National Park After Dark - The Daring Escape of Ellen and William Craft: Boston African American National Historic Site.

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

Follow along as we are introduced to freedom seekers Ellen and William Craft on their 1,000 mile journey to the north. After being enslaved their entire lives, they decide to risk it all to find freedom and create a life they always wanted. It's not an easy journey, as Ellen disguises herself as a white male and William's enslaver. They face many challenges and people who would go to extreme lengths to make sure they never gain freedom. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Beam: Use code NPAD for $20 offBetterHelp: Get 10% off online therapyChirp Wheel: 10% offFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress.

Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to,

alter, or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles in organizing its powers in such a form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. The Declaration of Independence, formed on July 4, 1776, guaranteeing equal rights for all people and stating if the government were to ever interfere with that, citizens can intervene. When implementing these laws, though, the United States forgot about some people. They forgot about the African Americans they were enslaving. When William and Ellen Craft faced cruelty and a life of no freedom, they challenged it. They risked everything and their lives to be the people who would challenge these laws.

To be those citizens who would alter the power. of the government, just as the Constitution was written for them to do. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I have zero clue of where we're going for this episode. New England? Somewhere? East Coast. I feel like I'm on a theme here because we are going to Boston. We're back in New England.

We're back on the East Coast. We are going to be going to the Boston African American National Historic Site. I have never heard of this. And when I tell you where it is, you're going to be like, I've been here. And I had no idea that I was here. And I thought that this would be a good park to go to because today is Martin Luther King Day. So today is, I know for a lot of people, you know, this is a day where we have a vacation day or we get some time off or whatever it is. But this is a whole day that is also meant to remember history and that of sluble.

slavery and trying to abolish it and to really pay attention to that history. And one of the things that I really, really love about national parks and the national park system is that it's not only built to preserve landscapes and wildlife, like the badlands, Denali, Yosemite. It's also meant to preserve history. And that is exactly what the Boston African American National Historic Site is here to do. It is here to preserve of history of slavery and the abolishment of slavery. Okay, where is it? I'm dying to know. Okay, so it is actually, you're going to die when I say this because you've definitely been here. It's in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. What? Where? It's just outside at the Boston Commons. No. Yep. I need to look up a picture. Can you send me a picture or can I Google it really quick?

Like, am I going to visually recognize it, do you think? So the thing about the National Historic Site is that it's not just a building. It's not comprised of one building that you can go into and visit. It's actually comprised of 15 pre-Civil War buildings that are in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. So it was established in 1980 to preserve these buildings that were known to house the free African-American community in Boston. And this was all connected by the Black Heritage Trail. It's a series of different buildings that are involved in the Underground Railroad in abolishment of slavery and where historically important things happened.

Okay. So that makes a little more sense because I was envisioning like a particular location that was sticking out and I just blindly didn't realize. But okay, this makes a little more sense now and I feel a little bit better about my sense of awareness now. Yeah. And there are definitely signs about it. So I'm sure we've probably walked by them and never noticed. And now it's pretty high on my list to go visit because I'm like, how have I walked by this so many times in my life and I've never been here? But it's super interesting. And when I tell this story, I think you're going to be even more interested in visiting this area because it does. It holds so much history here.

As I said, this was established in 1980 to preserve these buildings. That same year, President Jimmy Carter also signed a building. to establish the Afro-American Museum in Ohio and to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. And that park obviously is in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. And his legacy and his leadership

during the American Civil Rights Movement. It preserves places like the church that he was baptized in, his childhood home, his gravesite, and a lot more different buildings that are in relation to the history of Martin Luther King. And when Jimmy Carter signed this bill, he said, the two bills that I will sign today represent a three-pronged effort to preserve a vital but long-neglected part of American heritage, the history and culture of Americans of African ancestry and their role in the history of our nation. And just as like a very, very brief overview of slavery, because I think for the most part we've all learned about slavery. but I just want to touch on it a little bit for time frames and things like that.

But the history of slavery actually goes back hundreds of years. It began throughout the 17th and the 18th century where people from Africa were being kidnapped and brought to America to serve as laborers for productions of things like tobacco and cotton and different farming. And this was mostly in the South. And while the numbers aren't exact, it's estimated that during this time six to six, 7 million people were brought to the U.S. That's so many. That is so, so many.

Most of it was in the southern states, and that was because the northern states' economy didn't need. It wasn't as useful for them to enslave people because it was more industrialized up north, where down south it was all plantations and farms, and they needed the labor. Eventually, it became widely known of the extreme cruelty and the horrible conditions that these people were going through. slavery ended up being completely abolished in the northern states around 1804. By the 1830s, the fight for abolishing slavery really began, but it wasn't until 1862 that the

Emancipation Proclamation happened and it freed all enslaved people. But then, of course, after that, there's segregation and there were a lot of issues with white supremacy and a lot of things going on after that. But for this episode, we're going to really focus on during the time that slavery was still in existence. My first kind of like eye-opening experience, and I hate to say it's an experience because it's literally just a movie that I watched. And to say it was a movie is putting it lightly, I'm pretty sure it was like a multi, multi-part series in cinematic format. I was a kid. It was like I was kind of watching it as my family was watching it like just in passing but yeah. It was called Roots. Do you remember that? It's like a 70s movie or 70s

series. It's actually a book too. It's a thousand page book that I've read actually. I'm sorry. You read the book? Yeah, I read the book. I have it actually not next to me but I have it on my bookshelf. Yeah, it's a Roots is essentially it's a book that starts from the very beginning of slavery back from when people were going to Africa and kidnapping people

in their villages. And then it goes throughout time and generations of family from the beginning all the way to the end. Have you seen those series that I'm talking about? No, I've only read the book. It's like that memory I haven't thought of in years

because I was little. I can't even, I don't even think I ever talked to my family about that. It wasn't like, what did you think of that? And like, you know, it was just kind of like it was on. They were watching it. And I was there. And I definitely, that was my first experience with understanding, or at least beginning to understand what slavery was about in this country. And I can't believe you've read the book. I actually, I've read a lot of books about black history. So the first book that I ever read was actually in school. And it was what I was. introduced to for history.

