NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 9he was allowed to keep a small portion
of his wages for himself. Though Ellen
and William were considered property
and still enslaved, they had privileg-
es. Among them was obtaining passes
from their owners, allowing them to
leave their homes and travel to places
around Macon.
Careful Plans
The Crafts married in 1846 but were
concerned about starting a family. Ow-
ing to the traumas of family separation
in their youth, they wisely feared being
separated from their own children. The
only way they could build a family and a
future together was to escape Georgia.
At the time, the state held one of the
largest populations of enslaved people
in the country, so any plans to escape
would need to be cautious and clever.
Knowing the difficulties of trying to
escape during the night, the two had
devised a plan to outsmart enslavers and
slave patrols. They would travel by day
to the northern states using Ellen’s fair
skin to hide in plain sight. Ellen would
pose as William’s owner, but the two
quickly recognized that people would
be skeptical of a white woman traveling
alone with a Black man. They decided
Ellen would pose as a young white man.
She began by cutting her hair short
and dressing in men’s clothing. Shedonned a top hat and green spectacles
to cover the fear in her eyes because she
was anxious of someone catching them
along the trip. Ellen also applied a poul-
tice to her face to cover the fact that she
lacked facial hair.
Neither William nor Ellen had learned
to read or write as it was illegal in the state
of Georgia to teach an enslaved person
how. This led to them bandaging Ellen’s
arm as well to prevent her from having
to sign any of the registration papers for
travel or lodging. If they were asked by
anyone why they were traveling up north,
their story was that they were going to
see a special doctor, whereby the ban-
dages would indicate injury or disease.WILLAM CRAFT recalled in his
memoir how he and Ellen de-
vised their plan: “[S]lavehold-
ers have the privilege of taking
their slaves to any part of the
country they think proper, it oc-
curred to me that, as my wife
was nearly white, I might get
her to disguise herself as an in-
valid gentleman, and assume to
be my master... in this manner
we might effect our escape...
with little difficulty I went to
different parts of the town,
at odd times, and purchased
things piece by piece, (except
the trowsers [sic] which [Ellen]
found necessary to make,)...
So when we fancied we had
everything ready the time was
fixed for the flight.”PERFECT
DISGUISEMARY EVANS/ACIELLEN CRAFT’S APPEARANCE DURING HER
1848 ESCAPE, 1860 ENGRAVING