,
and his slave, Maria Smith by racial slave, and she
(03:41):
was often mistaken as a member of her master's white family,
which is something that his wife, the plantation mistress, did
not like it at all, and Maria suffered and Ellen
suffered because of this. They were not treated well on
the plantation by the mistress. And uh so, finally, when
(04:01):
Ellen is eleven years old, the mistress finally gets rid
of her. She gives her as a wedding present to
her own daughter, and so Ellen moves. She separated from
her mother, and uh she's all her family are and
all her family, yeah, and she's away from this original
very cruel mistress though. So the mistress's daughter lives in Macon, Georgia,
(04:25):
where it is where Ellen eventually moves, and it's there
that she meets William Kraft, who, at age sixteen, he's
already seen his family torn apart piece by piece as well.
First his master sells off his mother and father as
they grow older. Then they sell off his brother and
then a sister to William and another brother were apprenticed
to trades, though I think his brother became a blacksmith
(04:48):
and he learned cabinet making and actually became quite skilled
at it, so that was positive for him. Before his
apprenticeship was actually over, though, his master sold his brother
and mortgaged William as well as his fourteen year old
sister for cotton speculating money. The problem was, though, when
he eventually couldn't make that payment, the children had to
be sold off two different men to get the money
(05:10):
to make up that difference. So William actually had to
watch his sister stand on an auction block. They were
both auctioned off, and it's really poignant how he describes this.
We're talking a little bit about that earlier, about watching
his sister being taken away and she's being loaded onto
a cart to go home to her new master, and
he just kind of has to watch. And since he's
being auctioned off at the time, he can't even say
(05:30):
goodbye Toime. He just wants to say goodbye. He asked
another slave to ask the cart to wait for a second.
He asked the guy who's auctioning to let him go
and say goodbye, and nobody lets him. He just has
to watch her drive away. It's very probably one of
the saddest parts of the narrative. Yeah, heartbreaking, But then
he's purchased by a bank cashier who sends him back
(05:52):
to his apprenticeship. So that's kind of where he ends up.
But in the narrative, William actually later admits that he
and Ellen postpone their marriage for quite some time, even
after they met and got to know each other, because
they were afraid of having children that could be bought
and traded as well. That was sort of a deal.
If a mother had children and she was a slave,
they were sort of already part of that way of life. Yeah,
(06:14):
they were the property of whoever owned her. And he
even writes about this in the narrative quite poignantly. He writes, quote,
but after puzzling our brains for years, we were reluctantly
driven to the sag conclusion that it was almost impossible
to escape from slavery in Georgia and travel one thousand
miles across the slave states. We therefore resolved to get
(06:36):
the consent of our owners, be married, settled down in slavery,
and endeavor to make ourselves as comfortable as possible under
that system. But you know, no surprise here. They obviously
don't settle down. They keep on thinking of a way
to escape this system, even though they are so far
away from free states. And finally, in December eight will
(07:00):
Lamb hatches a plan, and it's a pretty amazing plan.
It's that well, Ellen could pass as white and William
could act as their slaves. But white women didn't travel
unaccompanied with a male slave. It just wasn't proper, It
wasn't how things worked, and it wouldn't fly. So for
this plan they're trying to cook up to actually work,
(07:23):
Ellen would have to pass off not only as a
white person, but as a man, because that's no surprise
at all, a young white country gentleman traveling with his slave. Well,
there was another problem as well too that they had
to overcome. Even after they figured out the perfect costume,
time was a big factor. The best opportunity for them
(07:45):
to leave would be at Christmas time, since that was
the time when slaves were most likely to get time
off from their masters. So after a little convincing, Ellen
decides to go for this plan, decides maybe maybe it'll work,
and they quickly start to go to work on her
disguise that they've devised. Yeah, when she decides she's okay
with it, they really swing into action. It's funny though.
(08:07):
In the narrative, William makes a really strong point of
emphasizing that Ellen only agreed to this disguise, this cross
dressing disguise, because it was the only way possible. She
was not like into it or something. And I just
think that's that's it's kind of funny to to look
at certain um ideas that that people try to put
(08:27):
into their own narrative. Make sure they set the story straight.