It was, we would have things like during Martin Luther King Day that week, we would always do history about slavery and what was going on. But the first book that I read, it was called Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. And it's not a true story, but it's based on what a family would have gone through during the times. And we read it and I remember just being so appalled of what was going on. and I was in fourth grade, you know, and it was the first time I had ever even heard that this was something that happened in our history. And then I ended up reading the whole series because it was a

whole series of books, like in my free time. Other people were reading like Captain Underpants and I was like all about black history. And then I also loved reading about the Holocaust. So I was like, I'm like 10 years old and other people are reading those books. And I'm like, this is, and I have. I've always been drawn to the stories of people who have been oppressed who have fought so hard for their livelihood. And it's always been something that's really, really interested in me and has been really inspiring to me. So researching this episode was actually really interesting because I had, I read a book for this episode and I had never read this book. And I had actually really never heard of the people that we're going to talk about today either. Okay. This is just what,

this is why we're friends, just so you know, like that little fact that you're, just shared with me. It's like, okay, now I get it. It all makes sense. The books I would read as like a nine-year-olds. Just like the whole, the picture you just painted of Captain Underpants and reading about the Holocaust, like I just get it now. So, okay, I'm ready. So tell me a story. Okay. Well, we'll start a little bit more into the Boston African American National Historic Site, just some of the things that it preserves. So it preserves buildings that were used in the Underground Railroad, helping to bring enslaved people to freedom, like the John Corbin House. And this was the home of John Corbin, who was an abolitionist and a civil rights activist. And he was also one of the most

wealthy African Americans in Boston at the time. And he dedicated all of his time to abolishing slavery. And he also founded the Massasoit Guards, which was a black military company that was built to protect residents from slave catchers that would come to Boston trying to bring free people back into slavery. The National Park Service wrote about these preserved buildings and what they said was the historic buildings along today's Black Heritage Trail were the homes, businesses, schools, and churches of thriving black communities that organized from the nation's earliest years to sustain those who face local discrimination and national slavery. Struggling towards the equality and freedom promised in America's documents of national liberty.

And another building that this park preserves is the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House. And Lewis Hayden was once an enslaved person who had escaped. And afterwards he became an abolitionist leader. And he actually became an elected member of the House of Representatives. And he was extremely active in the Underground Railroad Operations. And his house served as a place for escaped, enslaved people to seek refuge. among the people that he protected in this house were two people by the name of Ellen and William Kraft. And it's their story that I want to tell today.

This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling point and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Ellen and William Kraft were born into slavery. Ellen Craft was born in Clinton, Georgia, around 1826. Her mother was named Maria and she was an enslaved person. Ellen's father was named James Smith, who had been Maria's enslaver. So during this time in slavery, Maria's mother would have been seen as property, and there were

no rules against sexually assaulting people that you owned, essentially, which is horrible to say. It was really common for white slave owners to have children with enslaved people. And that was how Ellen was born. Okay. And while there were laws that still... you weren't allowed to kill enslaved people. There were huge loopholes around this. So at one point, the Constitution of Georgia had written, any person who shall maliciously dismember or deprive a slave of life shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in the case like offense had been

committed on a free white person. And on the like proof, except in the case of insurrection of such slave and unless death should happen by accident and giving such slave moderate correction. So essentially what this was saying was you were allowed to punish people physically and if you accidentally killed them, it was okay. As long as it was an accident. I was going to say the language started out promising, but then took a quick, quick turn. Yeah, and it was essentially this law that it's like, oh no, you're not allowed to, but like you can as long as you say it's an accident. It went on to say, if any slave who shall be out of the house or plantation where such slave shall live or shall be usually employed or without some white person in company with such slave, shall refuse to submit to

undergo the examination of any white person. It shall be lawful for such white person to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such slave. And if such slave shall assault or strike such white person, such slave may be lawfully killed. God, this is just like so barbaric. And it wasn't even that long ago. No. And these are real written laws that were in place and enforced and abided by. And I would say even to go as far as far as taking advantage of by white people. Like it was a crutch and kind of not even a crutch, but just something that they were like, well, it's the law. So, and it's like, well, guess who wrote those laws? Do you think any people of color were involved in that? No. It's just kind of like, it's just a lose, lose situation for people of color. And it had been for so long. So I'm excited for

your story to see if it, like, they make a turnaround with this and what they do to reverse some of that because it's just so infuriating to even hear about. It is. And I think that it's so important. to bring up these conversations because I know for me, I learned about this stuff in elementary school, you know, and I feel like that's really the last time that anyone talked to me about slavery. And there's so much history in it and there's so much that really happened. And it's like they say, it's our job to talk about history and remember history to prevent it from happening for future generations. It's our job to tell other people and younger generations what happened. So this history can carry out forever. Yeah. And you're so right. I mean, I remember doing a project on Harriet Tubman. I was in third grade.

Yeah. That was it. It's like the education stop there. And I mean, maybe that's a reflection of our own school system in New Hampshire. And maybe it's very different in other areas of the country. I know especially for my school, we were predominantly white. So I don't know if that makes a difference if we were going to go to a school that had a more mixed population of people, if it would be more important to highlight it. That's a good

point. But of course, I've been reading books since I was a child. But it's just like a disservice, you know, because there are people that I'm sure would have been very excited to learn about history like this for the sole purpose of wanting to know more and do and taking that and doing better in the future, but they were never given the opportunity. And yeah, great. We were exposed to it when we were in third grade, but how far did you really get into what the atrocities of slavery really meant? Like, no one's going to tell that to a third grader. I remember, like, doing a presentation on, like, Harriet Tubman was born here. She was a leader in the Underground Railroad, which helped people the end. You know, like, that's pretty much it. Yeah, but it's our history.

