This paper is aimed at researching the lives of William and Ellen Craft after their published work, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, in 1860. The research will first glance at the important events following the end of the narrative. Secondly, this paper will address some issues that William and/or Ellen voiced participation in while their time in England, along with their return to the United States. Finally, the paper will conclude with an insight to the reaction of the public of their narrative.
The narrative of William and Ellen Craft focuses on the collaborative effort of two runaway slaves and their unbreakable bond throughout facing numerous obstacles. Their bond doesn’t break with the end of their journey, however, and this is evident for a number of reasons. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 forced their hands in moving across the Atlantic to the shores of England. This led them to an encounter with Mr. Henry Wells Brown, whom they went on “a speaking tour” (Salzman, vol.2, 671) in order to raise abolitionism efforts during their early time in England. Brown anxiously wrote a letter to the “Liberator, which…announced January speaking dates for himself and the Crafts in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts” (Heglar, 84). This is the first time where the Crafts’ speak publicly and attract attention to themselves and their story. Once having reached the safe haven of England, both William and Ellen Craft “took a post teaching at the Ockham School” (Salzman, vol.2, 671) in 1851. The school was designed to blend together traditional classroom work with subjects such as “farming, carpentry, and other crafts” (Salzman, vol.2, 671). This work was not enough to satisfy neither William nor Ellen because they expanded rapi...
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... Craft’s recognized that their work would be read by a British audience at first and therefore compared and contrasted treatments received in the United Kingdom and in the United States. The Crafts’ awareness that they were writing for a British audience rather than an American audience is clear, such as when “they clarify differences between American and British railroad cars, and when they explain American slang expressions” (Heglar, 87).
It should be noted that gaining an identity in autobiographical writing is crucial “because literacy becomes a way of creating an identity where before there was none in the public discourse” (Finkelman, vol.2, 190). Although the identities of William and Ellen Craft may have been revealed partially before their narrative, their own words and experience have a much greater impact on the reader than if told by a secondary source.
Slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries consisted of brutal and completely unjust treatment of African-Americans. Africans were pulled from their families and forced to work for cruel masters under horrendous conditions, oceans away from their homes. While it cannot be denied that slavery everywhere was horrible, the conditions varied greatly and some slaves lived a much more tolerable life than others. Examples of these life styles are vividly depicted in the personal narratives of Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince. The diversity of slave treatment and conditions was dependent on many different factors that affected a slave’s future. Mary Prince and Olaudah Equiano both faced similar challenges, but their conditions and life styles
Lawrence J. Friedman: Gregarious Saints: Self and Community in American Abolitionists, 1830-1870. Cambridge, Mass., 1982.
Blassingame, John. The Slave Community. United States: Oxford University Press, 1972. Print. October 31st 2013.
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Inevitably, all things evolve over time. From decade to decade, a person can find many differences as in slight variances between popular fads and so forth like styles of fashion and trends. Even writing takes on a new form and shape after awhile as we see in the essays “Our Secret” by Susan Griffin and “States” by Edward Said. These two reveal a more evident truth of a different use of language than it is customary to read just as it is seen in Michael Herr’s novel Dispatches, which is written in the style of “New Journalism” where real events are told in a story format or narrative to appeal to more readers. In that same fashion, Griffin and Said break from the a-typical mold of professional writing to better illustrate their respective ideas of past experiences and exile defining who a person will or has become.
Just like any other narrative, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” by Harriet Jacobs is a narrative telling about a slave 's story and what slaves go through as they execute the socioeconomic dictates of their masters. It is important to note that more than five thousand former slaves who were enslaved in North America had given an account of their slave life during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of their narratives were published on books and newspaper articles. Most of the stories of these slaves were centered on the experiences of life in plantations, small farms owned by the middle class natives, mines and factories in the cities. It is undeniable that without those slave narratives, people today will not be able to know how slaves
The subject of self identity and “finding yourself” is a very popular topic. Some people may go on six month hikes, or take a year off of work and travel. Others write books, journals and poetry to express how they feel and get out all of their emotions on paper. People do these things so that they can find out who they really are, and take the time to get to know themselves. The discovery of self identity is represented in these three poems, “ White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey, “We Wear The Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay.
Despite each individual having different circumstances in which they experienced regarding the institution of slavery, both were inspired to take part in the abolitionist movement due to the injustices they witnessed. The result is two very compelling and diverse works that attack the institution of slavery and argue against the reasons the pro-slavery individuals use to justify the slavery
In “One Writer’s Beginnings” by Eudora Welty, she thinks back to how her experiences as a child paved the path to her career as a writer. Welty’s language conveys the intensity and value of the experience by word choice, imagery and use of detail.
The Anthology, “American Autobiography: Retrospect and Prospect” by Paul John Eakin offers a collection of essays that focus on a major period in the history of American literature. The essays focus on diversity, identity and the varieties in the literature of American Autobiographies.
The quest for freedom is a reoccurring theme throughout the lives of Harriet Jacobs and Anne Moody in their respective biographies Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Coming of Age in Mississippi. Both narrators’ families are trapped: Jacobs and her children by dehumanizing bonds of slavery and Anne and her family by institutional poverty in the rural South. The roles these women take on to free themselves from these burdens define their notions of freedom, as well as their later activism. Harriet Jacobs’ and Anne Moody’s respective desires to be maternal and fiscal protectors of their families defines their notion is freedom, which in turn effects their beliefs and actions in their respective reform movements.
The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick
Summary: The story of William and Ellen Craft is a fascinating story of an African American couple who were able to defeat the odds and escape slavery. The document is an anti-slavery document, written during the civil war. Ellen Craft was woman who was passionate about being a wife and a mother. William Craft did not want to raise a family as a slave. They wanted their freedom more than anything. Ellen used her physical appearance, her wit and her passion to escape slavery. Not knowing how to read or write their enthusiasm to live a different kind of life drove them to freedom. Autobiographies of ex-slaves in America have become a foundation of African American literature. Slavery accounts were for a long time not considered. They give us a unique glimpse into the souls of slaves. Many of the narratives published are windows into slavery and are first person accounts. Numerous were used for political endeavors and now are part of history,
One’s identity resembles the lifelong outfit he or she decides to put on. One chooses what clothes to wear and also what one’s identity is each and every day, but just in seconds that reputation or attire could be ruined. One’s identity is similar. A person’s identity is a huge part of his or her daily life and all it takes is one bad decision to ruin it, yet many other things play into creating someone’s identity. . In the short stories “Fish Cheeks”, “Superman and Me”, “More Facebook Friends, Fewer Real One’s, Says Cornell Study” and “The Necklace”, all have supporting evidence throughout the text which will support how one’s identity is created. Close friends and family, culture, and outer appearance all play important roles towards
[1] William Gass addresses the topic of uniqueness versus universality in relation to autobiographies in “The Art of Self.” Gass asks, “What makes me unique? No; what makes me universal; what serves my reputation; what does not embarrass the scrutinizing, the recollecting self” (Gass, 50). He argues that one distorts their story so that it appears more attractive and acceptable because their priority is who they are remembered as by the public. Therefore, he states that autobiographies are, in a sense, fiction, with their main purpose being to tell a unique story. He questions the believability of autobiographies early, arguing that many people have lives that are so dull and uninteresting they feel they must “perform some feat… in order to