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Speaker 1: Okay, well, um, hi Hi? Are you saying hi to

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Speaker 1: me or high to them both? Oh? That's I mean,

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Speaker 1: I've barely seen you today, that's true. That's fair nice

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Speaker 1: to see you. Yeah. We enjoyed two action packed films recently,

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Speaker 1: The Mitchell's Versus the Machines and also Nobody with Bob

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Speaker 1: Odin Kirk. The very differently fairly tell the difference. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know those are both great. Yeah, yeah, I thought

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Speaker 1: the style was really cool and I really enjoyed the

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Speaker 1: animation of its super weird. Yeah, fun little story that

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Speaker 1: Ferbie got me. And then Nobody was such a fun um.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how fun is the word people suffered

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Speaker 1: in that film, but it was the I mean you

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Speaker 1: know it was. It was a dance much like John Wick.

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Speaker 1: It's an action dance. Yeah, choreography throughout I'm into so yeah.

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Speaker 1: I was like, well done, Yeah, alright, but yes action.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of action, I'm Diana and I'm Eli, and today

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Speaker 1: we want to talk about William and Ellen Craft. These

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Speaker 1: were two slaves living in making, Georgia, and one day

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Speaker 1: they decided to escape slavery and run one thousand miles

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Speaker 1: to freedom. How did they do it? There? Daring escape.

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Speaker 1: It's an amazing story. I just cannot stress enough how

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Speaker 1: crazy this story is. Uh. It's full of close shaves,

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Speaker 1: um pretty heinous human beings, a lot of terrible examples

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Speaker 1: of humanity and a lot of good examples of humanity

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Speaker 1: as well. And their story was chronicled in a book

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Speaker 1: Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, which is written by

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Speaker 1: William Kraft. That's right, we're going to get all into

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Speaker 1: those crazy details coming up right now. Hey, their French

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Speaker 1: come listen well, Eli and Diana got some stories to tell.

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Speaker 1: There's no matchmaking, a romantic tips. It's just about pridiculous relationships,

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Speaker 1: a love. It might be any type of person at all,

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Speaker 1: and abstract cons that don't concrete wall. But if there's

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Speaker 1: a story, were the Second Clans Ridiculous roll that's a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radio. Ellen was born in eighteen six

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Speaker 1: to Maria, a mixed race woman, and her wealthy planter

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Speaker 1: enslaver major James Smith. She resembled her father's other children

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Speaker 1: so much that she was often mistaken as a member

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Speaker 1: of his family, which his wife did not like. So

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Speaker 1: when Ellen was eleven, she was given as a wedding

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Speaker 1: gift to their daughter, Eliza Cromwell Smith, just to erase

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Speaker 1: any of the evidence of his infidelity. Yeah, just send

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Speaker 1: her away from here. So Eliza, the woman who now

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Speaker 1: owned her, was married to Dr Robert Collins and took

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Speaker 1: Ellen with her to her new husband's place in Macon, Georgia.

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Speaker 1: Ellen grew up as a house servant to Eliza, and

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Speaker 1: William grew up in Macon enslave to a guy that

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Speaker 1: he has no trouble talking about, which I don't blame

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Speaker 1: him at all. They they didn't get along what you

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Speaker 1: didn't respect and admire this sucking asshole. Um, he wrote,

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Speaker 1: My old master had the reputation of being a very

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Speaker 1: humane and Christian man, but he thought nothing of selling

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Speaker 1: my poor old father and dear aged mother at separate

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Speaker 1: times to different persons to be dragged off, never to

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Speaker 1: behold each other ever again. Yeah. I know that's like

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Speaker 1: the least of the monstrous will encounter moving forward, but

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Speaker 1: that's peak monster. So yeah. The idea that again he

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Speaker 1: even get worse in there is yeah, heart degrade. The

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Speaker 1: levels of it really is ship that they are willing

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Speaker 1: to drag people through at this period of time. That's

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Speaker 1: very true. This master had had William apprenticed to a

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Speaker 1: cabinet maker and his brother was apprenticed to a blacksmith,

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Speaker 1: so they would generate more income for him, of course,

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Speaker 1: because he kept most of what they earned. But then

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Speaker 1: he decided to sell them to pay off some gambling debts.

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Speaker 1: William wrote in his book, my old Master also sold

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Speaker 1: a dear brother and a sister in the same manner

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Speaker 1: as he did my father and mother. The reason he

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Speaker 1: assigned for disposing of my parents, as well as several

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Speaker 1: other aged slaves, was that they were getting old and

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Speaker 1: would soon become valueless in the market, and therefore he

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Speaker 1: intended to sell off all the old stock and buy

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Speaker 1: in a young lot. A most disgraceful conclusion for a

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Speaker 1: man to come to who made such great professions of religion.

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Speaker 1: This shameful conduct gave me a thorough hatred, not for

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Speaker 1: true Christianity, but for slaveholding piety. Yes, throughout the book

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Speaker 1: he is pretty mad at Christians, because he's like, if

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Speaker 1: you're truly believe the word of God, then you cannot

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Speaker 1: countenance this barbarity of slavery. And if you do countenance it,

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Speaker 1: then you cannot be a true Christian. William begged for

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Speaker 1: a chance to say goodbye to his sister, but they

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Speaker 1: would not let him, and it really royally pissed him

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Speaker 1: off that they would not give him even this tiny,

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Speaker 1: tiny concession of humanity. Um In recounting the emotional separation

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Speaker 1: from his sister at an auction, William stated that this

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Speaker 1: event sent red hot indignation darting like lightning through every vein.

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Speaker 1: It quenched my tears and appeared to set my brain

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Speaker 1: on fire, and made me crave for power to avenge

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Speaker 1: our wrongs. And at the auction where his brother and

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Speaker 1: sister were sold, he was quote knocked down to the

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Speaker 1: cashier of the bank to which we were mortgaged and

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Speaker 1: ordered to return to the cabinet shop where I previously worked.

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Speaker 1: He was only sixteen at this time, so I guess

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Speaker 1: he was basically the bank's property at this point. So

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Speaker 1: as best you can understand this is that you know

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Speaker 1: they would mortgage human beings like property. They would get

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Speaker 1: a payment from the bank to buy them in full,

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Speaker 1: and then put it down, payment down and make payments

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Speaker 1: on that. And now he like sells him back, so

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Speaker 1: he so he ends up back at the cabinet shop

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Speaker 1: where he apprenticed originally where he had bought him from.

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Speaker 1: It's like, I'm not going to finish making these payments.

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Speaker 1: I'm just going to sell him back. And Dr Collins,

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Speaker 1: whose wife is that woman Eliza, remember who Ellen was

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Speaker 1: gifted to. He now owns half interest in William. So

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Speaker 1: in the course of things, he ends up meeting Ellen

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Speaker 1: and they fell in love. But for a long time,

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Speaker 1: Ellen refused to marry William because she was so scared

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Speaker 1: of having children that would be sold away from her. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he wrote, the mere thought of her ever becoming the

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Speaker 1: mother of a child to linger out a miserable existence

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Speaker 1: under the wretched system of American slavery appeared to fill

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Speaker 1: her very soul with horror, which can't blame her. Sounds terrible.

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Speaker 1: They did try to think of a plans to escape

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Speaker 1: and stuff so that they could eventually get married, but um,

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Speaker 1: a couple of years later, they're kind of like, it's

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Speaker 1: impossible to escape from Georgia. They quote settled down to

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Speaker 1: slavery and went ahead and got married. I have to

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Speaker 1: settle down to slavery. Yeah, it's a good read. I'll

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Speaker 1: say that. It's it really really puts you there. Well,

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Speaker 1: and one of the reasons. They would say that settling

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Speaker 1: down to slavery has to do with the absolute incomprehensible

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Speaker 1: risk that really existed in escape. We can't overstate the

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Speaker 1: dangers of trying to escape slavery. Any white person anywhere

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Speaker 1: had had complete impunity, and this is across the country.

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Speaker 1: They had total impunity to ask you who you were,

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Speaker 1: and take you back to your enslaver and just hand

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Speaker 1: you over. And at that point typically what would happen is,

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Speaker 1: of course severe punishment. They would give you either the worst,

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Speaker 1: most difficult and horrible labor to do on the property,

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Speaker 1: or straight up torture, just legit physical torture, psychological torture,

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Speaker 1: whatever they could think of, And that was supposed to

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Speaker 1: serve as a warning to other slaves to not try

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Speaker 1: to escape. Right William points out quote it's a fact

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Speaker 1: worthy of remark that nothing seems to give slaveholders so

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Speaker 1: much pleasure as the catching and torturing of fugitives. They

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Speaker 1: had much rather take the keen and poisonous lash and

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Speaker 1: with it cut their poor trembling victims to atoms, then

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Speaker 1: allow one of them to escape to a free country

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Speaker 1: and expose the infamous system from which they had fled.