We need to know about it and we need to talk about it and we need to remember it. But anyway, Going back to Ellen Craft, when she was born because her father was white, she was actually born with very, very light skin. Even though her father was a slave owner, Ellen was born into slavery with her mother. She was not considered a part of her father's family at all and was actually an enslaved person to his family at birth. Ellen, because of her skin color, was often mistaken as her enslaver's family. And this made James Smith's wife. He did have a wife when this all has. happened, very upset. And she was exceptionally cruel to Ellen and she treated her worse than anyone

else that was there. And even though Ellen was James's daughter technically, she was property to him. And this meant that she could be sold or traded to another family at any time. In fact, during slavery, your skin color didn't always factor into whether or not you were a slave. There were actually a lot of white people who were sold into slavery. Horrible parents would occasionally sell their children or white children would be kidnapped and then sold into slavery as well. And there was actually a big case down there where two children who were German immigrants came over on to a boat into Louisiana. Their parents unfortunately suddenly died and they were left there alone and they ended up being sold into slavery instead of returned home. And it wasn't

until almost 20 years later that some relatives came over on a boat and saw one of the girls working in one of the shops. And they went to court over it to fight for her freedom. And they ended up getting her freedom, but her sister was never found. Oh, no. Okay. So even though Ellen looked like she was predominantly white, it didn't matter. She was still enslaved. James's wife was so tired of having her around the family that she actually ended up giving her a away as a wedding present to her daughter to be enslaved with her new family. She's being treated like property. She gets traded. She's like, go to you're now this person's slave. This is going to sound like such a, I don't know, kind of like a no shit statement, but I just don't understand how you can

treat somebody, another human being like that, despite whatever the times or, you're, the laws at the time like you're still a human and you're i don't know like i just don't we live in a time that there are laws that i don't agree with that have to do with the treatment of whether it be certain people or animals or whatever that i don't agree with but there's a moral compass within myself that I feel like a lot of people feel. And for that to just go totally, it just seems like in this time that was completely ignored or not a thing. And I just don't get how it could not be a thing. Because you're still a human. I think looking at it from our point of view and our perspective, we're like, of course, this is horrible, this is wrong. But back then, there were so much

propaganda that was labeling all African Americans and all black people as worthless. So looking at it from ours, we're like, how could you ever do that? Yeah. I get it, but I don't get it, you know? Yeah. Which I feel like I'm speaking for everybody right now. Like, I understand what you're saying. And it's just, it is the injustices and the craziness that it is is really difficult to face.

when you actually sit down and think about it. It's a hard pill to swallow that this is what our history is and this is what the world is good. And the world, yeah. This is why it's so important to talk about it. Yep. Back to Ellen. Sorry.

Like, I feel like we just keep getting- We're going to go on so many tangents today because we just hate this so much. So Ellen was given to her daughter to be enslaved with her. And she was treated relatively well. She wasn't put into hard labor. She became a maid in the family's home. And her daughter was very kind to her. She didn't do correctional punishments.

I want to say it was a good situation because it's obviously not, but it was a better situation than many other people in her situation were in. Gotcha. And Ellen was always regarded as their favorite as well. So she was treated a little bit better than even the people who are around her. William Kraft was also born into slavery in Georgia. Georgia. And William accounts in his book that he ends up writing, which we'll talk more about and was a huge resource for me for this story, running a thousand miles for freedom, about his

experience and his story. And he talks about how his enslaver was kinder to him than other enslaved people because he was taught a trade. And he was taught to become a cabinet maker and to work in different constructions and become a building craftsman. He talks about his enslaver as being a kind Christian man or was something that he thought for many years of his life until he sold his mother and his father when they got too old to work. And also he sold two of his siblings at the same time. So he lived a majority of his younger life with his family all around him and when they got too old. And when he needed money, a big part of it was his enslaver was having financial issues. So when he needed money, he sold people.

And eventually his financial issues became too great. And the bank took over all of his property. His property included William and his sister. William was only 16 at the time and his sister was 14. And the bank took possession of them and sent them both to auction. I again, I just, I really don't want to keep saying how fucked up it is because we'll be here all night, but just know that I'm appalled. When they arrived to auction, they placed them both on the oxen stand and people began calling out their bids. His sister was sold first, and she was sold to a planter who lived very far away.

They took his sister off of the stand and gave her to the man. And while William stood there hearing all the bidding calls that were being made for himself, he saw his sister being pulled into a cart. And at that time, he quickly asked a friend on the platform who was also someone who was enslaved to run and ask the man who she was with to wait a moment so he could go say goodbye before she left. And when his friend returned, he told William that the man had said that he had too long of a way to go and he couldn't wait. So at that moment, William turned to the auctioneer and he got down on his knees and he begged and he prayed that he would let him step down off of the auction stand to go say a quick goodbye to his sister because he knew that he was probably never going to see her again. The auctioneer responded to this by grabbing William by the throat and yelling at him.

He said, get up. You can do the wench no good. Therefore there is no use in you seeing her. And then when William looked up, he saw his sister staring out the window and crows. crying before they drove off. That makes me want to cry, you know? Mm-hmm. And another thing that, like, I'm sure he was aware of at the time being 16 and living

an enslaved life as far as kind of like not only is he, you know, he has the knowledge that he's never going to see her again, but also of probably what is going to happen to her as a young woman who's enslaved. Yeah. You know? He talks about that in his book, and he said he couldn't even explain the amount of pain and how infuriated he was to know that his innocent little sister and siblings were going to go through that. Yeah. It's a, we'll talk about it more towards the end, but it was a really good book, and I definitely will recommend and give everyone information on it.

He ended up being auctioned off, and he was sent with an enslaver in Maycone, Georgia. And it was here where Ellen and William first met. They quickly fell in love and they dreamt of marrying and starting a family together. And Ellen wanted children of her own really badly, but the thought of raising children in slavery was terrifying to her. She had been ripped away from her mother and she had seen many other children ripped away from their own as well. And she just couldn't bear the thought of that happening to her own child. So they dreamt of marriage, but they didn't want to do it while they were enslaved. They began dreaming of all these different ways that they could escape this life.

And at this time, not all people of color were enslaved. There were instances in the South where people were freed. But most of these occurrences were in the elderly who were no longer valuable to work. They were going to have to wait until the end of their life for potential freedom. And it wasn't guaranteed. But they had heard that slavery was being abolished in the North. And it was rumored that in Boston, Massachusetts, sets there was no slavery at all. They even considered going to Canada to get out of the country entirely.

They thought of plans and strategies to aid their escape, but every avenue they looked at seemed too dangerous and impossible. Reasons why it was impossible was first. It was illegal for any type of transportation to carry them without their enslaver present. So traveling would be a huge feat. It was a thousand miles until they were above the Mason-Dixon line, which would be. where they would be able to reach freedom. They needed to get to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Georgia without being caught. And it was undoubtedly that when their enslavers realized that they had escaped, they would hire professional slave hunters that would be sent out with bloodhounds that would track them down. And this wasn't just a job for them. This was like a fun sport for these men. It was something

that they enjoyed and they would go out. It was like hunting an animal for them. And they would literally go out in the worst fashion to find them. And they knew that they would end up being dragged back to slavery and that they would be separated for life and they would be put into the worst labor jobs that there were out there. Or worse, they would end up being tortured or to make a statement of them of trying to escape, they would be publicly murdered. Yeah, like they would be used as an example to deter other enslaved people from Even thinking about it's like, we'll see what happens if you try and do anything shady against us.

