William and Ellen Craft

William and Ellen Craft, fugitive slaves and committed abolitionists, devised one of the most daring escapes from slavery in Underground Railroad history. Indeed, their 1848 flight was audacious for being strictly "above ground": lightskinned Ellen, disguised as an ailing white gentleman, and William, posing as a loyal servant, traveled openly by train, steamboat, and ferry all the way from Georgia to Philadelphia, staying in hotels along the journey. Because Ellen could not read or write, she wore bandages to explain her inability to sign papers as well as her dependence on the "slave" accompanying her. Once in the Northeast, the Crafts were embraced by leading abolitionists such as William Wells Brown and William Lloyd Garrison, and became active in the antislavery movement until the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law drove them, along with many other famous fugitives, to England.

William and Ellen Craft's...