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Speaker 1: So it's says so much because it shows that these

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Speaker 1: people knew how horrible they were and didn't want anyone

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Speaker 1: else to know it, right, That was part of it.

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Speaker 1: They can't escape because people can't know what we're doing here. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think it's I think there's some real propaganda going

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Speaker 1: on around slavery where it's sort of like it's better

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Speaker 1: for them, We're very kind to them. They love it here.

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Speaker 1: Listen to them singing, you know, that type of ship,

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Speaker 1: because it comes up later that they really come across

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Speaker 1: this attitude of like I would never be so unkind

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Speaker 1: as to free a slave. That would be so mean

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Speaker 1: of me. And it's like, what, that's such a weird.

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Speaker 1: But I have to imagine that there's some ship coming

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Speaker 1: out of you know, from the South being like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: are great. What are you upset about? This is great

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Speaker 1: for everybody and they like it and don't worry and whatever,

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Speaker 1: and you know, so just to keep people from being abolitionists,

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Speaker 1: I think, right, more specifically and like trying to help. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's all part of the same machine. And then the

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Speaker 1: other side of it too. It's just you know, you

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Speaker 1: look at this torture. He says, they'd rather with these people.

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Speaker 1: And it's similar to what I talked about during the

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Speaker 1: press covering the Lonely Hearts Killers in the last episode,

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Speaker 1: that there's so many people out there that are just

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Speaker 1: waiting for a reason to be cruel, which is one

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Speaker 1: of the worst takeaways from some of these stories we've

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Speaker 1: been telling. It's really dishart, But there are some people

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Speaker 1: that just they're just waiting for a little bit of permission.

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Speaker 1: Just give me a reason to be a monster. And I, oh,

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Speaker 1: thank god, I get to be a monster for a minute.

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Speaker 1: And it's it's mind blonging to me. But I mean,

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Speaker 1: isn't that basically what the purge maybes are about? Right?

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Speaker 1: Get it out of your system? Right? So yeah, all

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Speaker 1: those dangers are facing them with escaping, and so that's

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Speaker 1: kind of why they're like, you know what, how the

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Speaker 1: how the funk are we supposed to do this? Let's

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Speaker 1: just deal with this life that we're this the hand

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Speaker 1: we've been dealt kind of. But they're still really afraid

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Speaker 1: to have children. They really don't want to have children,

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Speaker 1: and so they're like, we can need to get out

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Speaker 1: of this ship hole. And William one day has this

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Speaker 1: crazy idea so crazy that just might work. He thought,

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Speaker 1: you know, my wife looks super white. Even white people

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Speaker 1: think she's white. So there's gotta be some that's gotta

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Speaker 1: be something we can use. But she can't just dress

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Speaker 1: up like a white lady because it was very unusual

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Speaker 1: for women to travel with just a male servant. They

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Speaker 1: normally had at least a female servant as well, or

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Speaker 1: instead of So he's like, she can't dress up like

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Speaker 1: just a white lady. So what if? What if I'm

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Speaker 1: William slave but you Ellen are Mr Johnson, white slave

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Speaker 1: owner heading to Philadelphia. And Ellen's like, William, you are crazy.

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Speaker 1: That is the crazy. That is crazy. She's like, first

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Speaker 1: of all, neither of us can read her write, and

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Speaker 1: they're going to ask us to sign our names at

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Speaker 1: some point. Um. Second of all, i'm a lady. Maybe

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Speaker 1: that should have in the first thing, but whatever. Third

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Speaker 1: of all, you're crazy. But eventually she's kind of like,

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Speaker 1: you know what, we don't have any better ideas, and

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Speaker 1: she kind of gets into it. And Ellen is a

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Speaker 1: smart lady, and she decided the best way for her

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Speaker 1: to travel incognito is to be an invalid. So she's like,

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Speaker 1: I'll really lay it on thick that this guy's sick

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Speaker 1: as fuck. So I love the character building, you know,

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Speaker 1: the real work. I'm like, okay, it's an invalid. Maybe

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Speaker 1: a monocle, I don't crutch something. Yeah, spectacles, yeah, to

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Speaker 1: suggest poor eyesight, she had him wrap a bandage around

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Speaker 1: her jaw up to the top of her head that

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Speaker 1: she hit kind of wore a big top hat over it,

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Speaker 1: but it was to hide her beardless face, and it

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Speaker 1: was meant to indicate that she had a toothache. And

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Speaker 1: then she had a cane, and she wrapped her arm

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Speaker 1: in a sling because she's like that way, and she

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Speaker 1: was her right arm, so she's like that way. When

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Speaker 1: they asked me to sign our name, I'll just be like,

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Speaker 1: oh I can't because my arms hurt. Can you signed

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Speaker 1: for me? And so that way they could get around that. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: William is collecting all the various pieces of her disguise.

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Speaker 1: He's got to go get spectacles and a cane and

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Speaker 1: a man's shirt and a top hat and everything and

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Speaker 1: shoes for her and everything, um, without anybody noticing that

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Speaker 1: he's buying all this weird ship except the trousers, which

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Speaker 1: she found necessary to make he didn't make a note

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Speaker 1: about that no trousers was fitting there. She didn't make

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Speaker 1: her own. And since she was a favorite with with

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Speaker 1: her mistress Eliza, Ellen had a little room of her own,

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Speaker 1: so she was able to hide all this stuff in

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Speaker 1: her room. So I'm picturing like a shawshank thing where

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Speaker 1: she had like a hole in the wall like a chest,

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Speaker 1: and she's like got clothes over it, or something like

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Speaker 1: that false panel in the bottom or something she's got

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Speaker 1: like a mirror or something that makes a lack. I'm

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Speaker 1: not as deep. I don't know they're they're crushing it.

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Speaker 1: They're basically hoisting themselves. Another essential piece was that it

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Speaker 1: was almost the Christmas holidays, and both of them had

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Speaker 1: to convince their enslavers to give them a few days

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Speaker 1: off to celebrate Smiths. It wasn't this isn't totally unheard of.

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Speaker 1: This had happened sometimes, but they both knew they were

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Speaker 1: doomed without the head start of a few days that

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Speaker 1: a pass would get them. He writes, after no little

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Speaker 1: perseverance on my wife's part, she got permission to take

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Speaker 1: a few days, and he also requested time off and

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Speaker 1: wrote quote the cabinet maker with whom I worked gave

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Speaker 1: me a pass as well, but he said he needed

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Speaker 1: my services very much and wished me to return as

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Speaker 1: soon as the time granted was up. I thanked him kindly,

246
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Speaker 1: but somehow I have not been able to make it

247
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Speaker 1: convenient to return yet. As the free air of good

248
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Speaker 1: old England degrees so well with my wife and our

249
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Speaker 1: dear little ones, as well as with myself, it is

250
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Speaker 1: not likely that we will return at present to the

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Speaker 1: peculiar institution of chains and stripes. Damn, I'm telling you,

252
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Speaker 1: he's not holding back on the sas. No, the humor

253
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Speaker 1: is really fun. This book is worth reading. It's not

254
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Speaker 1: very long, and it's there's a kind of a real rise,

255
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Speaker 1: kind of sly humor in it. That's, you know what.

256
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Speaker 1: I still haven't made it back to the shop. I

257
00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:03,679
Speaker 1: told him might be there on Tuesday, and it's been

258
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Speaker 1: seventeen years. It reminds me a lot of how my

259
00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:10,520
Speaker 1: grandfather would joke. It's that kind of it's very sideways,

260
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Speaker 1: like if you're not looking for the humor, you might

261
00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:14,680
Speaker 1: not see it, right. But I kind of also loved

262
00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:18,320
Speaker 1: after no little perseverance on my wife's part, like she

263
00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:23,920
Speaker 1: really had to convince this bitch. But finally the last

264
00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:28,160
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle. William cut Ellen's hair to neck length.

265
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Speaker 1: She put on her men's clothes, She wrapped up the bandage.

266
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Speaker 1: She put her arm in the sling. She put her

267
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Speaker 1: spectacles on, she put on her hat, picked up her cane.

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Speaker 1: They prayed together for a successful leap to liberty, and

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Speaker 1: it was time to go with December one, leaving Making

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00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:51,720
Speaker 1: Georgia and heading north in the middle of December as

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Speaker 1: cold and get worse. Very true. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously it's it's making Georgia. It's not the coldest here,

273
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Speaker 1: but for the north, the colder it's gonna get. It's

274
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Speaker 1: gonna be the coldest time here. But this was the

275
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Speaker 1: time to go. Colder it gets the closer to freedom.