He wants her to still seem proper and not tarnish
her character at all, that this thing that she had
to do, Yeah, a proper Victorian lady. But in the meantime,
you know, and when this was actually going down, they
were working hard on a disguise that would make her
a convincing man. And so Ellen, who worked as a
(08:48):
seamstress for her family, um got to work on sewing
men's pants. And then William went about talent. He went
to all these different suppliers so he wouldn't attract suspision
by buying too much from one person, and bought her
hat and a coat and these high heeled men shoes
to give her a little bit of extra height. And
(09:09):
even my favorite touch, I think is green spectacles because
she says that, you know, she's going to be in
the company of men quite a bit, and she might
feel a little more comfortable if she at least had
some kind of eye shake, you know, something to hide
behind or at least make her feel more comfortable. Yeah,
it was kind of an ingenious touch, and they it's
interesting because they really thought about the little details like that.
(09:31):
They thought about everything. They even just so she wouldn't
be asked to register their names and log books because
they were literate, they couldn't read and write. At that point,
Ellen made a sling for her right arm so that
she wouldn't be asked to sign things. She'd have a
good excuse, right and to hide her beardless face and
avoid long conversations with people, she wrapped her cheeks and
(09:53):
chin and poultices and a white handkerchief. So good way
to deter anyone who wants to get too close to you. Definitely,
and right before they left on December one that same year,
with their you know, they've obtained their passes from their masters.
William cuts Ellen's hair about shoulder length, and all of
(10:13):
a sudden, down she looked like this very sickly well
off country gentleman. It was a convincing disguise for sure.
And so that morning they left their house where they
left Ellen's house, and they parted ways because obviously they
didn't want anybody to catch them going from her house
right to the train station, and they arrived there separately.
(10:35):
It's interesting, I've actually been to this making train station.
I think it's a museum today, but I feel like
I've got a little part of history here. And um,
Ellen buys their tickets, a ticket for her and for
her slave, her supposed slave. She got into one of
the nicer cars. William boarded one of the cars for slaves,
(10:57):
and um, they're almost lost right from the start, all
this careful planning they've put into it the past few days,
they're almost betrayed before they even leave town. Yeah, it's
a really scary experience. Actually, William spots the owner of
the cabinet shop that he's worked for standing on the platform,
and the guy actually has a little suspicion and starts
(11:20):
walking through the train. But luckily he doesn't notice Ellen
at all. I guess was in fact pretty good. Um,
and the whistle blows right before he gets to William's car,
So pretty close call there. Apparently the cabinet maker ums
his suspicions are allayed as soon as he realizes they're
not on the train, or as soon as he thinks
(11:40):
they're not on the train, goes home, doesn't give it
any thought for the next few days, since they do
have passes. But meanwhile Ellen is running into a little
trouble of her own. She realized that she was sitting
right next to a guy named Mr Cray who was
a friend of her master's, and a guy who had
been at the house recently for dinner, and who knew
her since she was a child, so somebody who seems
(12:03):
like pretty likely he could recognize her. So she doesn't
want to chat with him because she's afraid that if
he hears her and looks at her, it'll be enough
to betray who she really is. So she feigns deafness,
and he asks a few times how about this weather
along the lines of that, and she doesn't answer, and
finally he just about shouts it, and she's, oh, it's nice,
(12:25):
and then he assumes she's deaf and doesn't try to
chat any longer. Um, But she spends the rest of
the trip listening to him and his friends talk about
cotton and slaves and abolitionists. So my wedding bullet snow doubt. Yeah,
I must have been a very, very uncomfortable ride. So
they reached Savannah safely, and from there Ellen and William
(12:46):
take a steamer bound for Charleston. Ellen is the master
sleeping in the birth of course, and William is on
cotton bags on the deck. So it's here where the
charade gets really interesting if you didn't already think it
was interesting enough before to explain Ellen's bandages, her early bedtime,
and the lack of social mingling on board the steamer,
William spreads the word around that his master had terrible
(13:08):
rheumatism and that they were on their way to Philadelphia
for medical consultation. So William plays the part two publicly
heating the bandages and really talking about it a lot. Yeah, definitely,
gossiping almost about the situation with so called master. And
he did the job so well that people really took notice.
