Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom
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William and Ellen Craft >> Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom
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AFTER my wife had a little recovered herself,
she threw off the disguise and assumed her own
apparel. We then stepped into the sitting-room, and
asked to see the landlord. The man came in, but
he seemed thunderstruck on finding a fugitive
slave and his wife, instead of a "young cotton planter
and his nigger." As his eyes travelled round the
room, he said to me, "Where is your master?" I
pointed him out. The man gravely replied, "I am
not joking, I really wish to see your master." I
pointed him out again, but at first he could not
believe his eyes; he said "he knew that was not
the gentleman that came with me."
But, after some conversation, we satisfied him
that we were fugitive slaves, and had just escaped
in the manner I have described. We asked him if
he thought it would be safe for us to stop in Phila-
delphia. He said he thought not, but he would
call in some persons who knew more about the
laws than himself. He then went out, and kindly
brought in several of the leading abolitionists of
the city, who gave us a most hearty and friendly
welcome amongst them. As it was in December,
and also as we had just left a very warm climate,
they advised us not to go to Canada as we had
intended, but to settle at Boston in the United
States. It is true that the constitution of the Re-
public has always guaranteed the slaveholders the
right to come into any of the so-called free States,
and take their fugitives back to southern Egypt.
But through the untiring, uncompromising, and
manly efforts of Mr. Garrison, Wendell Phillips,
Theodore Parker, and a host of other noble aboli-
tionists of Boston and the neighbourhood, public
opinion in Massachusetts had become so much
opposed to slavery and to kidnapping, that it was
almost impossible for any one to take a fugitive
slave out of that State.
So we took the advice of our good Philadelphia
friends, and settled at Boston. I shall have some-
thing to say about our sojourn there presently.
Among other friends we met with at Philadel-
phia, was Robert Purves, Esq., a well educated and
wealthy coloured gentleman, who introduced us to
Mr. Barkley Ivens, a member of the Society of
Friends, and a noble and generous-hearted farmer,
who lived at some distance in the country.
This good Samaritan at once invited us to go and
stop quietly with his family, till my wife could
somewhat recover from the fearful reaction of the
past journey. We most gratefully accepted the
invitation, and at the time appointed we took a
steamer to a place up the Delaware river, where our
new and dear friend met us with his snug little
cart, and took us to his happy home. This was the
first act of great and disinterested kindness we
had ever received from a white person.
The gentleman was not of the fairest complexion,
and therefore, as my wife was not in the room
when I received the information respecting him
and his anti-slavery character, she thought of
course he was a quadroon like herself. But on
arriving at the house, and finding out her mistake,
she became more nervous and timid than ever.
As the cart came into the yard, the dear good
old lady, and her three charming and affectionate
daughters, all came to the door to meet us. We got
out, and the gentleman said, "Go in, and make
yourselves at home; I will see after the baggage."
But my wife was afraid to approach them. She
stopped in the yard, and said to me, "William, I
thought we were coming among coloured people?" I
replied, "It is all right; these are the same." "No,"
she said, "it is not all right, and I am not going to
stop here; I have no confidence whatever in white
people, they are only trying to get us back to
slavery." She turned round and said, "I am
going right off." The old lady then came out, with
her sweet, soft, and winning smile, shook her heartily
by the hand, and kindly said, "How art thou, my
dear? We are all very glad to see thee and thy
husband. Come in, to the fire; I dare say thou art
cold and hungry after thy journey."
We went in, and the young ladies asked if she
would like to go upstairs and "fix" herself before
tea. My wife said, "No, I thank you; I shall only
stop a little while." "But where art thou going
this cold night?" said Mr. Ivens, who had just
stepped in. "I don't know," was the reply. "Well,
then," he continued, "I think thou hadst better
take off thy things and sit near the fire; tea will
soon be ready. "Yes, come, Ellen," said Mrs. Ivens,
"let me assist thee;" (as she commenced undoing
my wife's bonnet-strings;) "don't be frightened,
Ellen, I shall not hurt a single hair of thy head.
We have heard with much pleasure of the marvel-
lous escape of thee and thy husband, and deeply
sympathise with thee in all that thou hast under-
gone. I don't wonder at thee, poor thing, being
timid; but thou needs not fear us; we would as
soon send one of our own daughters into slavery as
thee; so thou mayest make thyself quite at ease!"