276
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Speaker 1: You are probably how they were feeling. So they go

277
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Speaker 1: to the train station and Ellen buys tickets for Savannah,

278
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Speaker 1: which is two miles away, and as William is going

279
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Speaker 1: to sit down, he sees the cabinet maker. The cabinet

280
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Speaker 1: maker had had some idea that the two of them

281
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Speaker 1: might make a run for it, so he'd gone to

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Speaker 1: the station to check if they were there. He questioned

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Speaker 1: the ticket seller and then started looking in the windows

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Speaker 1: of each of the train cars. He never gave the

285
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Speaker 1: bandaged invalid a second glance, but he would know William

286
00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,360
Speaker 1: right away, So William shrank down into his seat and

287
00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:39,880
Speaker 1: turned his face away from the window, desperate to hide.

288
00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:45,280
Speaker 1: Just as he approached William's car, the bell clanged and

289
00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:50,160
Speaker 1: the train started moving close call. I was on the

290
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:53,440
Speaker 1: edge of my seat. Meanwhile, Ellen is sitting in her

291
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Speaker 1: train car, probably kind of freaking out because she's she's

292
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Speaker 1: they're separated, you know, he can't be in the same

293
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Speaker 1: train cars as his wealthy white owner. She's just up

294
00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:04,680
Speaker 1: here being a white man. Yeah, She's got to sit

295
00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:07,400
Speaker 1: up here and just be a white guy somehow with

296
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Speaker 1: all these assholes mostly that she encounters. So she's sitting there,

297
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Speaker 1: you know, keeping it together, and then she hears the

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Speaker 1: words it is a very fine morning, sir. A man

299
00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:20,680
Speaker 1: has joined her in the car who she knows very well.

300
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:24,040
Speaker 1: It's Mr Cray, who is a friend of Dr Collins

301
00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:26,840
Speaker 1: and a frequent dinner guest. So she's like, fook, Like,

302
00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,360
Speaker 1: if he looks too close, he's definitely gonna notice, like

303
00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:33,040
Speaker 1: who I am. So she pretended to be deaf. She

304
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:35,120
Speaker 1: just did not respond. She's like, I don't see you,

305
00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:38,200
Speaker 1: I don't hear you. Unfortunately that worked. He decided not

306
00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:41,800
Speaker 1: to bother her anymore. But there were two other guys

307
00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:45,320
Speaker 1: in the carriage too, and they all started talking, and

308
00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:49,000
Speaker 1: I will let William speak for for me on this one.

309
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,320
Speaker 1: The gentleman then turned the conversation upon the three great

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Speaker 1: topics of discussion in first class circles in Georgia, namely,

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00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:04,000
Speaker 1: n words, cotton, and abolitionists. My master had heard of abolitionists,

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00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:06,399
Speaker 1: by the way, he's calling Ellen his master at this

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00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:09,240
Speaker 1: point in the story. So as soon as she's as

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00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:11,480
Speaker 1: soon as they're on the journey in the story, she's

315
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Speaker 1: his master. Mr Johnson him, he's getting into it. My

316
00:17:16,359 --> 00:17:19,640
Speaker 1: master had heard of abolitionists, but in such a connectionist

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Speaker 1: to cause him to think that they were a fearful

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00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:24,840
Speaker 1: kind of wild animal. But he was highly delighted to

319
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Speaker 1: learn from the gentleman's conversation that the abolitionists were persons

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Speaker 1: opposed to oppression, and therefore, in his opinion, not the lowest,

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Speaker 1: but the very highest of God's creatures. Without the slightest

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00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,840
Speaker 1: objection on my Master's part, the gentleman left the carriage

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Speaker 1: at Gordon from Millageville. Once they were in Savannah, they

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00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:48,040
Speaker 1: boarded a steamership for Charleston, South Carolina. Ellen even sat

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Speaker 1: with the captain at breakfast, who marveled at the young

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00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:55,439
Speaker 1: master's very attentive boy and warned him to beware of

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00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:58,399
Speaker 1: cutthroat abolitionists in the north who would encourage William to

328
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Speaker 1: run away. She's just got to be like holding it

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00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:04,359
Speaker 1: in at this point, right, This is what I is.

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Speaker 1: What I imagine is that they are like are just

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Speaker 1: petrified at first every time they see somebody like, oh

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00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:11,600
Speaker 1: my god, this isn't gonna work. But there must be

333
00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:13,480
Speaker 1: at a point where they just kind of like holding

334
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:16,240
Speaker 1: in the laughter. Yes, how fucking well this is working,

335
00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:18,840
Speaker 1: and how dumb these idiots are. You're so right. It's

336
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,280
Speaker 1: it's very clear in the book that they had kind

337
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:23,600
Speaker 1: of I mean, they were totally afraid, like you're saying,

338
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:25,280
Speaker 1: but they kind of were getting a kick out of

339
00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,399
Speaker 1: this because they were Firstly, they were like the stuff

340
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:31,000
Speaker 1: that white people are willing to say to each other.

341
00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,320
Speaker 1: The ship y'all talking about is and Ellen's like, oh,

342
00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:36,920
Speaker 1: I'm listening, I'm taking a record. You know, William didn't

343
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:38,880
Speaker 1: know about that conversation she had to tell him about

344
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,239
Speaker 1: that ship, and she's like, oh, these bitches suck. And

345
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:45,320
Speaker 1: then also, you know, she's getting treated really well as

346
00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:47,720
Speaker 1: a white person and that's making them laugh. And then

347
00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:50,240
Speaker 1: they keep they keep offering to buy her husband, and

348
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:52,560
Speaker 1: of course she keeps saying no, and they keep don't.

349
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:54,439
Speaker 1: They just don't get it, and you know, they're just

350
00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:56,199
Speaker 1: they do seem to be having a little bit of

351
00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:59,119
Speaker 1: fun with it, which I think is awesome. So a

352
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:01,560
Speaker 1: slave trader on or it even offered to purchase William,

353
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:04,199
Speaker 1: like you said. And a military officer scolded Ellen for

354
00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,760
Speaker 1: saying thank you to him, telling her nothing spoils a

355
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,160
Speaker 1: slave so soon. And if people would just be meaner

356
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:13,919
Speaker 1: to slaves, they would be as humble as dogs and

357
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:17,439
Speaker 1: never dare to run away. Yeah, right, that was the

358
00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:21,040
Speaker 1: problem with slavery. It wasn't mean enough. We figured it out, guys.

359
00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:24,480
Speaker 1: If it had just been meaner and crueler, it would

360
00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:27,880
Speaker 1: have been fine. Like, you know, people are running away

361
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:30,119
Speaker 1: because of how cruel you are, right, Like, I'm not

362
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:33,399
Speaker 1: sure you know what the fox is going on? You

363
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:36,080
Speaker 1: know what might have made slaves stick around longer if

364
00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:39,480
Speaker 1: they weren't slaves if they were getting paid a good

365
00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,560
Speaker 1: wage for their work and not treated like animals, and

366
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,439
Speaker 1: they could keep their own children. Yeah, and weren't owned

367
00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,560
Speaker 1: by anyone. And we're actually not slaves, just people. Yeah.

368
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:53,240
Speaker 1: See we fixed we've we've fixed that one sort of yeah.

369
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:55,480
Speaker 1: And they do get as they do get a really

370
00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,239
Speaker 1: big kick out of how well Ellen is treated. They

371
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,040
Speaker 1: stayed overnight at the Best Hotel and Charleston to wait

372
00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,560
Speaker 1: for their train to Philadelphia, and the staff was like

373
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:08,440
Speaker 1: so solicitous of the ailing Mr Johnson. They like came

374
00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:10,480
Speaker 1: out to help him out of the carriage. When they

375
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:13,119
Speaker 1: got there, they gave him the finest room and the

376
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:15,720
Speaker 1: nicest table in the dining room and they just waited

377
00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,160
Speaker 1: on him hand and foot. So Williams like definitely laughing

378
00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:22,040
Speaker 1: about this, and He's like, what a time. And Ellen

379
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:24,560
Speaker 1: gave all the servants a tip, and I just thought

380
00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:29,399
Speaker 1: this was fun of the time slang. Ellen gave all

381
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,120
Speaker 1: the servants a tip, which caused them to tell William

382
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:36,160
Speaker 1: your master is a big bug, meaning a gentleman of distinction.

383
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:39,399
Speaker 1: He's the greatest gentleman that has been this way the

384
00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:44,119
Speaker 1: six months. I said, yes, he is some pumpkins, meaning

385
00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:50,760
Speaker 1: the same as big Bug. Some pumpkins love that. So

386
00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:53,399
Speaker 1: the idea is they'll take the steamer from Charleston to

387
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,040
Speaker 1: Philly and then they're free, right, But they found out

388
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,439
Speaker 1: that the last steamer for the winter had already left

389
00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:01,199
Speaker 1: and that a fugitive slave had been found on board,

390
00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:03,720
Speaker 1: so they were actually glad they hadn't taken that ship

391
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:07,080
Speaker 1: after all, because the scrutiny probably would have been really intense.