At this point, the captain told Ellen, while she was disguised,
(13:32):
you have a very attentive boy, sir, but you had
better watch him like a hawk when you get onto
the north and a slave dealer actually came up to
her an offered to take William off of her hands,
since she'd certainly lose him when she got on Free Soil. Yes,
I try to buy William from her. I mean, it's
kind of ridiculous. I think she says I couldn't get
on without him. Yeah, but Ellen is is pretty popular too,
(13:54):
is this young gentleman invalid? There's this chatty young officer
who sort of tries to befriend her and give her
pointers on how to treat her slave. He hears her
thanking William and tells her you never talked to your
slave like that. You you have to be harsh with them.
And you can imagine what Ellen is probably thinking to that.
(14:17):
But once they get to Charleston, she stays in this
nice hotel and the staff preens on her him as
they think for being so sickly, you know, warming up
the pultices, and and William is still playing that part,
spreading the word, making everyone think this, this young man
really needs to be carefully attended to. And uh. But
(14:38):
they run into another hitch here because from Charleston they're
supposed to take a steamer all the way to Philadelphia,
which would be their final free destination. But unfortunately the
steamer that went to Philadelphia didn't run in the winter,
and to make things even scarier for them, the last
run that had been made, uh stowaway had been found
(15:01):
out a runaway slave. So suspicious, every everyone is kind
of on edge, and I'm sure they were at this
point too, So they changed their plan and instead they
end up taking the steamer to Wilmington, North Carolina instead,
but they run into trouble there too. The ticket seller
was not cool with them signing their names William Johnson
(15:22):
and slave or what they had been doing with him
signing the name for them right exactly. He was suspicious
because there had been kind of a crackdown on whites
at that time traveling with unidentified black slaves with no
proof of ownership. They could have been abolitionists after all. Yeah.
The idea was that any white abolitionists could come to
the South, pick up a slave, pretend it was his own,
(15:45):
and then travel north freedom. So they wanted proof of
ownership and all this documentation, so consequently travelers would be
way laid for quite some time. Um, And that's that
looks like what was going to be Maybe happening to
to Ellen and William. Fortunately that wasn't the case, though,
because several of Ellen's new cronies that she'd met on
(16:07):
her previous rides stepped up to the plate. The young
officer vouched for Mr Johnson, pretending to know him very
well that he knew his kin, and the steamboat captain
volunteered to write the name for Ellen. So they were
on board and in Wilmington's by morning. Yeah. And once
they were in Wilmington's they kept on going, taking a
(16:27):
train to Richmond, Virginia. And Ellen rode in this car
with an old gentleman and his two daughters. And this
might be one of the lightest or potentially, I mean,
if you can have a light part of this narrative,
I think this is it. Ellen is in this car
with this old gentleman and his two lovely daughters, and again,
all three of them are really concerned about this poor
(16:49):
sickly young man and his rheumatism. And judging by the narrative,
it seems almost like the two daughters get a bit
of a crush on this young Mr Johnson. Um, I
must have just felt so sorry for him. But William
writes quote they fell in love with the wrong chap
(17:09):
And I like William's little interjections of humor throughout the narrative.
But even when things are going pretty well, you know this,
this old country gentleman giving his recipe for rheumatism relief
to Ellen. Uh, there's still some close calls. And it Richmond.
This old woman misidentified William that's her runaway slave, and
(17:31):
Ellen has to correct her, say, no, that's my slave,
not your ned. And after this there's one little bit
in the narrative that I find a little hard to swallow.
And if you've read, if you've read several slave narratives before,
you know that sometimes it breaks down into a dialogue,
which is more like a novel than than a personal account.
(17:53):
And this is this is that spot in Ellen and
Williams narrative, because reluctant to talk, Ellen, who has been
feigning deafness and tying her head up with poultices, apparently
asks the slew appointed questions to this woman who has
had her own slave run away and is looking for him,
(18:14):
Questions like where was your slave married? What happened to
his wife? Oh, you've sold his wife? Things like that,
trying to sort of make the old woman see the
wrong of her ways, almost get a rise out of
her and get it right. Yeah, so not only engaging
in a long conversation, but a contentious conversation trying to
make this woman realize what she'd done. I don't know
(18:37):
if I if I totally buy that it might have
been more of um to the point conversation if she
was having it. It does seem a little tough to believe.
