Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery Paperback – 15 Aug. 2015

The Crafts are the kind of people who take the higher ground. Their story is enlightening, inspiring and humbling.

My wife enjoyed very much

How difficult it must have been to keep up the pretence of master and slave for this couple. It shows what a terrible life it was for all slaves and the dangers the overcame to be free.

We all take our freedom for granted and cannot visualise a slaves suffering but they were so brave to endure

A slave's perspective of slaveholders' feelings and opinions about slaves and what the former thought of all coloured people. An interesting story of a brave couple who proves that colour does not mean anything (Ellen is a white black woman) and belief is everything. A recommended read for those who want to understand that education is the only remedy to prejudices.

After I read a fictionalized version of William and Ellen Craft's daring escape from slavery in 1848, I searched the internet and discovered this amazing firsthand account, which was written by the Crafts in 1860 and published in England. The quality of this compelling narrative is even more admirable when one realizes that its authors didn't learn how to read or write until after they escaped from bondage.This true story of their lives as slaves and their harrowing escape to freedom is not a pleasant one, dealing as it does with the horrors of slavery and their desperate quest for freedom. But their story is well worth reading, since the repercussions of this shameful period in our nation's history are still affecting our lives today. Of the nearly four million slaves in the United States, 2.5% managed to escape to freedom. The long, dangerous journey to the north required great courage, careful planning, and--in the Craft's case--an ingenious disguise.Since William's wife was three-fourths white with very fair skin, he came up with the idea of disguising her as a young white male cotton planter traveling with his slave (William) to obtain medical treatment in Philadelphia. (The book describes their preparations and Ellen's disguise in detail.) The couple's journey by train and steamer from Macon, Georgia to Philadelphia was fraught with narrow escapes and the constant fear of capture by slave catchers. In Philadelphia, with the help of abolitionists, the Crafts found refuge with a family of Quakers before they traveled further north to Boston.Surrounded by abolitionists and other sympathetic whites, William and Ellen felt relatively safe in Boston for two years, until President Fillmore signed the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required that all escaped slaves--even in free states--be captured and returned to their masters. Fillmore even "gave instructions for military force to be sent to Boston to assist in making the arrest" of the Crafts.Relentlessly pursued by two slave catchers from Macon, William and Ellen narrowly escaped capture with help from members of the Boston Vigilance Committee, who harassed the slave catchers until the Crafts fled to Canada. In Halifax, they boarded a steamboat to England, where they lived for nineteen years and raised five children in freedom. They eventually returned to Georgia and founded a school to teach children to read and write--skills they'd been forbidden to learn as slaves.My online search found numerous articles and several films about the Crafts, but nothing came close to this beautifully written firsthand account. Their incredible story easily earns five stars and my highest recommendation!

The book that arrived is the same as advertised and in new condition. I highly recommend reading “Running a thousand miles for freedom”. It’s a short but compelling read written by former slaves who escaped to freedom. An incredible true story!

An most gratifying read; thank you for making it available. :)

Very enjoyable book. This autobiography is interesting qne compelling from start to finish. I have read many first person accounts about American slavery and escapes from slavery, but this story is definitely unique in many ways. The writing is eloquent and there is a lot of quotable material. Definitely recommend reading this one.

The anecdotes of whites selling their own into slavery were surprising. That sometimes white children were kidnapped into slavery was a shock. The recitation of the various laws that existed in the South as well as the North demonstrate why America is a hypocrite in its profession of being the land of the free. The Fugitive Slave Act (1850) sounds like something that is being used at the border in relation to treatment of immigrants fleeing violence in their countries of origin.I knew the story of the Crafts, but had never read the story told in their own words. It is something special to read English written plainly and eloquently.