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

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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 ...

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Ellen and William Craft - Craft Court

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

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