5,000 Miles to Freedom: Ellen and William Craft's Flight from Slavery (review)

Contemporary Wendell Phillips described the Crafts' near-miraculous escape from slavery in the deep South as "one of the most thrilling tales in the nation's annals." Readers are bound to agree as the Fradins trace their treacherous journey and its equally perilous aftermath from the moment the Crafts decided to pose as a Southern gentleman (light-skinned Ellen) and his slave (darker William) and made their way to Philadelphia in plain view via rail and water. Hunger, sleeplessness, and brushes with imminent discovery nearly resulted in disaster, and even the expected safety of Philadelphia, and later Boston, proved illusory as a more draconian Fugitive Slave Law made the celebrated runaways attractive prey. Their sojourn in Great Britain and later work in the post-bellum United States demonstrate their contribution to African-American advancement but also paint a bittersweet picture of two people who longed for a normal, private life and were instead laden with more public responsibilities. Several pieces of pictorial and documentary evidence are reproduced here, but most illustrations try to capture the sense of the period through photos, engravings, and maps. Source notes, bibliography, and index will aid report writers, but readers are just as likely to peruse this title for their own noncurricular interest.