Ellen and William Craft - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

At the age of 20, Ellen married a fellow slave, William Craft, in whom her master Collins held a half interest. Craft saved money from being hired out in town as a carpenter. Not wanting to rear a family in slavery, during the Christmas season of 1848, the couple planned an escape.

Eventually they had five children together, who were mostly born and reared during their nearly two decades of living in England. The Crafts went there after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, as they were in danger of being captured in Boston as a prominent fugitive slave couple. Their children were Charles Estlin Phillips (1852-1938), William Ivens (1855-1926), Brougham H. (1857-1920), Alfred G. (1871-1939), and Ellen A. (1863-1917). When the Crafts returned to the United States after the American Civil War, three of their children came with them.

Read more about this topic:  Ellen And William Craft

Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or family:

    The sum and substance of female education in America, as in England, is training women to consider marriage as the sole object in life, and to pretend that they do not think so.
    Harriet Martineau (1802–1876)

    If you are a genius and unsuccessful, everybody treats you as if you were a genius, but when you come to be successful, when you commence to earn money, when you are really successful, then your family and everybody no longer treats you like a genius, they treat you like a man who has become successful.
    Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)