Like this is what's going to happen to you, which is just so terrifying. But it just shows how desperate people were for freedom. Exactly. And Ellen and William were weighing all of these horrible options. They're like, you know, we could escape to freedom or there's a really big chance that this might happen to us. And we don't have it that bad. They're like, our enslavers aren't that horrible to us. You know, they're kind of in this like almost comfort zone of like we don't have it as bad as other people.

So should we leave? But if we don't leave, we're never going to be free. We're never going to have a family. We're never going to live a life if we don't. Eventually, they decide that they can't risk it. It wasn't worth it. They decided that they were just going to get married and they would accept and settle into their lives under slavery. And they did for a little while.

but their dream of being free stuck in their minds, and they couldn't help but want for themselves their own jobs, their own families to raise someday into a world that was kind. It was in December of 1848 when they derived a new plan, and this plan seemed crazy enough that it might just work. Slaveholders were allowed to bring their enslaved people to any part of the country they wanted, and that included to the free northern states. And this happened. And this happened. an idea in William. Because his wife was so light-skinned that she passed as a white person, she might be able to get away with passing as a white man traveling with him and he would pretend to be a slave to him. Okay, I get it. So she's going to pretend to be a male slave owner and

William is the enslaved person that she pretending to be a male is owning. Yes. Okay. And when Ellen heard this idea, she immediately was like, no, no, no one's going to believe that. She was worried that people were going to recognize that she was, first off, was not a man, and that this was all a sham. She was going to have to travel like this for a thousand miles. So she's terrified by this thought. There's so many things that can go wrong again. And then as she thinks about it, she wasn't regarded as a person. She was or a woman. For here, she was merely something that someone owned. And she absolutely hated this reality and she couldn't stand it. And she wanted more than anything to escape it.

So after thinking about it long and hard, she eventually agreed. She told William that she wholeheartedly believed that God was on their side and they would help them make it to freedom. And she agreed that if he were to go out and purchase a disguise for her to wear, then she would do it. So this created a little bit of another obstacle because in the state of Georgia, he was not allowed to trade or purchase any goods without the permission of his enslaver. So he needed to find someone who would sell him articles of clothing. There were some people who would do it, though, because they wanted the money and they didn't care.

And also, it was unlikely that if a white person sold him anything that they would ever get caught. Because at the time, if you were enslaved, you were not allowed to testify against anyone in court. So there would be no, he said, she said. his side would never be told. Oh, okay. He ended up finding people actually very quickly that were willing to sell him stuff, but he didn't want to bring attention to himself. So he went out and he bought one article of clothing at a time.

Gotcha. So it didn't seem like he was buying any disguise or anything like that. I was just like, oh, I'll buy like a little handkerchief here. I'll buy a shirt over here. And then she actually made her pants that she would wear. And because she had been the favorite enslaved person of her. the house, their favorite maid, she had access to a small room in the house to herself where she was able to sew and had access to some more clothes. And she actually had access to a large chest

that was filled with clothes from the household. So she was able to stow away the clothes that they had bought into this chest where no one would see it. Okay, so kind of just stashing it out of sight. Yeah, not in her own belongings because if she's found with it, she could get in a lot of trouble. so she hides them in the house. Their next step was devising a way that they could actually escape before anyone noticed that they were gone. If someone noticed that they were gone immediately, they would call in these slave hunters to find them right away,

and that would really lessen their chance of actually escaping. But at this time, it wasn't unheard of that kinder slaveholders, like the family that she was with, would allow their favorite enslaved people a few days of vacation from work around Christmas time. And it was around Christmas time. Oh, so in other words, a head start. Yeah, exactly.

They're like, if we can be gone for a few days and we're expected to not be around, we might be able to get away. So Ellen persistently requested time with her husband for the holidays. And after many times of asking, it was finally granted. And she was at the time, you had to have a pass. So she was given a written pass allowing her to be away for a couple of days. William was also able to get a similar letter. And when he got the news of this, when he got his letter, he quickly found Ellen to tell her the really good news and handed her the letter.

But this was another obstacle. To be enslaved meant that it was unlawful, to be taught to read or to write. In some states even had harsh punishments that were enforced if you were caught like fines and imprisonment. In Virginia, there was this woman by the name of Margaret Douglas who taught this little girl named Kate to read the Bible. When the judge found her guilty of a crime, he told her, you are guilty of one of the vilest crimes that ever disgraced society. And the jury has found you as so. You have taught a slave girl to read in the Bible.

No enlightened society can exist where such offenses go unpunished. And she was sentenced to a month in jail and had to pay the costs of the entire trial. What? Okay. Saying it's the most vile thing. Like, that is the most outlandish garbage. Like, how insane is that? Okay, first of all, it's the Bible.

And even, it's just like there's so many layers to that, what you just said. It's like, okay, so the text that she was teaching a child to read is supposed to be a text that is, you know, treat others how you wish to be treated, you know, love and peace, etc., etc. and now, you know, like, here's this, I'm assuming white male judge saying that what she did was vile and he couldn't even believe it and society can't go on. It's like, come on. Like, yeah. Jeez. Yeah, it's, it's insane. It's absolutely insane when you look at it.

And it's like, you're the vile one, sir, actually. Thank you. Yeah. At this time, women didn't have any rights either. Right. Exactly. So we couldn't get being a woman, you know, let alone. tell a man what we think.

No, and also part of why she had to pretend to be a man traveling was because women didn't travel alone. So that was a whole other feat right there is she had to dress as a man because if she was traveling alone as a woman, she would get spoken to. Someone would talk to her and she would probably end up being found out. So that's just a whole other thing. She is a person of color and she's a woman and now she has to pretend to be a man. like she is going through so much in this time period.