392
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:10,240
Speaker 1: So they had a different route. They could go through Wilmington,

393
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 1: North Carolina, and they went to buy tickets at the

394
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,240
Speaker 1: custom house, and the ticket seller asked Ellen to sign

395
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:17,680
Speaker 1: for the tickets. She did the thing where she indicated

396
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:21,600
Speaker 1: her arm was broken and asked him to sign for her,

397
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 1: but he refused because, in an effort to prevent white

398
00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:28,399
Speaker 1: abolitionists from helping slaves escape, it was a rule that

399
00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,880
Speaker 1: slaveholders had to prove that slaves traveling with them were

400
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:36,440
Speaker 1: their property. Sometimes, as the Smithsonian rights, travelers were detained

401
00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,840
Speaker 1: for days trying to prove ownership. The ticket seller, whom

402
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 1: William calls quote a very mean looking, cheese colored fellow,

403
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:48,960
Speaker 1: actually jammed his hands in his pockets to prove how

404
00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:52,919
Speaker 1: much he wouldn't sign for Ellen and William just like

405
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,159
Speaker 1: he just straight up put his hand like do it

406
00:21:56,520 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 1: like little cartman. So fortunately, just then in that moment,

407
00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:05,840
Speaker 1: things are tense, what's going to happen? And in walks

408
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,399
Speaker 1: the captain of the steamer they've been on the night before,

409
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,560
Speaker 1: and he had just walked by and vouched for them, said, oh,

410
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 1: I know this guy and Mr Johnson, he's a great man,

411
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:16,800
Speaker 1: and he signed for their tickets and they were good

412
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,560
Speaker 1: to go once more. Just another narrow escape. My heart

413
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:23,639
Speaker 1: is pounding seriously so many times. So they get on

414
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:27,200
Speaker 1: the train to Baltimore. It's the last major stop before Pennsylvania,

415
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 1: which is a free state. In running a thousand of

416
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:33,320
Speaker 1: miles to freedom, William recounts some of the interesting people

417
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,280
Speaker 1: that Ellen met in her train car, including a man

418
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: with his two daughters who asked what she was sick with,

419
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 1: and when she said inflammatory rheumatism, he said he was

420
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: so sorry because he knew, with bitter experience, the pains

421
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:48,840
Speaker 1: of rheumatism, and William wrote, if he did, he knew

422
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 1: a good deal more than Mr Johnson. And he also

423
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,639
Speaker 1: implied that the two daughters took quite a fancy to

424
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:59,359
Speaker 1: Mr Johnson kind of hello, crush on him and said,

425
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: to use an American expression, they fell in love with

426
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 1: the wrong chap, the wrong tree ladies. This one's taken

427
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: and also not what you think. So they were pretty harmless.

428
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:17,160
Speaker 1: They were just funny, you know whatever. But unfortunately they

429
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:21,600
Speaker 1: did not only have harmless, funny Chrushian white ladies on board.

430
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:26,000
Speaker 1: They had this heinous woman get on the train in Richmond, Virginia,

431
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,520
Speaker 1: and she straight up tells the people in the carriage

432
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:31,920
Speaker 1: with her, the train car with her, that her husband

433
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,800
Speaker 1: had freed all of their slaves in his will when

434
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: he died. But she knew he'd never do such an

435
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,640
Speaker 1: unkind thing if he was in his right mind, so

436
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: she and her friends made it so the will was

437
00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:45,840
Speaker 1: rewritten and she got to keep all the slaves. And

438
00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,359
Speaker 1: she got into this argument with an abolitionist who was

439
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:50,320
Speaker 1: on board, and he was like, so you denied them

440
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:53,520
Speaker 1: their liberty, and she kept being like, well I wouldn't

441
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 1: if it wasn't, you know, Like they're just so annoying.

442
00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: They keep running away and like costing me so much,

443
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: so many troubles. And my son, who's a good Christian minister,

444
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 1: keeps telling me to just forget it all and move

445
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: in with him or whatever, and he's like, yeah, just

446
00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:10,159
Speaker 1: let him free then do it? Go ahead, then whatever.

447
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,960
Speaker 1: And when she finally gets off, the abolitionist turns to

448
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 1: Ellen and called her an old, whining, hypocritical humbug. So anyway,

449
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:24,919
Speaker 1: Ellen really had to hold it down throughout some some conversations.

450
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 1: Is what I want to stress with these. She she

451
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 1: she's the one who's having here all this crazy ship,

452
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 1: and bite her tongue, and bite her tongue two slivers probably,

453
00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:37,919
Speaker 1: And as they were told, the abolitionists did approach William

454
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:39,800
Speaker 1: and tell him to run away from Ellen and have

455
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,639
Speaker 1: his liberty. They even gave him information about boarding houses

456
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,199
Speaker 1: and safe places that he could go, which he of

457
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 1: course had to keep refusing, but later said that he

458
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:54,120
Speaker 1: found that information very useful. So in this entertaining way,

459
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 1: they get to Baltimore on Christmas Eve, which has a

460
00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:00,520
Speaker 1: particularly vigilant border because it's the last stop to a

461
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 1: free state. So William and Ellen are again detained because

462
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,639
Speaker 1: they don't have the papers that say Ellen owns William,

463
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: and the train officer explained to them that should they

464
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:12,240
Speaker 1: let anyone cross the border who was escaping from slavery,

465
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 1: they would have to pay for it, so of course

466
00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 1: they were being very careful, like, oh, we don't want

467
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,919
Speaker 1: to be stuck with the bill, nothing personal. Yeah, we'd

468
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 1: love to let you be, you know, not a slave anymore,

469
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: but would cost us at least a few dollars. Not

470
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 1: we just can't too many dollars. So Ellen and William

471
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: thought that the jig was up there. They really thought

472
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,959
Speaker 1: we've made it so far. William writes, we felt as

473
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,440
Speaker 1: though we had come into deep waters and were about

474
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:39,160
Speaker 1: to be overwhelmed and return to the dark and horrible

475
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:43,439
Speaker 1: pit of misery. The departure belt claimed, and the officer

476
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:47,880
Speaker 1: scratched his head and finally just said, oh, I guess

477
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:49,600
Speaker 1: it's all right. I can tell you're sick, and it

478
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: would be ashamed to stop you, so he let them pass,

479
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 1: and Ellen and William finally boarded the train for Philadelphia

480
00:25:56,880 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 1: and for freedom. Has that for lazy train worker. Really

481
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,879
Speaker 1: that's all they needed, was just someone to just be like,

482
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 1: I don't feel like dealing with this amazing yet, and

483
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 1: we'll find out about their freedom when we get back

484
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 1: from this break. Welcome back. It is Christmas Day and

485
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,640
Speaker 1: William and Ellen have arrived in Philadelphia. Ship y'all, they

486
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: are free. When Williams saw the light of Philadelphia, he said,

487
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 1: I felt that the straps that bound the heavy burden

488
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 1: to my back began to pop and the load to

489
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 1: roll off, and Ellen burst into tears. Smith Sonian points

490
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,400
Speaker 1: out she had to keep up a multi layered deception,

491
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,120
Speaker 1: which we were just talking about. She was finding excuses

492
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: for not drinking brandy or smoking cigars like gentlemen often

493
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:50,919
Speaker 1: normally did. Um. She had to be worried about slavers

494
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,719
Speaker 1: kidnapping William back in the other car, not being totally

495
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 1: separate from him, not really knowing what was going on

496
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,640
Speaker 1: with him. She had to disguise her voice and mannerisms,

497
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:01,200
Speaker 1: and she had to listen to these mean, all white

498
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 1: bitches talking all the time, so her nerves are afraid.

499
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: She's exhausted Ben in the most dangerous character of all

500
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: time for well over a week at this point insane deception.

501
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 1: They needed a rest, okay, so they went to this

502
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:18,919
Speaker 1: boarding house that was run by an abolitionist, which was

503
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: so kindly recommended to me. So they showed up as

504
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: William and Mr Johnson and then startled the landlord considerably.

505
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: When Ellen emerged from their room a few minutes later,

506
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 1: they had to convince them that they were the same person,

507
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 1: and the landlord gathered a bunch of abolitionists at his

508
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 1: house to figure out how best to help the Crafts.

509
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 1: And they kind of decided, you know what, it is

510
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 1: not safe in Philly because it's just one border away

511
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,159
Speaker 1: from a non free state. It's too easy for for

512
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:47,600
Speaker 1: slave catchers to come in here and get your you

513
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: and take you back to the Deep South. So they

514
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 1: decided they would go on to Boston, where quote, public

515
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: opinion had become so much opposed to slavery and to

516
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 1: kidnapping that it was almost impossible for anyone to take

517
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: a fugitive slave out of that state. Thanks Boston, Thanks Boston.

