Ellen Craft (1826-1891)

Summary Label

Self-emancipated with her husband and moved to the United Kingdom.

Ellen Craft was born into slavery in Clinton, Georgia in 1826. In 1848, along with her
husband William Craft, Ellen escaped from slavery and traveled to the North eventually
arriving in Boston. She eventually moved to Great Britain with her husband where they became involved with the abolitionists by writing a book on their escape.

Title

Ellen Craft (1826-1891)

Date of Birth

1826

Date of Death

1891

gender

Female

Hometown or Region

Macon, Georgia

Freedom Status

Transition

Occupation

Seamstress

Biography

Ellen Craft was born into slavery in Clinton, Georgia in the year 1826. Clinton, Georgia is a small town right outside of Macon, Georgia. Ellen Craft was mixed-race, as her mother was a slave and her father was the plantation owner. Ellen Craft would later marry William Craft, where they would reside in Macon, Georgia. In Macon, Ellen was a slave who worked as a seamstress. In 1848, Ellen and her husband planned a harrowing escape to the North. After escaping slavery and residing in Boston, Ellen and her husband became involved with the abolitionist movement. It was through this that they met other abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison and William Wells Brown. After living in Boston for a brief period of time, Ellen and her husband decided that it would be best for them to move to Great Britain in order to live a safer life and spread their story. After arriving in Great Britain, Ellen’s husband wrote a book on their story called Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. This book helped propel the couple in the abolitionist movement, and it helped to depict their escape and showed the horrors of slavery in the southern United States. With the Civil War in the United States ending, Ellen and her husband moved back to Georgia, where they founded a school for newly freed slaves. It was not until 1891 that Ellen Craft passed away in Georgia, nine years before the passing of her husband William Craft.

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Connected Historical Actor(s)

William Craft (1824-1900)

Student Researcher

John Thomas Carter