Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom

First published in 1860, 'Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom' chronicles the audacious flight of William and Ellen Craft which is often known as the cleverest plot in fugitive slave history. Ellen Craft and William Craft were slaves in Macon, Georgia in the United States. With great daring and courage, they fled to the North in December 1848. Their remarkable escape was widely publicized, making them among the most famous fugitive slaves. Abolitionists were featured to gain support in the struggle to end the institution in the United States. The Crafts themselves had to move to England for twenty years where they wrote and published their story. In 1868 it was safe enough for them to return to Georgia and opened an agricultural school for freedmen's children in Georgia.