But nevertheless, they pressed on to d C from there
and took the train to Baltimore. At this point where
at Christmas Eve, it's the last slave port before freedom.
(18:59):
But because it was the last slave port before Pennsylvania,
it was really tough to get through. Ellen and William
were removed from the train. Ellen had to speak with
the railroad officer who asked them to prove ownership at
that point, and they argued that. She argued, in fact,
that she had already bought tickets in Charleston to go
all the way through to Philadelphia. But the guy wouldn't budge,
(19:22):
and when the departure bell rang, he suddenly just broke
he he'd let them go. He says, this guy is
clearly not well, let's just let him through. I don't
see any harm in it. Yeah, I mean, they just
scraped by very very close call. And there's a really
frightening part in the narrative when Ellen, who has been
(19:42):
arguing admirably with this uh, this railroad officer, finally doesn't
know what else to say and just looks at William,
and they're both terrified they're going to do something, make
some faux paw or just be betrayed by their emotions
finally and be lost right here at the very end.
But yeah, Fortunately they get on the train and they
(20:03):
arrived in Philadelphia free and as soon as they were
out of the station, you can imagine the relief, Ellen
breaks down sobbing, and they traveled to an abolitionist run
boarding house in the city. Interestingly, a free black man
on the train had told William about it, urging him
to to run away from his master as soon as
he got onto Free Soil. It proved to be useful information,
(20:27):
and once they were in Pennsylvania, they were really welcomed
by the abolitionist network and kind of shuttled about two
different towns because even though Pennsylvania was a free state,
it was not a safe place to be because it
was a border state. It was someplace where slave hunters
could run in essentially grab slaves and and take them
(20:48):
back into the South. So luckily, with the help of
this abolitionist network there they kind of dodge around a
little bit. They're shuttled about, and during that time they're
giving reading lessons. Finally they're sent to Boston though, since
Pennsylvania is unsafe, but Boston wasn't exactly safe either, especially
after something called the Fugitive Slave Act of eighteen fifty. Now,
(21:08):
Congress passed this law in exchange for Southern support of
California entering the Union as a free state and the
slave trade ending in the district. It meant that federal
commissioners were allowed to hunt down runaways in any state,
no matter how long the slave had been free. Yeah,
so it put Ellen and William at risk even in
relatively safe Boston. And uh, not long after that, Ellen
(21:31):
and Williams former masters hire these slave hunters named Willis
Hughes and John Knight, and they essentially stalk the couple.
I mean, they are looking for them and presumably would
have taken them back to make in by fourth and
abolitionists are hiding Ellen and William and again shuttling them
about to keep them away from these slave hunters. And
(21:53):
this is this is another harrowing detail of this story.
But when they're finally legally married and November seventh, eighteen
fifty because of course, um, their first marriage wasn't a
legal ceremony. But when they're finally legally married, the officiant
gave William a revolver and a knife and told him
defend yourself and defend your wife with this if slave
(22:17):
hunters try to get you. Pretty scary. So they end
up moving to England. While they're there, they have five kids,
they have a boarding house and an import business for
West African goods. They end up publishing their memoirs we
already know, and they release Ellen's portrait in her disguise,
and this sells really, really well, so well in fact
(22:38):
that William mentions he hopes he might use the funds
one day to buy his sister out of slavery. So
this is one thing that he's held onto, the sad
idea of seeing a sister say goodbye, and um, he
ends up finding out where she is in Mississippi and
trying to find a way to to get her back. Yeah,
and about the portrait too, I mean you can you
can search for this online and find it. But there's
(23:00):
Ellen in her top hat and she's depicted without the
facial pulses, so you can you can see what she
looks like. I think they made the decision that picture
might sell a little better. Um. But yeah, they're they're
doing well for themselves in England and they really used
their fame and connections to promote the anti slavery cause too.
