National Geographic History - 01 e 02.2022

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8 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

Ellen Craft, the

Appearance of Freedom

Born into slavery, Ellen Craft and her husband, William, rejected that fate for their children.

Escaping from Georgia to Pennsylvania, the couple used her white skin to hide in plain sight.

I

n the 1800s many enslaved people in

the United States, especially those

who lived in the Deep South, made

valiant efforts to escape to freedom

in the north. Many of the most well-

known stories, like that of Harriet Tub-

man and the people she helped ferry

along the Underground Railroad, took

place under the cover of darkness to

avoid slave patrols and other local au-

thorities, but Ellen Craft and her hus-

band, William, took a different approach.

Their daring escape took place in the

broad light of day.

The Organizers

Ellen Craft was born in 1826 in Clinton,

Georgia. Her father, Col. James Smith,

was a white man and her first enslaver.

Her mother, Maria, an African American

woman, was also owned by Smith. Ellen

was fair-skinned and resembled Smith

and the children of his marriage, so much

so that people frequently

mistook her for one

of them.

Tradition

says that it

was this resemblance that led to Ellen’s

owner giving her at age 11 to his daughter,

Ellen’s half sister, as a wedding gift in

1837. Young Ellen went to live in Macon,
      Georgia, about 15 miles from where she
      was born. She worked as a maid there.
      History did not record when and how
      Ellen met the man who became her hus-
      band, William Craft. He was born in
      rural Georgia in 1824. The same person
      enslaved his entire family, but cruelly
      separated them through the course of
      William’s childhood. In his memoir, Wil-
      liam recalled: “My old master also sold
      a dear brother and a sister, in the same
      manner as he did my father and mother.
      The reason he assigned for disposing of
      my parents, as well as of several other
      aged slaves, was, that ‘they were getting
      old, and would soon become valueless
      in the market.’”
      William himself was sold at age 16. He
      had been apprenticed to a cabinetmaker
      as a child, and his skills were so strong
      that his new owner hired him out as a
      carpenter to other slaveholders. William
      was paid for this work, and, despite his
      owner collecting most of his earnings,

Journey

to Liberty

1850

After passage of

the Fugitive Slave

Act endangers their

freedom, the Crafts

move to England.

1848

Unwilling to have

children while

enslaved, the Crafts

plan an escape to

the northern free

states.

1846

Ellen marries William

Craft, an enslaved

cabinetmaker who

belongs to another

household in Macon.

1837

Ellen is separated from

her mother when she is

sent to Macon, Georgia,

as a wedding present for

her white half sister.

1826

Ellen Craft is born in

Clinton, Georgia, the

daughter of a white

slave owner and a Black

enslaved woman.

WILLIAM CRAFT, 1840S PORTRAIT

“[A]s my wife was nearly white, I

might get her to disguise herself

as an invalid gentleman, and

assume to be my master.”

FOTOSEARCH/GETTY IMAGES