So it was reasons like this that they had never had the opportunity to read or write. So as excited as they were to be granted this time away, quickly that excitement brought more anxiety. And part of this was because it was custom for travelers to register their names at hotels. And when they got on trains and boats and things like that, they had to sign their name. And they had no idea how to do that. And then Ellen thought of a plan. She would create a poltice to wrap around her writing hand in a bandage. And this is a material made from plants and it's often used for soreness and inflammation. So she would put that on her hand, wrap her whole arm in a bandage in a sling, and pretend that she was sick and injured. And she was going to pretend to have an inflammatory disease that she was traveling. with. So whenever she was to register somewhere, she could ask the officers to write her name for her. So smart. Wow. So clever. Very clever. And then she also realized that she was going to

face another obstacle where she didn't have any hair on her face as a grown man would have. So she needed to be able to hide part of her face. So she did the same thing. She created a bandage and put that plant material on her face to pretend to have that inflammatory disease. And she wrapped her whole jaw line to hide the fact that she didn't have facial hair. Wow. That's taken it a step further. Wow. Okay. Did she like chop her hair up? Did she have long hair? I'm guessing she cut it. Yes. So the night before they left, her husband cut off all of her hair. Okay. And this was also something that was really upsetting for her because she liked her hair and this was just another thing that she had to do she would never have cut all her hair off if she didn't have to if she

didn't have some other option but this was the only way that she could think that freedom was even possible yep so he did he cut off her hair and he also bought her a pair of green glasses because she said you know though more of my face we can cover the more comfortable i'm going to feel so let's put some glasses on my face too. So she had glasses, she had her face wrapped. She was really trying to hide the fact that she was a woman. And it was really important for her to hide the fact that she was a woman because she wanted it to be believable that she was out with her enslaved person. And it was important because at this time, your complexion was enough to get you arrested and questioned by any white person who was walking down the street if you were traveling without your slaveholder. She was

She needed to be there and they needed to have a real cover story. It was also appropriate to be severely publicly flogged by officers if you were questioned. Even if you did happen to be a free person, if you didn't answer the questions appropriately, they were able to publicly punish you. And even if you did turn out that you were actually a free person, they were still going to find you for the trouble of questioning you. That's absolutely ridiculous. In every way.

So the night comes that they are going for their vacation. It starts that following morning. That night, Ellen gets fully dressed. They were packed to leave. They're getting ready to walk out the door. And they stood outside the door for a moment. Before they walked out, Ellen just burst into tears. And then she began sobbing.

She began thinking of all the ways that their plan could go wrong. And the fact that if it did, they would be killed or separated forever. She buried her face inside William's chest and she silently cried. After several minutes of crying and praying, she looked up at William and told him that she was ready to go. She wiped her tears, shut the door behind her, and walked out the door. When they reached the train station, they had to separate. The train was segregated between black and white passengers, so William left Ellen and hopped into the car that he knew that he would have to ride in. Then Ellen, fully dressed as a man, went to the ticket counter and requested a ticket for himself and for his slave, 200 miles away to Savannah. It would be their first

stop on their long journey. After acquiring the ticket, she gave her luggage to be stowed away and she hopped on the train with many other passengers that were around her. Her ticket allowed her to sit in one of the best carriages, along with all white people. Just before the train was about to leave, William looked out his window to see a man that he knew, who was a cabinet maker who he had worked with that was standing on the platform. This man, when he had heard about their trip, had a gut feeling that they were going to try to flee and went to the train station as quickly as he could to find them. He began rapidly looking through the carriages for both William and Ellen. William put his head down low and shrank into the smallest form he could manage and closed his eyes. He waited to be dragged off the train at any moment.

But just before the man reached his carriage to look inside, the train bell rang and began to take off. Was this another enslaved person that was trying to stop them? Or was this an enslaveor that was like, I have a bad feeling about what you guys are up to? It was an enslaver that was looking for him. Oh, shit. Okay. I didn't know if it was like someone that just had a feeling that, you know, he worked with. that was like, I think I know what you guys are going to do.

I didn't know if it was like a concerned friend that was going to try and stop them. No, it was a concerned you're about to get to freedom. Okay, okay, okay. That was close. Yeah. Then when the train began moving, Ellen, who had kept quiet and her head looking out the window the whole time since she sat down, finally looked around to the carriage around her. And to her horror sitting in the same carriage on the same.

seat next to her was someone that she knew. His name was Mr. Gray, a man who had dined with the very same family that she was a maid with the night before. Oh, what is, I forgot to ask, what does she do about her voice? Is she just going to now be a mute? Or like, what is the plan? She doesn't talk very much. And we'll go, we'll go into that too. Okay. She doesn't talk very much, but he didn't, in the book, he didn't mention if she changed her voice or not. I imagine so. I feel like there would be at least a small attempt to do that, but then it could come off as fake. Yeah.

It's hard, yeah. Yeah, they didn't really mention what she did with her voice in the book. But this man who was now sitting next to her was someone that she actually knew well. It was someone that she had known since childhood. Immediately her first thought was that he was there to apprehend her and saw through her disguise as a male. Her heart was racing as thousands of thoughts rushed through her head of what she could do. And after a few moments where he didn't say anything, she decided that he might not actually recognize her and decided that it would be best to remain silent and avoid eye contact with him completely.

After a little while on the train though, Mr. Cray tried to start a conversation with her. He said, it's a very fine morning, sir. Ellen's heart was racing. If she responded, he might recognize her voice, or if she looked at him, he might recognize her face. A few moments passed, and he said it again. It's a very fine morning, sir, and he said it louder this time. And again, Ellen ignored it. A small giggle came from some people around him, and then the man repeated again and even louder this time.

Ellen turned her head, looking down, and said, yes, before she turned back to the window. Another man on the train made a comment about how it must be awful to be deaf. And then they changed the subject to something else amongst each other. Yeah, it's like, yeah, sure, that's what's happening. I'm deaf. Oh, my God, the anxiety. And it's like, sir, mind your own business, please. Okay, like we're not here to have chit-chat.

