Author: Elizabeth Porter
​Learner | Deliberative | Restorative | Includer | Relator 

It was dehumanizing. It was terrifying. But it was not the end of my story.

I am my father’s daughter. I am my community’s hope. I am a Black, disabled, educated woman — and I am exactly who I was meant to be.

RSS Feed

Author: Laura Lagerstedt 

BUILD Member 

Reading about the incredible journey of William and Ellen Craft, I realized how much of U.S. history I had either forgotten or, more likely, never learned. The incredible way in which they escaped together, with Ellen disguised as a white male slaveholder and her husband William as her slave, via public transportation, "…they moved in full view of the world, harnessing the latest technologies of their day: steamboats, stagecoaches, and above all, an actual railroad…" (pg. 4)

The book had me on the edge of my seat, rooting for the couple throughout their ordeal, and particularly disappointed and heartbroken by Woo's description of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. (pg. 204) Passed in the 31st United States Congress, years after the Crafts had escaped to the north and had been on the lecture circuit with other abolitionists, after they had settled down and started their lives anew with profitable businesses and plans for their futures in Boston, their struggle was reignited.

​The book had me on the edge of my seat, rooting for the couple throughout their ordeal, and particularly disappointed and heartbroken by Woo's description of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Later, Woo had me laughing out loud and cheering for the couple when the slave catchers sent to return the Crafts to Georgia, and back to the bonds of slavery were thwarted by the courts, Craft's legal team, and a large crowd of protesters in the north disgusted with the institution in the south.