Person    | Female  Born 1826  Died 1891

Ellen Craft

Categories: Race Issues

Countries: USA

Slavery abolitionist. Born in Clinton, Georgia. She and her husband William were enslaved and escaped to the north of America. Although born of mixed-race parents she was very light skinned and, dressing appropriately, was able to pass as a white man with William posing as her servant. Their escape was widely publicised and they were threatened by slave catchers. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, they emigrated to England. Here they lectured publicly about their escape, and published Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, 1860, which tells their story.

They returned to the USA in 1868 and opened an agricultural school for freedmen's children in Georgia.

The English Heritage page is very informative.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Ellen Craft

Commemorated ati

Ellen and William Craft - blue plaque

Ellen Craft, c.1826 - c.891, and William Craft, c.1824 - 1900, refugees from ...

Read More

Ellen and William Craft - Craft Court

William and Ellen Craft, black American former slaves and campaigners against...

Read More

Other Subjects

Lord Teignmouth, John Shore

Lord Teignmouth, John Shore

Anti-slavery campaigner.  Born St James Street, Piccadilly but brought up in Romford.  1769 went to work in Bengal where he was one of the first to learn a number of the local languages.  Like many...

Person, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, Religion, Indian Sub-continent

1 memorial
Priscilla Bright McLaren

Priscilla Bright McLaren

Anti-slavery movement and women’s suffrage. Executive member of NUWSS. Priscilla Bright McLaren was an activist who served and linked the anti-slavery movement with the women's suffrage movement i...

Person, Gender Issues, Race Issues, Scotland

1 memorial
Henry Laurens

Henry Laurens

 American statesman.  South Carolina planter and slave owner.  1783 negotiator for the Treaty of Paris.

Person, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, USA

1 memorial
Albert Woodfox

Albert Woodfox

Albert Woodfox was an American known as one of the Angola Three (Robert King, Herman Wallace and Woodfox) former prisoners who were held at Louisiana State Penitentiary in solitary confinement for ...

Person, Law, Race Issues, Tragedy, USA

1 memorial
Thomas Huxley

Thomas Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley. Biologist and anthropologist. Born Ealing.  An early adherent to Darwin's theory of evolution, he was a strong supporter while also pointing out what he saw as flaws.  At the R...

Person, Education, Race Issues, Science

2 memorials