She would have been, I mean, I was going to say like when you first said, well, he was next to her and like she was worried about him recognizing her. I was thinking like, well, luckily for her, everyone's up like so much up in their own mind that a lot of times they're not aware of their surroundings. But that's right now and that's our experience, especially with phones and like, you know, we just got a lot of other things going on. back then, like, I mean, you're just going to talk to people. Like, that's what you did. You'll find that everyone's in everyone's business on this journey. It's like, get away from me. Like, can you just leave? If I don't answer you the first two times, like, take it out as a loss. Like, maybe I don't want to be talked to. Move on. Yeah. Okay. Later that afternoon, they did arrive to Savannah, Georgia. They made it over there. They hopped onto a bus from the train.

and headed over to a steamer boat that was heading to Charleston, South Carolina. And when they got on the boat that evening, Ellen went straight to her room. She wanted to avoid any contact with any people as much as she could. And when she said that she was going in for the night, William actually ended up getting questioned about it. People on the boat thought it was very odd that she would be going to bed. And I say she, but they thought she was a man. And William explained that he was very sick with rheumatism, which was that inflammatory disease that they had been saying. And that was why he went to bed early was that he wasn't well.

He continued on to ask them if there was anywhere on the boat where he was allowed to sleep. And they responded by telling him, no, there's nowhere here that you're allowed to sleep. So you can find somewhere on the floor to sit and out of everyone's way. It was essentially what they said to him. So that night he didn't sleep. He just sat up all night waiting for it to be morning. And that following morning, when William found Ellen, she was sitting at a breakfast table right next to the ship's captain. He had taken interest in her health and was asking questions and making sure that he was okay.

And William, who was still in this role of being a slave to Ellen, stood beside her and cut up her food for her because her arm was still in a sling. So he's next to her pretending to be this enslaved person and waiting on her while she's pretending to be a man talking to the highest up person on this ship. Not only that, she's pretending to have an ailment she doesn't have. Exactly. Oh my God, this is so stressful. Like I didn't know I was going to be stressed tonight and here we are. And it's like, okay, maybe this is like this particular conversation may have been like you said he was interested in her or his health and if he was okay and that's all well and good but like why are you up here talking to me? This is the worst time. It's like get away. I'm just trying to at my face is in a bandage. I'm not

well. Get away from me. Like I don't want to chit chat right now. You know? Yeah. And no one and you'll find throughout this entire journey no one feels that way at all. Great. As an introvert in someone who just gives off the please don't approach me vibes. I hate this through and through. And you're not even someone who is avoiding people because it could save your life. My life isn't on the line. Yeah. So they're going through a lot right now. Like they're being traumatized over and over again already. Like they're so upset and they have to put on this brave face the entire time. And Ellen, she has to put on this strong, nonchalant act this whole time where William, he's not really allowed to talk that much. So he's there, but Ellen is the one who has to have conversations

with all these people. Yeah, like he's playing a part, but she's the lead role here. She's really carrying the team, and it's up to her to really sell this whole thing. Exactly. And while they were at breakfast, the captain commented on how attentive William was and expressed that he was really concerned that they were heading to the north. And he actually told Ellen that she should not be bringing a slave to the north that he had to be very, very careful there because William might seem very well behaved and very attentive to Ellen right then. But as soon as they crossed that border into a free state, he was going to escape and was urging her not to continue the trip. It's like, okay, duly noted, thank you. It's like, okay, sure. And before Ellen could respond to this,

another man spoke up, and he was what was known then as a slave dealer in the South. And overhearing this conversation, he had some words to say about it. He seconded in the opinion of the captain that bringing William North would surely mean losing him and he would escape to freedom. He then offered to buy him from Ellen right then and there. What the hell? This is all in front of William, too. Like, remember, they're really treating him like he is property. He's not a person. they're not regarding him as such. This is all a conversation that is happening right in front of William, and he can't even say anything. And this is all happening to his wife, the person who he loves.

And she held it together, and she said, I do not wish to sell, sir. I cannot get on well without him. And he snarkly replied and said, you will have to get on without him if you take him to the north. And then he continued to offer to pay for William and to take him off of his hands. And when Ellen responded by saying that she was confident, William wouldn't leave and would be faithful. This man became enraged. And he started yelling that there was no person of color that was faithful to a white person. And he started yelling about this and got very, very upset.

And then only a short while later, another person chimed into the conversation after hearing Ellen say thank you to William for helping her during breakfast. And he told her that he shouldn't be saying. saying thank you to him and that that was considered spoiling him and that she should use fear to get him to do what she wants. And he said, don't you see, when I speak to my Ned, he darts like lightning. And if he didn't, I'd skin him. Oh my God. It's so cruel and so horrid.

And then moments later, the person that he was enslaving, Ned, walked in and he lashed out on him and started screaming and swearing at him to work better and to work harder. And after that, he turned to Ellen and said, see, this is the way that you speak to them. They'd never dare run away. And then he started telling him, do not take William to the north. So now she's got all these people surrounding her. She's become like this target.

Like a target. Spectacle. Yeah. She's become the spectacle to all these people who are so, all of the people she's trying to assess. escape she's now surrounded by and are outwardly talking to her about how much they hate her, but they don't know that because they don't realize that she's an enslaved person and hate William. And, you know, it's just she is in such a really tough situation here and she is holding it together

this entire time. I guess I just never really considered that other people would concern themselves with how they conduct their business with their own property. And that seems really detached and cold to say, but that's just how they viewed it then. But it's like, how is it any of your concern? Like, to you, I am a white male slave owner and this is my property and I'm doing what I, you know, like, why is it any of anybody else's business? And part of that was because of the free states, because people felt so strongly about keeping people

enslaved that they could not bear the thought of anyone escaping to freedom. So people were making it their own business to prevent that from happening. So when they heard that they were going Pennsylvania, they felt it was their like duty to get involved. God, I'm like, I'm red right now and I don't know if it's the wine or because I'm pissed. But yeah, it's, this story is just so infuriating on so many levels. Down to the basic, like, just leave people alone. Like, in, Unless they're doing something, oh my God, I just had a revelation. I'm like, unless somebody is doing something wrong, why are you butting in? But to them, they thought that this was wrong.

