A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
A New York Times bestseller, the incredible true story of a couple that escaped slavery in the South and eventually made their way to the UK, Africa and beyond.
The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as "his" slave.
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.
Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Audiences could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who travelled the country drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionists of the day.
But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as the Crafts fled to England to embark upon a new life.
With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife recounts both a ground-breaking quest for liberty and justice, and an unforgettable love story.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'Ellen and William Craft loved each other, but also loved freedom, and knew one was impossible without the other ... we readers gasp in amazement and wonder at the tragedy and triumph' -- Marlon James, winner of The Booker Prize 'A feat of ... storytelling, sympathy and insight' * The New York Times * 'Woo's history draws from a variety of sources, including the Crafts' own account, to reconstruct a 'journey of mutual self-emancipation', while artfully sketching the background of a nation careering toward civil war' * The New Yorker * 'Phenomenal' -- Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois 'A suspenseful, sensitively rendered account . . . Woo tells the story [with] a cinematic eye' -- W. Caleb McDaniel * The New York Times Book Review *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Maße
Höhe: 231 mm
Breite: 150 mm
Dicke: 33 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-80418-363-2 (9781804183632)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Ilyon Woo is the author of The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times and the recipient of a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Writing Grant. Her articles have appeared in venues such as The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal, and she has received support for her research from the National Endowment for the Humanities, among other organisations. She holds a BA in the Humanities from Yale College and a PhD in English from Columbia University.