These soft and soothing words fell like balm upon
my wife's unstrung nerves, and melted her to
tears; her fears and prejudices vanished, and from
that day she has firmly believed that there are good
and bad persons of every shade of complexion.
After seeing Sally Ann and Jacob, two coloured
domestics, my wife felt quite at home. After par-
taking of what Mrs. Stowe's Mose and Pete called
a "busting supper," the ladies wished to know
whether we could read. On learning we could not,
they said if we liked they would teach us. To
this kind offer, of course, there was no objection.
But we looked rather knowingly at each other, as
much as to say that they would have rather a hard
task to cram anything into our thick and matured
skulls.
However, all hands set to and quickly cleared
away the tea-things, and the ladies and their good
brother brought out the spelling and copy books
and slates, &c., and commenced with their new and
green pupils. We had, by stratagem, learned the
alphabet while in slavery, but not the writing cha-
racters; and, as we had been such a time learning
so little, we at first felt that it was a waste of
time for any one at our ages to undertake to learn
to read and write. But, as the ladies were so anx-
ious that we should learn, and so willing to teach
us, we concluded to give our whole minds to the
work, and see what could be done. By so doing,
at the end of the three weeks we remained with the
good family we could spell and write our names
quite legibly. They all begged us to stop longer;
but, as we were not safe in the State of Pennsylvania,
and also as we wished to commence doing some-
thing for a livelihood, we did not remain.
When the time arrived for us to leave for Boston,
it was like parting with our relatives. We have
since met with many very kind and hospitable
friends, both in America and England; but we have
never been under a roof where we were made to
feel more at home, or where the inmates took a
deeper interest in our well-being, than Mr. Barkley
Ivens and his dear family. May God ever bless
them, and preserve each one from every reverse
of fortune!
We finally, as I have stated, settled at Boston,
where we remained nearly two years, I employed as
cabinet-maker and furniture broker, and my wife at
her needle; and, as our little earnings in slavery
were not all spent on the journey, we were getting
on very well, and would have made money, if we had
not been compelled by the General Government, at
the bidding of the slaveholders, to break up busi-
ness, and fly from under the Stars and Stripes to
save our liberties and our lives.
In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave
Bill, an enactment too infamous to have been
thought of or tolerated by any people in the world,
except the unprincipled and tyrannical Yankees.
The following are a few of the leading features of
the above law; which requires, under heavy penal-
ties, that the inhabitants of the FREE States should
not only refuse food and shelter to a starving,
hunted human being, but also should assist, if
called upon by the authorities, to seize the unhappy
fugitive and send him back to slavery.
In no case is a person's evidence admitted in
Court, in defence of his liberty, when arrested
under this law.
If the judge decides that the prisoner is a slave,
he gets ten dollars; but if he sets him at liberty, he
only receives five.
After the prisoner has been sentenced to slavery,
he is handed over to the United States Marshal,
who has the power, at the expense of the General
Government, to summon a sufficient force to take
the poor creature back to slavery, and to the lash,
from which he fled.
Our old masters sent agents to Boston after us.
They took out warrants, and placed them in the
hands of the United States Marshal to execute.
But the following letter from our highly esteemed
and faithful friend, the Rev. Samuel May, of Bos-
ton, to our equally dear and much lamented friend,
Dr. Estlin of Bristol, will show why we were not
taken into custody.
"21, Cornhill, Boston,
"November 6th, 1850.
"My dear Mr Estlin,
"I trust that in God's good providence this letter
will be handed to you in safety by our good friends,
William and Ellen Craft. They have lived amongst
us about two years, and have proved themselves worthy,
in all respects, of our confidence and regard.
The laws of this republican and Christian land
(tell it not in Moscow, nor in Constantinople)
regard them only as slaves--chattels--
personal property. But they nobly vindicated their
title and right to freedom, two years since, by win-
ning their way to it; at least, so they thought.
But now, the slave power, with the aid of Daniel
Webster and a band of lesser traitors, has enacted
a law, which puts their dearly-bought liberties in
the most imminent peril; holds out a strong temp-
tation to every mercenary and unprincipled ruffian
to become their kidnapper; and has stimulated the
slaveholders generally to such desperate acts for
the recovery of their fugitive property, as have
never before been enacted in the history of this
government.