518
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 1: Boston looks great in this story. By the way, this story,

519
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 1: Hold on this one, Boston. You don't always get that treatment. Uh.

520
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: But like we said, still, nerves were frayed, and they

521
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 1: were both exhausted from this harrowing journey, right, So they

522
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 1: decided that they would rest for a minute before heading

523
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: to Boston. Just give me a second. So they went

524
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 1: to stay with a Quaker named Mr. Barkley Ivan's and

525
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,800
Speaker 1: his wife, who were pretty cool, and they kept them

526
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 1: safe for three weeks, and they taught them to write

527
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: their names and the basics of readings. They could get

528
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 1: on better with their new lives. In the book, William

529
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,520
Speaker 1: is basically like, never before had a white person been

530
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 1: so nice to us in such an everyday way. And

531
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: it made Ellen realize that there were good and bad

532
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 1: people of every color and creed. And then they moved

533
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 1: on to Boston, which I just want to say, this

534
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: is eighteen The book came out in eighteen sixty, so

535
00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 1: they didn't learn to write until eighteen forty eight. And

536
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: then he's right and all this amazing ship like not

537
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 1: that long after. I just think that's cool. Um, in Boston,

538
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 1: things are cool. William goes back to making cabinets. He

539
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 1: gets to keep the money this time, so it works

540
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: out a lot better for him. Hey, well, you know what,

541
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: this is way better. I don't mind doing the work

542
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 1: when I'm getting a fucking wage for it, Okay, and

543
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:22,280
Speaker 1: I could be proud of it. Yeah. Ellen is working

544
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: as a seamstress. They live in Beacon Hill at Lewis

545
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: and Harriet Hayden's house, and it was like a boarding

546
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: house where other fugitive slaves and residents of the city lodge.

547
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 1: The National Park Service actually has this really cool website Journey,

548
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: where you can follow on a map all the different

549
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 1: places they end up in their escape. As abolitionist William

550
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 1: Still wrote. The story of their escape was heralded broadcast

551
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: over the country, and they spoke at anti slavery meetings

552
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: in Boston and other towns in New England alongside abolitionists

553
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 1: like William Lloyd Garrison and Samuel May and other fugitive

554
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,400
Speaker 1: slaves like Frederick Douglas and William Wills Brown. So they

555
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: were trying to I think, inspire people and again explain,

556
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 1: this ship is heinous. You should be against it, and

557
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: it's not cool. You should be trying everything you can

558
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: do to change this horrible situation for your fellow man.

559
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: You know, I wonder, without mass media at the time,

560
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: without you know, the information being so readily available, if

561
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,160
Speaker 1: you weren't in the direct path of someone explaining it

562
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: to you, you know, then you were probably getting the

563
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 1: propaganda of people saying this is good, this is a

564
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: good thing for everyone. You know. So uh, but it

565
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 1: must be a lot of work to make sure that

566
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 1: that is getting out to everyone to to change like

567
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:39,400
Speaker 1: these are. This is an easy mentality shift for any

568
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: halfway decent person to make, but it's we've got to

569
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: reach them first. That's got to be a challenge. To

570
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: be an abolitionist. Was probably very hard because a lot

571
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: of other white people were like, what are you talking about.

572
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 1: That's terrible for the economy. You're going to crash everything.

573
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,480
Speaker 1: You're gonna suck everything up if you do that. And

574
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 1: also some of them probably truly believed this dumb ship

575
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 1: about it being unkind because they didn't think genetically that

576
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 1: that black people were the same as as white people,

577
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: and so they thought it would be something awful or whatever.

578
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 1: So you really have a lot to work against, and

579
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 1: in those with that kind of attitude, and the fact

580
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: that these people have like already like worst case nature,

581
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:25,840
Speaker 1: you know, like their their mentality is already fucking cruel,

582
00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: Like they even that they would even believe that in

583
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 1: the first place, that some people are lesser than others.

584
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: And you're working against not only the propaganda that they're

585
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: embedded in, but also their own fucking stupid brains too well,

586
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:39,719
Speaker 1: which is why I like to I I do like

587
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 1: to talk about abolitionists because I feel like a lot

588
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:44,640
Speaker 1: of people hide behind that, well, they were a product

589
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,560
Speaker 1: of their time thing, and it's like, yeah, so we're abolitionists.

590
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 1: Like they were also a product of their time, and

591
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 1: it was very clear to them that this was wrong

592
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:56,479
Speaker 1: and not cool and needed to be changed, and they

593
00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: would do whatever needed to be done to change it. So, yeah, wrong,

594
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: that's not a good excuse. Everybody knew forever that that

595
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 1: was fucked up. Yeah, every time the product of their

596
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 1: time argument comes up, you can say, yeah, but there

597
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:11,800
Speaker 1: were other people in that time who are on the

598
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: right fucking page. And that's not to say that idea

599
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: ideas don't evolve, and that people don't evolve, and that

600
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: our social beliefs don't evolve. But the things, these big things,

601
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: if you're like, well they were, you know, you call

602
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 1: them a monster. But they didn't know any better, Well

603
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: somebody did, so why didn't they? They did know, They

604
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 1: did know. They chose ignorance. So things are going great

605
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,880
Speaker 1: in Boston for two years, but then America had to

606
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 1: be a big old bitch and past the Fugitive Slave

607
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: Act in eighteen fifty. Yeah, William still wrote that quote

608
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 1: even the bravest abolitionist begins to fear that a fugitive

609
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: slave was no longer safe anywhere under the stars and stripes.

610
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: The Fugitive Slave Act was a law basically mandating free

611
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 1: states and the people in them to assist in the

612
00:32:56,040 --> 00:33:01,760
Speaker 1: hunting down of fugitive slaves. Yeah. In the book, William

613
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: points out some features of the Fugitive Slave Act, like

614
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,719
Speaker 1: how if judges ruled you to be a slave, they

615
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 1: got ten dollars, but if they ruled you to be

616
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 1: at liberty, they only got five dollars from the feds. Yeah,

617
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: so he's pointing out it's incentivized for you to be

618
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: ruled a slave. Everybody makes more money that way. So

619
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:25,400
Speaker 1: guess what I mean. I think a lot Like in

620
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 1: twelve Years of Slave you would see even born free

621
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 1: black people being kidnapped and taken down South and told

622
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: they were slaves. Now, nothing nothing to do, nothing, nothing

623
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:36,960
Speaker 1: you can do about it, because I'm gonna get ten dollars. Yeah,

624
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: that judge is like, well, well, all evidence points so

625
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 1: this is a freeman and slavery is heinous, But I

626
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: got a wagon, I gotta pay off God. He also

627
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: calls out a bunch of priests and reverends by name

628
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: who defended the Fugitive Slave Act because again he's like

629
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: your Christianity's bullshit, docks them as I know. It's like

630
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 1: I don't need to because they're dead and them and

631
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 1: forget their names forever. But I love that he did,

632
00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:09,000
Speaker 1: and he said, including one who said if I could

633
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:12,800
Speaker 1: liberate all slaves with one prayer, I would not dare

634
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:18,320
Speaker 1: offer it. Damn, they're so fucked up to think about people.

635
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: I don't I just because you know that if you

636
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 1: did it to a white guy and he would be

637
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 1: like offended by the idea his his liberty could be

638
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: at all limited by anything by anyone. But it's okay

639
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 1: for me to do it to you for all these

640
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:35,880
Speaker 1: various reasons that don't make any sense. Just God hands

641
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 1: curve into a position that might fit around the neck,

642
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 1: and you're just so. Then they're hypothetical. Fear became a

643
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,320
Speaker 1: reality when they learned that a warrant had been issued

644
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 1: for their arrest. A newspaper clipping from the Boston Courier

645
00:34:53,800 --> 00:35:00,200
Speaker 1: dated October says, this is my best Boston Courier, would

646
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 1: you have slave law? We learned that a warrant out

647
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:05,120
Speaker 1: in this law was issued yesterday for the arrest of

648
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:08,399
Speaker 1: one William Kraft, claimed to be a fugitive from making

649
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:14,400
Speaker 1: Joga Craft is in the cabinet making business at fifty

650
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:18,279
Speaker 1: one Cambridge Street, and that all probability will not leave

651
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 1: the city, having, as he says, run far enough and

652
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 1: will not run any farther. Sorry, Boston, I mean, oh,

653
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:32,480
Speaker 1: you've been so nice up at this point, but so

654
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: two men from making Willis Hughes and John Knight, applied

655
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,880
Speaker 1: for the warrant after arriving in Boston days earlier, but

656
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 1: Boston wasn't having it. In a letter to Dr Estlin

657
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 1: and Bristol about Ellen and William, the abolitionists in Reverend

658
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:51,319
Speaker 1: Samuel May wrote a general feeling of indignation and a

659
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 1: cool determination not to allow this young couple to be

660
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:59,160
Speaker 1: taken from Boston into slavery was aroused and pervaded the city.