Exactly. They thought that this was wrong and they felt super strongly about it. Wow. Wow. Okay. It kind of makes sense, but it also doesn't go on. So after these conversations, Ellen remained calm and she simply stated that she needed William and she needed to go to the doctors in Pennsylvania that they were the best.

which was actually true to the time and that she wouldn't be able to get there without William. So her only option was to bring him into the north. When they finally reached Charleston, they hurried off of that boat and they went straight to their hotel. They didn't want to risk running into anyone who would recognize William because he was not disguised

and they just wanted to get away from everyone. The following morning, they needed to purchase another boat ticket to take them from Charleston, South Carolina, to Wilming to North Carolina, and then to Philadelphia. When they arrived to the ticket booth, Ellen asked to purchase a ticket for her and for her slave. And I say it like that because that's literally how she had to ask it. Right. Yeah. As soon as it was mentioned that she was going to Pennsylvania, the ticket man looked up suspiciously

and asked Ellen to sign her name and Williams to check in. Ellen pointed to her arm and asked if he would be able to do it for her. but this seemed to enrage this man and he exclaimed that he just wouldn't do it. Just as this was happening, one of the men Ellen had spoken with on the ship before came forward and offered to sign it for her and pretended to know friends that they were visiting up in the north

and he signed her name as Mr. Johnson and slave. Afterwards, he explained that in Charleston they were very strict about allowing enslaved people to head up to the north and would need someone to vouch for them. And he basically said to Ellen, he's like, this isn't anything against you. Like, I know he's being rude, but it's because you're going to the north with the slave.

So you need someone to vouch for you or no one's going to let you up. So he unknowingly did them a huge favor, not knowing that that was exactly what she was doing, was escaping to freedom. So they were able to continue on to their journey and board the ship. And it was December 21st, 1848 when they reached Baltimore.

And this was the very last slave board. before they would be into the free states. Where's the, I don't know, where's the line technically at this point? Can they kind of like breathe a sigh of relief that they've made it? They can't until they're in Pennsylvania. And that's actually, that's where the Mason-Dixon line is Pennsylvania. Okay. Being this close created a lot of excitement for the two of them,

but also with that became a lot of anxiety. They were so close now, and if they were to get caught, it would ruin absolutely everything. They were really close to freedom, but they knew that being this close to the border meant that people were going to be looking a lot harder for freedom seekers. William walked Ellen to her carriage as they went to board another train that would bring them to Pennsylvania. He brought her to her carriage and then he headed back towards the carriage that he was allowed in because again, this is separated. And as he was doing this, an officer saw him and immediately pulled him to the side and started questioning him. He asked him where he was going and who he was with. And when William said to him that his master, which was what he referred to Ellen as, was in the carriage, he demanded that he grabbed him and bring him out.

He told him that no enslaved person was allowed to get on the train to Pennsylvania unless their enslaver had a good reason for it. When William got back onto the carriage and told Ellen what had happened, her heart sank. This was it. They were going to get caught right before they made it to freedom. They got off their train and they were brought into a room with an officer. He said, it's against our rules, sir. It's against our rules, sir, to allow any person to take a slave out of Baltimore into Philadelphia unless he can satisfy us that he has the right to take him along.

Ellen spoke up and explained that she had bought a ticket for both of them in Charleston for Pennsylvania because he was very ill and therefore they had no right to hold them here and not let them through because they had bought their ticket somewhere else. He responded by saying, Right or not right, either way, we're not letting you go. The room fell silent for a few moments, as neither of them dared to speak a word. These officers had every ability to throw them in jail if they were detected.

And in this moment, it felt like a huge mistake to be there because they felt like they were about to be found out. Just moments later, the bell for the train to leave rang, and a quick decision had to be made. And the officer looked for a moment like he had absolutely no idea what to do. And then, against all the odds, he said he found no issue for why they couldn't board the train. And they both ran for the train and jumped on moments before it took off. Oh, my God. This is like you can't. Wait, did you say this is a movie? They turned this into a movie.

Um, no. There's like short little, uh, old, old films that you can watch that are like 20 minutes, 10 minutes kind of things. But no, it's not like a movie. This needs to be made into a major motion picture. It truly does. Like this is has everything that I would assume people would want to see. Like it has suspense and want to know about. And it has a great story behind it. And there's just, it has everything. And I'm assuming there's a happy ending since we're talking about it. And he wrote a book after about it. So, yeah. And I did read an article that in 2016, there was talk of creating a movie. But as far as I know, I couldn't find one that was put out. Okay. Well, hopefully it's in the work somewhere because this is something that's like,

and I'm not just saying for pure entertainment value. I'm saying like this is like a gripping story. Like people should know about this. Yeah. They both eagerly sat on the train in their own carriages, and Ellen was in the best one as she had been before and William was in another, and this ride was long and the anticipation to get there kept them mostly awake for that night. William had dozed in and out of sleep when he suddenly heard, wake up, we're in Philadelphia. As he opened the window and looked out, he saw all the lights of the city sparkling. When the train stopped, they unloaded their bags as quickly as they could and motioned a cab to pick them up.

Once they left the platform, they both let out a huge sigh of relief. Ellen squeezed William's hand. Thank God, William, we are safe. And then she burst into sobs. They made it to freedom on Christmas Day. They were met with warm welcomes from abolitionists. who set them up with a place to stay. After such a stressful and terrifying journey,

Ellen and William needed to rest and relax. The trauma and survival mode that they had just endured was exceptionally draining, and they couldn't keep pushing on. They needed time to just settle. And they ended up being housed with an extremely kind and white family, which at first Ellen was very uncomfortable with,

as she believed that they would, absolutely turn them in. However, this family was extremely kind and very welcoming, and Ellen and William ended up staying with them for a month. The family housed them, fed them, and even began to teach them how to read and write, and before they left, they were able to write a few words and sign their names. When they reached Boston, Massachusetts, they began their new lives, and this was where they moved into the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House, which is preserved in the National Historic Site that we talked about earlier. And they lived here for the next two years. Here while they were living there, William opened up his own cabinet making shop near 51 Cambridge

Street. I looked at pictures and it's not, I don't believe it's a building anymore, but you can go to that address. And William and Ellen became abolitionists themselves and participated in anti-slavery meetings and shared their story of how they were able to escape to freedom. Two years after they escaped to freedom in 1850, the fugitive slave law was enacted. While Boston had been a safe haven where the majority of views in the amount of abolitionists had been able to safely keep all freedom seekers from being captured and brought back into slavery, this law completely changed things. This allowed law enforcement to arrest any individual who's suspected of escaping enslavement. It also allowed enslavers to acquire an affidavit that would allow

them to send people to the North to capture the people that they once enslaved. Ellen and Williams' former enslavers successfully sent two people with warrants to Boston to apprehend them. This time, though, William Craft was willing and able to fight back with force, if necessary, and they had abolitionists in Boston helping them avoid capture. First, Ellen was taken out of the city where she would not be found, but William stayed behind to guard his shop, and he was armed. He recalled in his book, one night, Louis Hayden and I had a keg of gunpowder under his house in the Phillips Street, formerly South Act Street, with a fuse attached ready to light, it should any attempt be made to capture us. and the abolitionist community were able to stand together and actually get the slave catchers after them out of Boston. With this fugitive slave act enacted, they were at a huge risk of being brought back into slavery and they couldn't stay in Boston.

