Ellen and William Craft - Return To The United States

Return To The United States

In 1868, after the American Civil War and passage of constitutional amendments granting emancipation, citizenship and rights to freedmen, the Crafts returned with three of their children to the United States. After raising funds from supporters, in 1870 they bought 1800 acres of land in Georgia near Savannah in Bryan County. There they founded the Woodville Co-operative Farm School in 1873 for the education and employment of freedmen. In 1876 William Craft was charged with misuse of funds, and he lost a libel case in 1878 in which he tried to clear his name. The school closed soon after. Although the Crafts tried to keep the farm running, dropping cotton prices, and post-Reconstruction era violence contributed to its failure. Whites discriminated against freedmen as they worked to re-establish white supremacy in politics and economics.

In 1890 the Crafts moved to Charleston, South Carolina to live with their daughter Ellen, who was married to Dr. William D. Crum, who would be appointed Collector of the Port of Charleston by President Theodore Roosevelt. The elder Ellen Craft died in 1897, and William in January 1900.

Read more about this topic:  Ellen And William Craft

Famous quotes containing the words return to the, united states, return to, return, united and/or states:

    Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    ... when we shall have our amendment to the Constitution of the United States, everyone will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses were always hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon to-day has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.
    Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)

    I hate that word. It’s return—a return to the millions of people who’ve never forgiven me for deserting the screen.
    Billy Wilder (b. 1906)

    Our needs hourly
    Climb and return like angels.
    Unclosing like a hand,
    You give for ever.
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.
    Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)

    My only rival, the United States cavalry.
    James Kevin McGuinness, and John Ford. Mrs. Yorke (Maureen O’Hara)