661
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 1: There are posters put up across the city describing the

662
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:06,360
Speaker 1: slave catchers. Crowds formed outside Hughes and Knights Hotel and

663
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 1: outside the courthouse. Members of the Boston Vigilance Committee sought

664
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:14,360
Speaker 1: ways to quote Baffle the pursuing bloodhounds and relieve the

665
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:18,320
Speaker 1: city of their hateful presence. Police even arrested Hughes and

666
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 1: Knight multiple times, accusing them of slander against William Kraft

667
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 1: for calling him a slave and for threatening to kidnap them. Um,

668
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:31,240
Speaker 1: but they successfully posted bail each time. The Boston Daily

669
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: Times describes that after Night made bail a third time,

670
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 1: a crowd of black and white supporters of the Crafts

671
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 1: I guess I have to do with Boston now assembled

672
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:46,360
Speaker 1: astumbled in Court Square, many of them apparently for the

673
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 1: purpose of making some violent demonstration when Night should make

674
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 1: his appearance. How was that, Yeah, I mean it wasn't.

675
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,880
Speaker 1: I don't think you'd fool anybody in Boston. Um. I

676
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 1: don't know why Boston's so tricky. I could think you

677
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 1: pick a Western European country or a Soviet nation and

678
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 1: I'll give you their fucking accent. But and almost every

679
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,040
Speaker 1: region in the US of Boston. I mean, I can

680
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 1: do the uh ask, not what your country can do

681
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 1: for you. It's not good, yeah, Boston. So sorry to

682
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 1: my Boston cousin, Doug. So, Boston is not ready to

683
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:28,720
Speaker 1: play with these two, and neither are the Crafts. Okay,

684
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 1: Boston stepping it up again. Ellen, first of all, is

685
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:33,879
Speaker 1: being shuffled from safe house to safe house, at one

686
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:36,839
Speaker 1: point staying with a woman named Mary Carson, who wrote

687
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: of Ellen quote, I watched her with perfect admiration. She

688
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:44,320
Speaker 1: showed such great self control, such perfect sweetness of temper

689
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:47,040
Speaker 1: and grace of manner. She could hear nothing from her

690
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:49,400
Speaker 1: husband all day, and of course might suppose him in

691
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 1: every danger. But she kept back her tears and kept

692
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 1: up her sweet looks till late in the afternoon, when

693
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,320
Speaker 1: a messenger came with news of her husband. Meanwhile, William

694
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,240
Speaker 1: armed himself at his shop and rest events on Cambridge Street,

695
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 1: and then headed to Lewis Hayden's house on South x

696
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:07,480
Speaker 1: Street for a better protection. The Boston Coronotype reported that

697
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: at one point William quote was guided by no less

698
00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:13,840
Speaker 1: than two was guarded by no less than two hundred

699
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,399
Speaker 1: of the black citizens of Boston, all of whom were

700
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,359
Speaker 1: armed to the teeth and pledged to defend William and

701
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 1: his wife as long as life lasts. Awesome badass, and

702
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:26,960
Speaker 1: William himself wrote that he and Lewis Hayden had put

703
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,920
Speaker 1: a keg of gunpowder under Hayden's house with a fuse

704
00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 1: attached ready to light should any attempt be made to

705
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,800
Speaker 1: capture us. They were going to light up the whole

706
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 1: fucking town to burn this bitch, which I love. Cool.

707
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 1: At one point, a wealthy man named J. T. Stevenson

708
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:49,759
Speaker 1: sent a message to William saying he would buy him

709
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:54,040
Speaker 1: and Ellen's freedom if he would submit peaceably to an arrest,

710
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 1: and according to the Boston Herald, William said that he

711
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:02,520
Speaker 1: quote represented some hundreds of fugitives, all liable to arrest,

712
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 1: and many of them not so well able or prepared

713
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,960
Speaker 1: to resist. That if he consented to be taken on

714
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,040
Speaker 1: such conditions, others would have no security and would have

715
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 1: to flee to Canada and perhaps starve. If therefore his

716
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,400
Speaker 1: liberty could be purchased for two cents, he would not

717
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,400
Speaker 1: do it, but stand his ground and try the strength

718
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:24,719
Speaker 1: of the law balls of steel. Yes. So William and

719
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 1: Ellen were reunited the next day on October, and for

720
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,920
Speaker 1: the next few days evaded capture from the slave catchers

721
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 1: by frequently changing locations, some of which are still not known.

722
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:37,200
Speaker 1: So we know that they went back and forth and

723
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 1: back and forth sometimes, but we didn't know quite everywhere

724
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:44,160
Speaker 1: they went. Like they had connection which is so cool

725
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 1: um and he was a night. Finally gave up and

726
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:51,040
Speaker 1: they left Boston on November one. But William and Ellen

727
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: knew America was not the place for them. As long

728
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:55,799
Speaker 1: as slavery was a thing, they would never be safe here,

729
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: which is very sad. They decided to leave for England,

730
00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:04,560
Speaker 1: and the Reverend Samuel May wrote, Oh, shame, shame upon

731
00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:08,480
Speaker 1: us that Americans whose father's fought against Great Britain in

732
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 1: order to be free should have to acknowledge this disgraceful fact.

733
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 1: Is America the land of the free and the home

734
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 1: of the brave? God knows it is not, and we

735
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: know it too. A brave young man and a virtuous

736
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,719
Speaker 1: young woman must fly the American shores and seek, under

737
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:28,640
Speaker 1: the shadow of the British throne the enjoyment of life, liberty,

738
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:37,560
Speaker 1: and the pursuit of happiness. Fun fact, Samuel May was

739
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 1: Louisa May Alcott's uncle, the woman who wrote Little Women.

740
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:44,560
Speaker 1: That family knew how to write some words. Yeah, you

741
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:46,279
Speaker 1: can see why she kind of grew up thinking, you

742
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:49,759
Speaker 1: know what we can do better. But first, before they

743
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,360
Speaker 1: left for England on November seven, they were remarried according

744
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 1: to the laws of a Free State by abolitionists and

745
00:40:56,400 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 1: friend Reverend Theodore Parker, And after the ceremony, Evan Parker

746
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,160
Speaker 1: gave William a revolver and a Dirk knife to protect

747
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:08,000
Speaker 1: himself and his wife on their journey. I now pronounce

748
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:10,400
Speaker 1: your husband and wife. Now take this, keep it on

749
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,279
Speaker 1: your ankle holster. If somebody gets too close, you shove

750
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 1: them in the side. Right. Put those bags of bullets

751
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:19,279
Speaker 1: into your bag. Right. He had this revolver, he had

752
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:22,239
Speaker 1: his knife. They were married for real. It was time

753
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 1: to escape again, and it's time for a commercial break

754
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 1: yet again. All right, and we're back. They left Boston

755
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:34,960
Speaker 1: for Portland, Maine, and then continued on to St. John's,

756
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,319
Speaker 1: New Brunswick, Windsor and Nova, Scotia, where they took a

757
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,799
Speaker 1: coach to Halifax. But the coach broke down and the

758
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 1: Crafts missed their ship to England by two hours. Oh

759
00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: my god, so frustrating. So they missed their ship by England.

760
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:50,759
Speaker 1: They had to wait two weeks for the next one.

761
00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 1: So Ellen tried to get them a room at a hotel.

762
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 1: The proprietress had no problem with a white lady staying

763
00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,279
Speaker 1: in the room, as she saw Ellen, but she had

764
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 1: a big problem with Ellen's black husband. They stayed one

765
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 1: night pretty much solely confined to their bedroom because the

766
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:10,400
Speaker 1: other guests were shitty, awful people. The landlady was like, listen,

767
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 1: I'm not prejudiced, but you're costing me money, so you

768
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:21,200
Speaker 1: have to go. She was prejudiced. She was pudice like,

769
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: I'm not an asshole, but I'm going to go ahead

770
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 1: and be one. And so. William wrote that neither of

771
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: them were dying to stay anyway, obviously since they had

772
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,080
Speaker 1: to eat, sleep, and sit all in one small room,

773
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:33,319
Speaker 1: but they told her that she had to find them

774
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:36,320
Speaker 1: somewhere safe to stay first before they would go. So

775
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 1: she found them a black family for them to stay with,

776
00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:43,879
Speaker 1: Reverend Kennedy and his wife, and finally, after staying with them,

777
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: they caught their ship. They were off to Lulupool bonus romance.

778
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 1: In Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom, William writes that

779
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,680
Speaker 1: during their stay at the hotel, the Boots, who I

780
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:01,719
Speaker 1: guess shines the shoes, was a fugitive slave as well.

