Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biography
Amazing but true escape
Wow. Ilyon Woo's biography of the lives of William and Ellen Craft, Master, Slave, Husband, Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom is a masterful work that tells an amazing but not widely known story about two slaves who escaped to the North and became well-known abolitionists and social activists.
The fact that the Crafts escaped from slavery and made it a mission to educate the public about the horrors of slavery through public speaking emphasizes their courage. But so does the WAY they escaped slavery. William and Ellen Craft escaped in full view of others with Ellen masquerading as a wealthy, ill young man traveling with his faithful manservant. They publically rode trains, took coaches, and interacted with others, all while playing the role of master and slave.
Ilyon Woo's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of 2024 is a skillful work of meticulous detail and multi-faceted research. Woo mined facts from thousands of historical documents, including newspapers, letters, books, diaries, travel itineraries, narratives, legal papers, and archival materials, to recreate the story of William and Ellen Craft.
But Master, Slave, Husband, Wife is much more than the story of these two remarkable people. It's also the record of dozens of extraordinary people who played a part in the drama, from those who helped the Crafts, to the prominent abolitionists of the day, to the politicians on either side of the slavery debate. It's a story that crosses oceans and covers miles...from Georgia to Pennsylvania, to Massachusetts, to Canada, to England, and back to the United States.
Every page is filled with facts and the moving story of those who risked their lives for the promise of freedom.
Truth is stranger than fiction in Master Slave Husband Wife
Even super-imaginative authors couldn't devise anything stranger than the actual story of William and Ellen Craft.
Ellen Collins Craft is a fair-skinned female slave who looks like her father, the plantation's master. She's given to her own half-sister as a slave. Ellen falls in love with William Craft, another slave whose master allows him to earn money on his own time by using his skills in cabinet-making. The love-struck couple decides to escape slavery so that, together, they can raise a family in freedom.
In four harried days, they make disguises, plans, and props, praying that their idea will work.
The true story used to sway opinion
After multiple trials, the Crafts make it to Philadelphia where they are embraced by the Quaker community. They begin a lifelong goal of educating others about the horrors of slavery. From Philadelphia, they go to Boston, and wherever they travel, they give speeches, learning more about how to make their presentations dramatic and persuasive.
Fugitive Slave Law
I knew the gist of the Fugitive Slave Law from high school history, but it's not something I had thought much about. While I had a generalized idea of the law, I did NOT understand the harsh and brutal reality of a law that tore the country apart. Master, Slave, Husband, Wife presents an in-depth, clear-cut understanding of how the Fugitive Slave Law affected not just the enslaved population, but individual communities and the country as a whole.
It showed the divisiveness of the law and the political furor that occurred because of it.
For the first time, I understood the Fugitive Slave Law not just as a piece of legislation, but as a dynamic force that dramatically impacted the lives of thousands and the culture of the country as a whole.
The Future After Freedom...
It would be nice to think that after finally gaining their freedom, the Crafts came back to the United States and "lived happily ever after."
However, Master, Slave, Husband, Wife is NOT a work of fiction, and the Crafts did NOT live happily ever after.
Throughout their lives, they were activists fighting for equality and justicein spite of the difficulties and prejudices they faced.
The Appropriateness of the Title
The title, Master, Slave, Husband, Wife indicates that various roles are integral to the story. Those roles underpin the entire book...the roles of master and slave, obviously. But just as important are the roles of husband and wife. William and Ellen Craft chose to create non-traditional roles as husband and wife. They live separately while William goes to Africa to find his ancestors and establish a school there. This deviation from the norm causes people not to embrace the Crafts as they would a couple that conformed to the expectations of society. Their very strength and ability to act independently of each other worked against them.
Northerners. Southerners. Abolitionists. Slavers. Helpers. Hunters.
So many roles. So much history. So much to know.
A deep, fascinating read that showcases one couple's devotion to each other, their courage to fight for freedom, and the impact of a law that divided the nation.
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