"Within a fortnight, two fellows from Macon,
Georgia, have been in Boston for the purpose of
arresting our friends William and Ellen. A writ
was served against them from the United States
District Court; but it was not served by the United
States Marshal; why not, is not certainly known:
perhaps through fear, for a general feeling of indig-
nation, and a cool determination not to allow this
young couple to be taken from Boston into slavery,
was aroused, and pervaded the city. It is under-
stood that one of the judges told the Marshal that
he would not be authorised in breaking the door of
Craft's house. Craft kept himself close within the
house, armed himself, and awaited with remarkable
composure the event. Ellen, in the meantime, had
been taken to a retired place out of the city. The
Vigilance Committee (appointed at a late meeting
in Fanueil Hall) enlarged their numbers, held an
almost permanent session, and appointed various sub-
committees to act in different ways. One of these
committees called repeatedly on Messrs. Hughes
and Knight, the slave-catchers, and requested and
advised them to leave the city. At first they
peremptorily refused to do so, ''till they got hold of
the niggers.' On complaint of different persons,
these two fellows were several times arrested, car-
ried before one of our county courts, and held to
bail on charges of 'conspiracy to kidnap,' and of
'defamation,' in calling William and Ellen 'SLAVES.'
At length, they became so alarmed, that they
left the city by an indirect route, evading the
vigilance of many persons who were on the look-out
for them. Hughes, at one time, was near losing
his life at the hands of an infuriated coloured man.
While these men remained in the city, a prominent
whig gentleman sent word to William Craft, that
if he would submit peaceably to an arrest, he and
his wife should be bought from their owners, cost
what it might. Craft replied, in effect, that he was
in a measure the representative of all the other
fugitives in Boston, some 200 or 300 in number;
that, if he gave up, they would all be at the mercy
of the slave-catchers, and must fly from the city at
any sacrifice; and that, if his freedom could be
bought for two cents, he would not consent to com-
promise the matter in such a way. This event has
stirred up the slave spirit of the country, south and
north; the United States government is determined
to try its hand in enforcing the Fugitive Slave law;
and William and Ellen Craft would be prominent
objects of the slaveholders' vengeance. Under
these circumstances, it is the almost unanimous
opinion of their best friends, that they should quit
America as speedily as possible, and seek an asylum
in England! Oh! shame, shame upon us, that
Americans, whose fathers fought against Great Bri-
tain, in order to be FREE, should have to acknow-
ledge this disgraceful fact! God gave us a fair and
goodly heritage in this land, but man has cursed it
with his devices and crimes against human souls
and human rights. Is America the 'land of the
free, and the home of the brave?' God knows it
is not; and we know it too. A brave young man
and a virtuous young woman must fly the American
shores, and seek, under the shadow of the British
throne, the enjoyment of 'life, liberty, and the pur-
suit of happiness.'
"But I must pursue my plain, sad story. All
day long, I have been busy planning a safe way for
William and Ellen to leave Boston. We dare not allow
them to go on board a vessel, even in the port of
Boston; for the writ is yet in the Marshal's hands,
and he MAY be waiting an opportunity to serve it;
so I am expecting to accompany them to-morrow to
Portland, Maine, which is beyond the reach of the
Marshal's authority; and there I hope to see them
on board a British steamer.
"This letter is written to introduce them to you.
I know your infirm health; but I am sure, if you
were stretched on your bed in your last illness, and
could lift your hand at all, you would extend it to
welcome these poor hunted fellow-creatures. Hence-
forth, England is their nation and their home. It
is with real regret for our personal loss in their de-
parture, as well as burning shame for the land that
is not worthy of them, that we send them away, or
rather allow them to go. But, with all the resolute
courage they have shown in a most trying hour,
they themselves see it is the part of a foolhardy
rashness to attempt to stay here longer.
"I must close; and with many renewed thanks
for all your kind words and deeds towards us,
"I am, very respectfully yours,
"SAMUEL MAY, JUN."
Our old masters, having heard how their agents
were treated at Boston, wrote to Mr. Filmore, who
was then President of the States, to know what
he could do to have us sent back to slavery. Mr.