781
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:04,560
Speaker 1: He was around forty five years old, and he told

782
00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: William that when he was a young man he had

783
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:09,719
Speaker 1: been married, but they sold his bride away from him,

784
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:11,719
Speaker 1: and he had no idea where she was, and he

785
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:15,440
Speaker 1: stayed single for many years before and after his escape,

786
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:18,239
Speaker 1: but he eventually remarried. And then one day's walking down

787
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: the street, and who does he see but his first wife.

788
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 1: Turned out she had escaped to the Free States by

789
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:27,360
Speaker 1: secreting herself in a vessel, like stowing away on a

790
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 1: boat and then escaping into New Brunswick quote for that

791
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,080
Speaker 1: protection which her native country was too mean to afford.

792
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,840
Speaker 1: She recognizes him too, and she embraces him, and she

793
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 1: asked if he's got married again, and when he says yes,

794
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:42,960
Speaker 1: she starts to cry, and he takes her back to

795
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:45,960
Speaker 1: his new wife, Quote, who was also a fugitive slave.

796
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:48,320
Speaker 1: And as they all knew the workings of the infamous

797
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,439
Speaker 1: system of slavery, they could, as no one else can,

798
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 1: sympathize with each other's misfortune. And they decided among the

799
00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:57,360
Speaker 1: three of them that he would live exclusively with the

800
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:00,400
Speaker 1: second wife, but he could allow the first life as

801
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 1: much as a week, as long as she requested his assistance.

802
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 1: So they figured it out a little triad. It was cute.

803
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 1: They had a little and little bonus romance. I was

804
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:14,280
Speaker 1: like I gotta include this, but just also another example

805
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:17,960
Speaker 1: of being sold away like a piece of property and

806
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,439
Speaker 1: how much that can affect your life forever. I mean,

807
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 1: that's that's a really insane thing to happen. So they

808
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: get to England. Initially they stay at Dr Estland's house

809
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 1: in Bristol, but then they go to the Uckham School

810
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:34,799
Speaker 1: in Surrey for three years, both as learners and as

811
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:39,000
Speaker 1: teachers in their respective crafts carpentry and sewing. They settled

812
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:42,279
Speaker 1: in West London and had five children. I hope I'm

813
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 1: really paying the picture for you. Guys settled the West

814
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:52,200
Speaker 1: London and had five children, Charles Estland, Phillips, William Brokeram,

815
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,800
Speaker 1: Alfred and Ellen. And they continue to speak out against

816
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: slavery in America as they traveled England and Scotland, and

817
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,719
Speaker 1: in June of eighteen fifty one they staged a demonstration

818
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:07,319
Speaker 1: against American slavery at the London Great Exhibition, strolling through

819
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 1: the American section arm in arm with white abolitionist friends

820
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:15,440
Speaker 1: to demonstrate the irony of encountering more racial tolerance in England,

821
00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: a country that had banned slavery from its Caribbean colonies

822
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:22,440
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty eight then in the so called democratic

823
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: United States. Yes, apparently it shocked quite a lot of

824
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,720
Speaker 1: the Americans who were there for the exhibition to see

825
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: black and white people just hanging out like normal fucking people.

826
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:36,840
Speaker 1: So they published their book Running a Thousand Miles to

827
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 1: Freedom in eighteen sixty. Georgia Encyclopedia says that quote. While

828
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:45,360
Speaker 1: the title page attributes sole authorship of the memoir to William,

829
00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 1: scholarship in the twenty first century has revisited Ellen's involvement

830
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:52,560
Speaker 1: in writing and shaping their story. Several scholars consider Ellen's

831
00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:55,719
Speaker 1: appearances with William at anti slavery lectures as evidence of

832
00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:59,120
Speaker 1: the memoirs collaborative roots, in addition to testimonies of Ellen's

833
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:02,920
Speaker 1: assertiveness that were provided by abolitionist friends during the postbellum years,

834
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:06,439
Speaker 1: which I believe because again there's all those conversations that

835
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:10,640
Speaker 1: she witnessed. She must have had a hand in retelling

836
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,879
Speaker 1: in their story, you know what I mean, And as

837
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 1: more evidence to her strong personality. Here's this. A rumor

838
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:19,320
Speaker 1: began to spread in the US that Ellen had asked

839
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 1: an American man in London to return her to her enslaver.

840
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 1: So this is more of this propaganda bolshoy like they

841
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:28,880
Speaker 1: miss it, I promised, they always regret running away or whatever.

842
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,919
Speaker 1: And Ellen put a quick stop to that. She wrote

843
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,360
Speaker 1: in the Massachusetts Spy. I write these few lines merely

844
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,680
Speaker 1: to say that the statement is entirely unfounded, for I

845
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:44,040
Speaker 1: never have had the slightest inclination whatever of returning to bondage.

846
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 1: In fact, since my escape from slavery, I have got

847
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:49,600
Speaker 1: on much better in every respect than I could have

848
00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:53,360
Speaker 1: possibly anticipated. Though had it been to the contrary, my

849
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 1: feelings in regard to this would have been just the same,

850
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 1: for I had much rather starved in England a free

851
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:01,840
Speaker 1: woman than be a slave to the best man that

852
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:06,840
Speaker 1: ever breathed on the American continent. Yeah. Fuck yes, Ellen,

853
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 1: I almost stood up like cheering whenever that And according

854
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: to the National Park Service, William also traveled to West

855
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:20,879
Speaker 1: Africa to encourage an end to the slave trade um

856
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 1: by negotiating a commercial treaty with some of the chiefs

857
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,760
Speaker 1: of the Western Shores as a representative of English merchants. Yeah.

858
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:32,239
Speaker 1: According to the Liberator, in eighteen sixty three, Kraft met

859
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:35,600
Speaker 1: with the West African King of Dahomey to show him

860
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:39,920
Speaker 1: the superior advantages of peaceful and legitimate commerce over the

861
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:45,360
Speaker 1: atrocious slave trade with its concomitant barbarities. In eighteen seventy,

862
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,080
Speaker 1: after the end of the Civil War, Ellen William and

863
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 1: their five children returned to Georgia. They wanted to help

864
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:55,960
Speaker 1: newly emancipated men and women, so they started the Woodville

865
00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:59,800
Speaker 1: Cooperative Farm School. In eighteen seventy three, William was quoted

866
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 1: in Evening Post New York in his argument for more

867
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:05,719
Speaker 1: schools as saying the free schools for blacks which have

868
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 1: been established by the several southern states, only partly supply

869
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,239
Speaker 1: the needs of the black children, for the reason that

870
00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:15,560
Speaker 1: plantations are large and the population widely scattered in the

871
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:18,799
Speaker 1: country districts, so that the distances from their homes to

872
00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:22,239
Speaker 1: the schools is necessarily so great that a very large

873
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 1: number of black children are practically shut out of the

874
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:28,920
Speaker 1: schools provided for them by the state. Oh, what a surprise.

875
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:32,120
Speaker 1: They didn't put enough time and energy into their resources

876
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:35,239
Speaker 1: for black people. It really reminded me a lot of

877
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:38,520
Speaker 1: the voting stuff that's going on here right now, keeping

878
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:41,399
Speaker 1: poll boxes far away, closing down a lot of them,

879
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:44,319
Speaker 1: and all that kind of accessibility is key and if

880
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 1: you are in charge of that accessibility and you can

881
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: deliberately deny it, who's stopping you? Somebody needs Unfortunately, no one.

882
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:57,080
Speaker 1: They raised money from Northern publishers and anti slavery friends

883
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 1: to purchase one thousand, eight hundred acres of land on

884
00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:03,239
Speaker 1: which they built the school and a farm, and both

885
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 1: were successful at first, but scandal erupted in eighteen seventy

886
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:11,880
Speaker 1: six when some of the backers accused William of personally

887
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:15,759
Speaker 1: using funds intended for the school, and he sued for

888
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:18,280
Speaker 1: liable to clear his name in Boston, but he lost

889
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:20,839
Speaker 1: the case in eighteen seventy eight, along with many long

890
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:27,080
Speaker 1: time allies. According to the Georgia Encyclopedia, which speculation station.

891
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:31,120
Speaker 1: Do you think but he did that? I mean, you know,

892
00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 1: I haven't heard the trial, so I couldn't really judge.

893
00:49:35,680 --> 00:49:39,279
Speaker 1: I mean, it's disheartening that they convicted or you know

894
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,319
Speaker 1: that they didn't rule in his favor, So I don't, Uh,

895
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:45,879
Speaker 1: I don't know. On one hand, you want to say that, well,

896
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:49,719
Speaker 1: they went through the process and they ruled that he did,

897
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:51,319
Speaker 1: But also I don't know, is this a black band

898
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: up against white investors? I guess that was my question.

899
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:55,880
Speaker 1: It's like, it would be very easy to start a

900
00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:59,320
Speaker 1: rumor against him that people would be quick to believe.

