One Couple’s Epic Journey From Slavery To Freedom

Feature Interview With Author ILYON WOO

Author ILYON WOO’s latest book Master, Slave, Husband, Wife: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom is one of the most riveting, suspenseful books I’ve read in years. It shares the remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who fled slavery through an ingenious blend of trickery and disguise, with Ellen passing as a disabled, wealthy White man and William posing as “his” slave.

Ellen was the daughter of her first enslaver which is how she came about her very light complexion. She concocted an outfit which fashioned her as a wealthy white male enslaver who is disabled and seemingly dependent on the support of her slave, which was her husband William. 

The couple began their daring escape in 1848, at a time when the U.S. was divided between states that banned slavery and those that embraced it. From their enslaved life in Macon, Georgia, they began an 800 mile trek to Philadelphia in the free state of Pennsylvania, with a carefully crafted plan to travel by train and boat in disguise. 

Embedded throughout the story is the centuries-old narrative in the U.S. where Black Americans with no visible African ancestry are able to “pass” as White, avoiding the prevailing anti-black racism and discrimination common during the time. Their “Crafty” ruse (no pun intended)  allowed the husband and wife couple to make their escape across nearly 1,000 mines by gaining uncommon access to steamboats, carriages, and trains that transported them from bondage in Georgia to Northern free states. 

Over the course of their journey, they were able to dodge slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who could have revealed their true identities. This adventurous tale eventually brought them celebrity status and attention throughout the nation. They began drawing enthusiastic crowds while appearing at public events with such notable figures as abolutionists Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown. 

Despite this newly found freedom and acclaim, their lives were still fraught with risk. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans were held accountable for returning escaped slaves like the Crafts to their slave state. Facing the likelihood of being snagged by slave hunters from Georgia, the Crafts mounted their next move, resulting in their departure from the United States for safe passage to Canada. 

This true American love story is an exquisite reminder of the libertarian principles of life, liberty and freedom for all. As expressed by Imani Perry, author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation: 

“Master Slave Husband Wife tells one of the most important stories of American slavery and freedom. With prose that is suspenseful, brilliantly detailed, historically precise, and simply gorgeous, Woo depicts the Crafts and their historic role in antebellum America stunningly. This is a story that will stay with you for a lifetime.”

Here at “Black Books, Black Minds” we recently had the opportunity to interview author Ilyon Woo about her path to writing the book as well as some key takeaways for readers. 

What was the major catalyst behind your decision to write “Master, Slave, Husband, Wife?” 

Two major sparks lit my decision to write this book: First, the Crafts’ own 1860 narrative, Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom, a remarkable, page-turning, gut-wrenching account that made for a reading experience that stayed with me for over twenty years. I owe this reading experience to Professor Robert O’Meally, who assigned the narrative in his graduate seminar on the “Literature of Passing” at Columbia University.

The catalyst that inspired me to write a version of the Crafts’ story was an archival discovery in Macon, Georgia—the Crafts’ starting point. There, I came to hold in my hands the documents by which Ellen and William Craft were each given away or mortgaged by their enslavers. With this discovery, I knew that these traces of their history needed to be told. 

Were there any findings that particularly surprised you during your research for the book? 

There were so many surprises, one after another. One claim that astonished me was that of a woman who met the Crafts in Pennsylvania, and asserted that she had seen a pair of tiny child’s shoes among Ellen’s belongings. The Crafts themselves never spoke of having had children in slavery, and this claim cannot be verified, but it made me stop in my tracks.

In what ways do you believe your book can spark new discussions about the role of Black history in present day discussions about racial freedom?

I hope that my book will encourage more people to see Black history as American history, and to see American quests for freedom, such as that of the Crafts’, not as fixed events, but processes, with deep resonance today. Many readers have commented to me how contemporary the Crafts’ story feels. My larger hope is that by looking at the traumas of our nation’s past and embracing new heroes like the Crafts, we can find novel insights into the present.

How has writing this book served as a vehicle for your own personal and professional growth as a writer, historian and public intellectual? 

Writing this book has been a transformative experience for me. I had to throw away all my old ways of writing, start from scratch, after a terrible first draft. I did some crazy things to find a new way forward, including writing the entire next draft in verse. As I traveled across the country, looking for clues about the Crafts, my view of my country, too, transformed. I was struck as much by the presence of the past as its distance, in the buildings, the shape of the streets (still navigable by nineteenth-century maps), and the landscape.  

What are a couple of key takeaways that you hope readers of your book will acknowledge and embrace?

I hope that readers will come away from the book feeling as if they have been immersed in this explosive period in American history, as if they have been in company with this extraordinary couple, William and Ellen Craft, and ultimately, have new appreciation for the Crafts as true American heroes. I hope they, too, may be inspired, as I have, not only by the example the Crafts set in the past, but the models they are for our present and future.  

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