Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
by Ilyon Woo
Summary
Ilyon Woo recounts the true 1848 escape of Ellen and William Craft, an enslaved couple from Georgia who fled north with Ellen disguised as a white gentleman and William posing as her servant. The narrative follows their tense journey through trains, steamships, and hotels across the slaveholding South, then their celebrity as abolitionist speakers and their flight to England after the Fugitive Slave Act threatened their freedom. The book stands out for its meticulous research and its portrait of a marriage and a daring act of resistance that exposed the absurd logic of slavery and race in nineteenth century America.
Historical Context & Significance
The book retells the famous real escape of Ellen and William Craft, who in 1848 traveled openly across the South in one of the most celebrated fugitive slave cases of the era.