901
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:02,560
Speaker 1: Even if they are abolitionist and anti slavery, you know,

902
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:06,120
Speaker 1: they still have you know, they still have their their

903
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:09,239
Speaker 1: own prejudices in there somewhere that they might not be

904
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:12,759
Speaker 1: dealing with. Or you know, when money gets involved. Everything

905
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:15,279
Speaker 1: family turns against each other when there's money involved. So

906
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:18,239
Speaker 1: these guys might have just been like, but I mean,

907
00:50:18,280 --> 00:50:20,760
Speaker 1: from what I know of William I like to trust

908
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:23,319
Speaker 1: his character. He's fucking cool and he's been through some ship.

909
00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:24,960
Speaker 1: I say, give him a little bit of that money,

910
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 1: you know, spend it. I don't know. I was definitely like,

911
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:32,600
Speaker 1: oh really, that didn't drive for me with the person

912
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:35,239
Speaker 1: that that I have built up now in my head

913
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:37,799
Speaker 1: from hearing the story, and of course it's a very

914
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:41,000
Speaker 1: bits and pieces of a whole person, but but it

915
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:43,359
Speaker 1: was definitely like, oh really, so I wanted to see

916
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 1: what you thought I would rule this speculation station. Inconclusive,

917
00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:52,840
Speaker 1: the school closed without funds, and Williams struggled to maintain

918
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:56,560
Speaker 1: the farm in the face of increased debt, plummeting cotton prices,

919
00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:00,880
Speaker 1: and increasing anti black violence and legal oppression because of

920
00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:03,959
Speaker 1: course it's eighteen seventy, so what's happening around this time?

921
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:07,640
Speaker 1: They're working on Jim crow Law's real hard, so they're

922
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:10,839
Speaker 1: trying real hard to make it very hard to be

923
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:15,760
Speaker 1: black in this country without actually enslaving them anymore. Um

924
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 1: So it's a bad time. I was kind of like,

925
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:22,239
Speaker 1: I wonder if they regretted ever moving from England once

926
00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:25,319
Speaker 1: all that stuff starting to happen, you know. So in

927
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:28,279
Speaker 1: ninety the Crafts moved to Charleston to live with their

928
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:34,040
Speaker 1: daughter's family, and Ellen died shortly after in and William

929
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:39,439
Speaker 1: died in and their story of escape just became well

930
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:42,000
Speaker 1: known and it proved to be an example for others

931
00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:45,040
Speaker 1: fleeing slavery. They hope their book would encourage quote a

932
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:49,600
Speaker 1: deeper abhorrence of the sinful and abominable practice of enslaving

933
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:53,879
Speaker 1: and brutal ifying our fellow creatures. Ah man, I mean

934
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 1: talk about it, Yeah, Edgy, your Seed Adventure really intense

935
00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: and wild story. I wonder, you know why we haven't

936
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:02,400
Speaker 1: seen this movie yet because it's such a good story,

937
00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:04,919
Speaker 1: and and that that conversation, this conversation has been coming

938
00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:09,279
Speaker 1: up a lot lately too. With movies about slavery and

939
00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:13,759
Speaker 1: how focused they are on torture porn basically that a

940
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 1: lot of people are saying that it's just like I

941
00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 1: have read some arguments recently from black people specifically saying

942
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:23,239
Speaker 1: that it's enough, like we're kind of done with this

943
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:27,920
Speaker 1: gratuitous just representation of violence done to our bodies. Um,

944
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:31,440
Speaker 1: So it's like this story certainly is rooted in that

945
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:35,160
Speaker 1: horror without being a constant depiction of it, you know, Like,

946
00:52:35,200 --> 00:52:37,520
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the same points are made.

947
00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:39,279
Speaker 1: So I would be really fascinated to see someone take

948
00:52:39,280 --> 00:52:42,040
Speaker 1: this story on cinematically and really kind of represent this

949
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:45,000
Speaker 1: and and show people like, I mean, you just you

950
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:48,160
Speaker 1: get so much fury and rage at hearing the story.

951
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:50,720
Speaker 1: You kind of get to see all the other horrible

952
00:52:50,719 --> 00:52:53,319
Speaker 1: things they were doing, and just the horrible people that

953
00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 1: they were when they were by themselves. I think I

954
00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:59,080
Speaker 1: think it's important too to be like and some people

955
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:02,400
Speaker 1: had it relatively good. I mean in terms of like

956
00:53:02,560 --> 00:53:07,240
Speaker 1: William and Ellen were favorites, They had good jobs quote unquote,

957
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:09,640
Speaker 1: I mean, they had it as good as you could

958
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:13,239
Speaker 1: have it in that situation, and they still fucking hated it.

959
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:15,919
Speaker 1: They still were like fuck this, getting the funk out

960
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,359
Speaker 1: of here. And I think that's really important to note

961
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:21,080
Speaker 1: because it's like, it's not you shouldn't First of all,

962
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:24,839
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have to be beating on somebody to make

963
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,800
Speaker 1: it like, oh, you shouldn't own that person. You shouldn't

964
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:31,160
Speaker 1: own a person no matter how you treat them. That's period,

965
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:33,919
Speaker 1: the end of in a fucking sentence. So it would

966
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:35,839
Speaker 1: be a very important movie to see that too, where

967
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,799
Speaker 1: it's like these guys are fine sort of, but they're

968
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:42,799
Speaker 1: not fine because they deserve to be free and at

969
00:53:42,840 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 1: liberty and to go about their fucking life however they want.

970
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:49,320
Speaker 1: Enslaving someone and giving them a room in your house

971
00:53:49,440 --> 00:53:52,239
Speaker 1: is still enslaving someone, I mean. And the fear of

972
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:56,600
Speaker 1: having the children sold away and stuff like that, it's

973
00:53:56,640 --> 00:54:00,200
Speaker 1: like an ever present fear. That's like, even if you're

974
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:04,120
Speaker 1: doing relatively fine, you're not being treated like Lapide and

975
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:07,120
Speaker 1: Younggo in twelve years of Slave or something. You shouldn't

976
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:09,480
Speaker 1: have to see that to be like that's this is

977
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 1: not cool. We should not be able to do this

978
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:15,640
Speaker 1: to anyone. So anyway, I just think that, like you're saying,

979
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:17,320
Speaker 1: I think it would be a very powerful story to

980
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:21,760
Speaker 1: put to film because of that, and also would be fun.

981
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:25,040
Speaker 1: It would be funny because the amount of fun that

982
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:27,000
Speaker 1: they were having with some of these white people is

983
00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:29,399
Speaker 1: really clear in the book. I hope that it came

984
00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:32,640
Speaker 1: across and their quotes I selected, but I was definitely like,

985
00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:35,399
Speaker 1: And then even with the abolitionist, he's like, these guys

986
00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:38,560
Speaker 1: are great. I wish I could tell them. I almost

987
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:40,279
Speaker 1: wish I could tell him what's going on, but I

988
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:41,920
Speaker 1: have to just be like, no, I'm good, thank you,

989
00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:45,239
Speaker 1: so you know. So, I just think it would be

990
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:51,160
Speaker 1: like such a cool, interesting film or TV series or

991
00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:56,560
Speaker 1: whatever to see there amazing heist of themselves. Are you listening?

992
00:54:57,480 --> 00:55:00,719
Speaker 1: Super cool story though, Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Um,

993
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:03,440
Speaker 1: don't forget to reach out hit us up on those emails,

994
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:05,319
Speaker 1: especially if you're Barry Jenkins and you want to make

995
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:08,879
Speaker 1: this movie romance at I heeart media dot com. Yes,

996
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:11,960
Speaker 1: and and don't forget to rate on Apple podcasts if

997
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:15,520
Speaker 1: you will, Yeah, throw us a review, you know, and

998
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:17,520
Speaker 1: it's some really great reviews to you guys have who

999
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:21,239
Speaker 1: have mosted them. We love them. They're very they're very uplifting,

1000
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:23,880
Speaker 1: So thank you and send us an email and also

1001
00:55:23,960 --> 00:55:26,640
Speaker 1: we're on the we're on the social media's Yeah, I'm

1002
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:29,680
Speaker 1: at O Grade, it's Eli, and I'm at Dianamite Boom

1003
00:55:29,719 --> 00:55:32,640
Speaker 1: and we're both at Ridick Romance on Instagram and Twitter.

1004
00:55:32,760 --> 00:55:35,760
Speaker 1: Find us there and say hey, yeah, we're super happy

1005
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:37,440
Speaker 1: to have you, and we'll be super happy to have

1006
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:39,839
Speaker 1: you on the next episode and we'll see you next time.

1007
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:44,200
Speaker 1: So long friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening

1008
00:55:44,280 --> 00:55:47,640
Speaker 1: to our show, tell your friends names, uncle's and this

1009
00:55:48,160 --> 00:55:50,279
Speaker 1: to listen to our show, Ridiculous role that