Richmond, Virginia. When they reached
Baltimore, Maryland, on December 24,
1848, the couple was one stop away from
freedom in Pennsylvania. The Crafts
had learned of conductors prohibiting
enslaved people from traveling to Phil-
adelphia. A Baltimore conductor did
halt them momentarily to validate that
William “belonged” to Ellen. Another
conductor, seeing Ellen’s bandages,
intervened and allowed them to board
the train. They were on their way. On
Christmas Day, the Crafts made it to
Philadelphia. Ellen cried out: “Thank
God, William, we’re safe!”
Farther to Freedom
Ellen and William stayed in Philadel-
phia for a short time. Less than a month
after arriving the two moved to a free
Black community in Boston, Massachu-
setts, a hotbed of abolitionist activity in
the United States. Luminaries such as
Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd
Garrison were among the leaders of the
movement.
In Boston tales of their daring escape
from Georgia earned them great respect.
They quickly became loud voices in the
abolitionist movement and traveled
around New England to speak out about
the horrors of slavery down south.
Ellen and William’s beginnings in
Boston seemed promising. William
returned to being a successful cabi-
netmaker, and Ellen worked as a seam-
stress. The passage of the Fugitive Slave
Act of 1850 made their lives uneasy.
The law made it illegal for residents
of free states, like Massachusetts, to
harbor or aid, fugitive slaves. It also
made it possible for federal officials
to seize suspected escapees and send
them back, without any trial.
Lucrative rewards were made for
capturing suspected escaped enslaved
people. The Crafts found themselves
targets of bounty hunters from Macon,Georgia. Willis Hughes and John Knight
attempted to capture the Crafts in Bos-
ton. An interracial group of Bostonians,
called the Vigilance Committee, protect-
ed Ellen and William. They moved them
to different safe houses around Boston
(and even outside the city), to prevent
them from being captured.
The Fugitive Slave Act’s threat of
kidnapping made it impossible for the
Crafts to stay in the United States. To
protect themselves, Ellen and William
moved to London, England, where they
became leading voices in the antislavery
movement there. William authored a
book about their experiences, Running a
Thousand Miles for Freedom. After spend-
ing nearly two decades in England and
having five children, the Crafts returned
to Georgia. They settled near Savannah,
where they opened a farm school to ed-
ucate newly freed Black students.—Tucker TooleFUGITIVE SLAVE
ACT OF 1850MASSACHUSETTS was a free state—slavery had been
banned for more than 60 years—but passage of the
Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 threatened its free Black
citizens, like the Crafts. The law appeared to strengthen
an existing clause in the U.S. Constitution that said
enslaved people who escaped to a free state did not
automatically become free; they could be seized and
returned to slaveholders. The 1850 act stripped away
northern states’ power over any of these cases and
gave it to federal commissioners, who were paid $
for every person they seized. Anyone who helped Black
people avoid capture could be fined or imprisoned.THE ACT ITSELF was a misguided effort to bolster slav-
ery during a time when slaveholding states’ power
was diminishing. The act had the opposite effect; it
generated a massive backlash in the northern states,
where citizens saw it as federal overreach and de-
manded stronger state protections for personal lib-
erty. The abolition movement gained momentum,
and the battle over slavery waged hotter than ever.1851 BROADSIDE WARNS BOSTON CITIZENS TO BE ON
THEIR GUARD AGAINST SLAVE CATCHERS.
PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMYNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 11