Filmore said that we should be returned. He gave
instructions for military force to be sent to Boston
to assist the officers in making the arrest. There-
fore we, as well as our friends (among whom was
George Thompson, Esq., late M.P. for the Tower
Hamlets--the slave's long-tried, self-sacrificing
friend, and eloquent advocate) thought it best, at
any sacrifice, to leave the mock-free Republic, and
come to a country where we and our dear little
ones can be truly free.--"No one daring to molest
or make us afraid." But, as the officers were
watching every vessel that left the port to
prevent us from escaping, we had to take
the expensive and tedious overland route to
Halifax.
We shall always cherish the deepest feelings of
gratitude to the Vigilance Committee of Boston
(upon which were many of the leading abolitionists),
and also to our numerous friends, for the very
kind and noble manner in which they assisted
us to preserve our liberties and to escape from
Boston, as it were like Lot from Sodom, to a place
of refuge, and finally to this truly free and glorious
country; where no tyrant, let his power be ever so
absolute over his poor trembling victims at home,
dare come and lay violent hands upon us or upon
our dear little boys (who had the good fortune to
be born upon British soil), and reduce us to the
legal level of the beast that perisheth. Oh! may
God bless the thousands of unflinching, disin-
terested abolitionists of America, who are labouring
through evil as well as through good report, to
cleanse their country's escutcheon from the foul
and destructive blot of slavery, and to restore to
every bondman his God-given rights; and may God
ever smile upon England and upon England's good,
much-beloved, and deservedly-honoured Queen, for
the generous protection that is given to unfortunate
refugees of every rank, and of every colour and
clime.
On the passing of the Fugitive Slave Bill, the
following learned doctors, as well as a host of lesser
traitors, came out strongly in its defence.
The Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring, an eminent
Presbyterian Clergyman of New York, well known
in this country by his religious publications,
declared from the pulpit that, "if by one prayer he
could liberate every slave in the world he would not
dare to offer it."
The Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, of Philadelphia, in the
course of a discussion on the nature of Slavery,
says, "What, then, are the evils inseparable from
slavery? There is not one that is not equally
inseparable from depraved human nature in other
lawful relations."
The Rev. Moses Stuart, D.D., (late Professor in
the Theological College of Andover), in his vindi-
cation of this Bill, reminds his readers that "many
Southern slaveholders are true CHRISTIANS." That
"sending back a fugitive to them is not like restor-
ing one to an idolatrous people." That "though
we may PITY the fugitive, yet the Mosaic Law does
not authorize the rejection of the claims of the
slaveholders to their stolen or strayed PROPERTY."
The Rev. Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn, New York,
has come forward in support of the "Fugitive
Slave Bill," by publishing a sermon entitled the
"Religious Duty of Obedience to the Laws," which
has elicited the highest encomiums from Dr.
Samuel H. Cox, the Presbyterian minister of
Brooklyn (notorious both in this country and
America for his sympathy with the slaveholder).
The Rev. W. M. Rogers, an orthodox minister
of Boston, delivered a sermon in which he
says, "When the slave asks me to stand be-
tween him and his master, what does he ask?
He asks me to murder a nation's life; and I
will not do it, because I have a conscience,--
because there is a God." He proceeds to affirm
that if resistance to the carrying out of the "Fugi-
tive Slave Law" should lead the magistracy to
call the citizens to arms, their duty was to obey
and "if ordered to take human life, in the name of
God to take it;" and he concludes by admonishing
the fugitives to "hearken to the Word of God, and
to count their own masters worthy of all honour."
The Rev. William Crowell, of Waterfield, State
of Maine, printed a Thanksgiving Sermon of the
same kind, in which he calls upon his hearers not
to allow "excessive sympathies for a few hundred
fugitives to blind them so that they may risk
increased suffering to the millions already in
chains."
The Rev. Dr. Taylor, an Episcopal Clergyman of
New Haven, Connecticut, made a speech at a
Union Meeting, in which he deprecates the agita-
tion on the law, and urges obedience to it;
asking,--"Is that article in the Constitution con-
trary to the law of Nature, of nations, or to the
will of God? Is it so? Is there a shadow of
reason for saying it? I have not been able to dis-
cover it. Have I not shown you it is lawful to
deliver up, in compliance with the laws, fugitive
slaves, for the high, the great, the momentous
interests of those [Southern] States?"