They decided that it was better for them if they were to flee to England. Before they left for England, though, they remarried under the laws of a free state. They ended up crossing the border into Canada and leaving from their country. to England, and when they got there, they continued advocating against slavery. They spoke at lots of events. That is where William wrote the book, A Thousand Miles for Freedom. And William Craft frequently started traveling to West Africa to speak and encourage the end of the slave trade that was going on there. Eventually, when the American Civil War came to an end and slavery was completely abolished, William and Ellen moved back to Georgia. They had a daughter together, who they eventually moved to

Charleston with and lived out the ends of their lives there. Whoa. That was such an intense one. And one that just, that's it, right? I'm not interrupting you. No, that's the end of my story. Okay. Well, it's just like the sheer bravery because we've covered stories that have a lot to do with people being brave and having to make really difficult decisions and being placed in situations where they have to overcome something. But this is a whole another thing. And this is something that we've never discussed in terms of a story before and something that we've never really put on the table of like, take a good look at this and really consider what these people had to go through and the decisions they had to make. And what was on the line. It's just like that was crazy.

That was so crazy. And so they went to England and lived their lives there for a little bit before coming back to settle. I had no idea about the, what does it call that law that got passed? The fugitive slave act. Yeah, I didn't know anything about that. It was passed for five years. So it ended up being terminated by a judge or superior court or something in Wisconsin who ruled that it was unconstitutional. It ended up being five years later in 1855 that that happened. But they had to escape sooner than that. I mean, as soon as it was enacted, they ended up leaving within that year because they already had people out there trying to get them. Yeah. And it wasn't safe for them to return until slavery was abolished. And they did.

They made big strides in being abolitionists going to Africa. They never stopped fighting for freedom. And then eventually they did get to come. come back and they did get to live in their home states under freedom with a family and what they wanted the lives that they had exactly what they wanted exactly and something that I thought of when you were telling the story of like how scared she was the whole time and you know how this turned out in their favor but I wonder how many people attempted the same thing and it didn't turn out well for them Yeah. Because we hear these stories of heroism and being brave, and we celebrate that,

rightfully so. But we also have to remember there are thousands of people who showed the same bravery and did the same things. And we just don't know their stories probably because it didn't turn out well. They're not remembered or written down in history the way that this particular story was written down. Well, that was part of why I really liked his book, A Thousand Miles, freedom. It is by William Kraft. It is his words of his story. And he talks about in his book, people that he knew that weren't so lucky in situations that happened with people who didn't escape and people he met along this journey that weren't going to be free. And he does touch on that. And one part that in his book that really, really stuck out for me was when he was talking about his wife and it was

the moment that they were leaving. And it was the moment where they stood at the door. And she just stared out the door and just began to sob. It was just like that was her moment where she decided, I'm doing this. Like there's no turning back. You know, she stood there. She sobbed. She cried for this horrible journey that she was about to go on. And then she took a step and she did it anyway. Right. And they made it. And like I said at the beginning of this episode, one of the things that I really love about the National Park Service is that we're not just preserving landscapes and wildlife. We're preserving really important history like this that lives within our national historic sites. It makes me want to pay a lot more attention to the national

historic sites because there are these stories that live there that need to be known and shared. And if you go to them and you see them and research them, you're going to find more and more stories that are really similar to this one. I think there's over 25 national historic sites that commemorate black history and slavery and things like that. So there's stories like that. But then there's also national historic sites that are remembering completely other topics and other things too.

So this story really made me more inspired to look deeper into our national historic sites. Yeah. They're definitely the underdogs for sure. And I think that we've discovered that. Like, I think we, it's safe to say that. both of us kind of when we started the show and kind of worth tossing around ideas and like stories that we wanted to cover, we were drawn to, you know, Yosemite and Yellowstone and the big cahoonas of the national park system here in the United States. And they're great.

And we love them. But there are so many other stories and ones of huge importance. Like we're discovering, you know, with this story when we did the story of the Calipapa leper colony in Molokai, like that was a national historic site. And, you know, they're not as widely known or advertised. People don't flock to them by the millions like they do in some of the big parks. But they're just as worthy. I applaud you for choosing this one because it was so well done. And I really enjoyed learning about it.

I'm really happy to hear you say that because this is, like I said earlier, this is the stuff that I love to learn about. It really, really is. And it's funny because we went into this podcast and when we first started, you know, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to talk about serial killers and true crime and stuff because that's what I watch on TV and stuff. But really when I've really, as we've gotten into this, like, I really gravitate towards the survival stories, whether that means. out in the wilderness or a story like this because this is a story of bravery and survival. And it's stories like this one that I really love researching and it's one that I really think is important for other people to know because I think Ellen and William Craft's story deserves to be known for generations to come.

And it's important to know about it and be appalled by it, to be appalled by how they were treated and recognize how horrible it was and recognize the important and difficult decisions that they had to make to escape and get out of it. So I really, really liked researching it and telling it. Thank you so much for doing it. And I really hope that people got something from it because, like you said in the beginning of this, today is a day that, you know, people celebrate because they have an extra long weekend or they get time and a half at work if you are working or, you know, know who Martin Luther King Jr. is, but that's kind of all the surface level thought you give to it. And it's important that we take the time to spend a little more time learning about it, even if it's

through an hour and a half podcast. Like, it's more than you probably would have done today. So I think that that's a really great, great thing. So thank you for choosing that story for today. Yeah. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I hope you all enjoyed it. it. I hope today as Martin Luther King Day, you have learned some history that you haven't learned. If you did know this, I hope you researched some other history that is important to Martin Luther King Day. But I think that it's everything that we have today. So, in the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye, everyone.

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