Amazing Story Behind Couple Who Escaped Slavery in 1848 - Inspirational Videos

While most slaves fled under the cover of darkness, one couple fled in plain sight. This amazing story behind the couple who escaped slavery in 1848 will leave you in awe! 

Ellen was the child of a slave owner and her enslaved mother. At the age of 11, Ellen watched in horror as her sister was given as a wedding gift. She knew then being a slave and keeping her family intact would never happen. 

Later, she met and fell in love with her husband William Craft. He, too was a slave. Eventually, they wanted to start a family, but they feared their master would take any of their children and sell them, and they would never see them again. They feared the horrors and brutality their children would face as slaves and dreamed of freedom. 

Ellen and William’s dream of freedom turned into an idea when they came up with an ingenious plan. Ellen would disguise herself as a sickly slave owner!  Because Ellen had a fair complexion, she would pose as William’s master. As they continued planning, they knew stumbling blocks such as being illiterate would become an issue when clerks when ask for her signatures for hotel stays to train tickets. So, Ellen devised a plan to pretend to have an injury and wore her arm in a sling. Adding to her disguise, she also wore bandages around her face to limit conversations and keep her female facial features hidden. 

Together, they fled from Macon, Georgia to Boston traveling by steamboats and trains. Soon their past would catch up to them when their notoriety of how they fled served the movement to end slavery. The couple then set sail to England, where their dreams finally came true. Ellen and Geroge became literate and birthed five free-born children!

Several generations later, their passion and legacy of education and ending slavery lives on in their great-great-great granddaughter Peggy Preacely who was a part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. 

Peggy holds her great-great-great grandmother’s words to heart, “Today we stand. Our family in a perpetual circle of grace, listing to our ancestors calling to us. Through blood and sacrifice and communal space, to rise, continue, celebrate, and persist on this continuum of collective effort and individual sacrifice. Following their steppings stones to liberation.”

This incredible story is a reminder the choices, dreams, and prayers we make today can impact multiple generations through God’s provision, salvation, and grace!