(23:21):
They even appeared in the Crystal Palace exhibit, which was
of course the fifty one London World's Fair, and it
wasn't in sort of the exhibitionist way you might expect
them to be shown as as part of a World's fare. Instead,
they just walked around the Crystal Palace arm in arm
with really famous prominent abolitionists of the opposite gender. So
(23:46):
I think it it caused quite a stir because for
for Ellen and the abolishnists, she's walking with it. It
looks like a white man and a white woman just
strolling about London together, US equals and and that was
the that was the point of of having their display
like that, to show that the abolitionists in England considered
(24:07):
them their equals. They respected their story of escape, so,
like you said, they have some respect to there, and
they seem to have acquired a pretty good life. But
after the fifteenth Amendment was ratified in eighteen seventy, they
actually came home to Georgia with two of their kids
and set up a school for former slaves and a farm.
And Devlena and I were speculating on this a little
earlier about why why they came back, and I mean,
(24:30):
I can I guess I can see a few different reasons.
They might have wanted to live in their home again
as free people. Um, they might have wanted to prove
a point like we can go back and so we will,
we don't have to be fugitives anymore. But I guess
I kind of think the most likely explanation is maybe
they wanted to help their their people, so slave former
(24:50):
slaves from Georgia who could get the opportunities they had gotten,
like learning how to read and write and established trades.
I don't know, though, Yeah, we can't know for sure,
but what we do know is that things weren't that
easy for them really. When they came back. Their farm
ended up failing because cotton prices started to drop, their
school had to close, and William was actually accused at
(25:11):
one point of using school funds for personal for personal gain,
and the KKK threatened them as well. I mean, that's
not that surprising, I guess, but it occurred also, and
in eighteen ninety ended up moving to Charleston to live
with their daughter. Ellen died in eighteen nine and William
in n Yeah, and out of this whole narrative. If
(25:32):
if you go and read the whole thing, which is
all available online, I'd recommend doing it. It's not only
an interesting story, but it is interesting to hear William's
own words. But we've got to point out that you
don't really get Ellen's out of the story, out of
the whole thing, because even though she's the one who
is keeping up this elaborate ruse, you know, the one
(25:53):
arguing with the railroad officer and feigning deafness and chatting
with the young army officer, it's it's very much William's
story in the account, and the stress of it was
apparently so much that she she was sick for quite
some time after they arrived in the Free State. So
(26:13):
I wish we had a little more from her, you know,
I wish we did too, especially because apparently there were
rumors circulating that she had turned herself over to an
American in London and that she missed slavery. Yeah. Well
that's one point though, where we where we do get
to hear a little bit from her, and it's such
an interesting glimpse into into who this woman was, who
(26:34):
had sort of faded into the background after the exciting escape.
You know, she had assumed the role of the proper
Victorian wife who when William would present their story during lecture,
she would stand quietly by his side and did a
little bit of work out out of the home, but
mostly was working as a wife and mother. It is
interesting when we finally get to hear her stand up
(26:57):
for her for her own freedom. Yeah, and we have
a quote from her here. She says, I never had
the slightest inclination whatever of returning to bondage, and God
forbid that I should ever be so false to liberty
as to prefer slavery in its stead. In fact, since
my escape from slavery, I have gotten much better in
every respect than I could have possibly anticipated. Though had
(27:19):
it been to the contrary, my feelings in regard to
this would have been just the same, for I had
much rather starve in England a free woman than be
a slave. For the best man that ever breathed upon
the American continent, yours very truly, Alan Craft. I think
that's probably the best way to end a podcast like
this in Ellen's own word, I hardly agree. And um, yeah,
(27:41):
So if you if you have any other great runaway
slave stories you want to share with us, I mean,
I think these are are so fascinating and touching. We'd
love to hear your favorites or maybe some that you'd
like us to try to cover at some point. You
can contact us through Twitter at Misston History. You can
send us an email at History Podcast at how stuff
(28:02):
works dot com, and we're also on Facebook. And if
you want to learn a little bit more about how
the more classic runaway slave escape went not this elaborate disguise,
although there were a few other women who cross stressed
their way to freedom Clarissa Davis and Mary Milbourne and
Maria Weims. But if you want to learn more of
(28:24):
the classic story about the underground railroad, we do have
an article on that. It's called How the Underground Railroad Worked,
and you could find it by searching for Underground Railroad
on our homepage at www dot how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
(28:46):
how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast,
click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner
of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone up has
a rise. Download it today on iTunes. Can be
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