The Right Rev. Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, in
a Lecture at Lockport, says, "It was warranted by
the Old Testament;" and inquires, "What effect
had the Gospel in doing away with slavery? None
whatever." Therefore he argues, as it is expressly
permitted by the Bible, it does not in itself involve
any sin; but that every Christian is authorised by
the Divine Law to own slaves, provided they were
not treated with unnecessary cruelty.
The Rev. Orville Dewey, D.D., of the Unitarian
connexion, maintained in his lectures that the
safety of the Union is not to be hazarded for the
sake of the African race. He declares that, for
his part, he would send his own brother or child
into slavery, if needed to preserve the Union
between the free and the slaveholding States; and,
counselling the slave to similar magnanimity, thus
exhorts him:--"YOUR RIGHT TO BE FREE IS NOT ABSOLUTE,
UNQUALIFIED, IRRESPECTIVE OF ALL CONSEQUENCES. If my
espousal of your claim is likely to involve your race
and mine together in disasters infinitely greater
than your personal servitude, then you ought not
to be free. In such a case personal rights ought
to be sacrificed to the general good. You yourself
ought to see this, and be willing to suffer for a while
--one for many."
If the Doctor is prepared, he is quite at liberty
to sacrifice his "personal rights to the general
good." But, as I have suffered a long time in
slavery, it is hardly fair for the Doctor to advise
me to go back. According to his showing, he ought
rather to take my place. That would be practically
carrying out his logic, as respects "suffering awhile
--one for many."
In fact, so eager were they to prostrate them-
selves before the great idol of slavery, and, like
Balaam, to curse instead of blessing the people
whom God had brought out of bondage, that they
in bring up obsolete passages from the Old Tes-
tament to justify their downward course, overlooked,
or would not see, the following verses, which show
very clearly, according to the Doctor's own text-
book, that the slaves have a right to run away, and
that it is unscriptural for any one to send them
back.
In the 23rd chapter of Deuteronomy, 15th and
16th verses, it is thus written:--"Thou shalt not
deliver unto his master the servant which is es-
caped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell
with thee, even among you, in that place which he
shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him
best: thou shalt not oppress him."
"Hide the outcast. Bewray not him that wan-
dereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee. Be
thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler."
--(Isa. xvi. 3, 4.)
The great majority of the American ministers are
not content with uttering sentences similar to the
above, or remaining wholly indifferent to the cries
of the poor bondman; but they do all they can to
blast the reputation, and to muzzle the mouths, of
the few good men who dare to beseech the God of
mercy "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free."
These reverend gentlemen pour a terrible cannon-
ade upon "Jonah," for refusing to carry God's
message against Nineveh, and tell us about the
whale in which he was entombed; while they utterly
overlook the existence of the whales which trouble
their republican waters, and know not that they
themselves are the "Jonahs" who threaten to sink
their ship of state, by steering in an unrighteous
direction. We are told that the whale vomited up
the runaway prophet. This would not have seemed
so strange, had it been one of the above lukewarm
Doctors of Divinity whom he had swallowed; for
even a whale might find such a morsel difficult of
digestion.
"I venerate the man whose heart is warm,
Whose hands are pure; whose doctrines and whose life
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause."
"But grace abused brings forth the foulest deeds,
As richest soil the most luxuriant weeds."
I must now leave the reverend gentlemen in
the hands of Him who knows best how to deal with
a recreant ministry.
I do not wish it to be understood that all the
ministers of the States are of the Balaam stamp.
There are those who are as uncompromising with
slaveholders as Moses was with Pharaoh, and, like
Daniel, will never bow down before the great false
God that has been set up.
On arriving at Portland, we found that the
steamer we intended to take had run into a schooner
the previous night, and was lying up for repairs; so
we had to wait there, in fearful suspense, for two or
three days. During this time, we had the honour
of being the guest of the late and much lamented
Daniel Oliver, Esq., one of the best and most hospi-
table men in the State. By simply fulfilling the
Scripture injunction, to take in the stranger, &c.,
he ran the risk of incurring a penalty of 2,000
dollars, and twelve months' imprisonment.
But neither the Fugitive Slave Law, nor any other
Satanic enactment, can ever drive the spirit of
liberty and humanity out of such noble and gene-
rous-hearted men.
May God ever bless his dear widow, and eventu-
ally unite them in His courts above!
We finally got off to St. John's, New Brunswick,
where we had to wait two days for the steamer that
conveyed us to Windsor, Nova Scotia.
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