This Summer I Hope To Have As Much Fun As I Had This School Year. I Had A Lot Of Fun With New Learning Processes And The Conferences And Especially To Meet Mr.CosandAnd Experience Those Times With Him And My Friends.We Have Had Our Ups And Downs But At Least We Struggled Through All Of Them From Projects To Personal Problems. Well I’m Very Happy Because I know For Sure That I’mGonna See My Nana And Papa This Year And Even My Brother. They Originally Lived In Texas and They Still Do Its Just We All Are Going To the Grand Canyon This Coming Sunday And We Plan To Bring Back My Brother And Then About A Month Or So Later We will Meet Half Way Again And Drop Him Off And Drive Back Home So Yeah That’s Gonna Be Claustrophobic Because We Are All Gonna Be crammed Into A Truck Sooo… Yeah Thanks For Reading This I Am Gonna Miss You Guys.
I loved this school year. Their were lots of video conferences with lots of different people. We had a lot of projects such as Sign of the Beaver, Artrix, and Slavery. The slavery project was the hardest for me because its horrid to think of someone as something that someone owns. We have a lot of different websites that you can check out just ask Mr.Cosand and maybe he will show you.( If he has not already gotten rid of them.) It was sooo fun to learn on the little active expressions that we got to use and especially the BIG active expression.I had a great experience with Mr.Cosand and i thought that he was some weird crazy physco dude but he wasn’t. Trust me to you guys who are reading this you will LOVE this year.
LOVE,
TRISTAN
By, Tristan Avila
Ellen Craft was a light skinned abolitionist. She was born around 1826. She had no children because she was afraid that they would be sold just like her Ellen was sold apart from her mother. She thought slavery was wrong and so did her husband William Craft. William and Ellen Craft got married around 1846. They didn’t have the same masters but they lived together.
Ellen and her husband had all these plans to escape but they were afraid they would not work. Around Christmas time they had a plan they knew would work. Their plan was to pretend that Ellen was a White man and William was her slave. At first they would ask for Christmas passes. Christmas passes are passes that slaves get to go away for a certain amount of days. You could go visit family or friends but in William and Ellen’s situation they were to leave on December 21 and had to be back by December 26.
So they would ask for Christmas passes and then they would have 5 days to get to the free state which is Philadelphia. Ellen thought about it and thought about it she thought if she tried to escape and go to Philadelphia and get caught then she would be beaten but then she thought about having children gathered around the fire in her new house in Philadelphia her new house were she would never be beaten again and right then she knew what she was going to do. William and Ellen started secretly preparing for their escape. Williams master had let him work for other people to earn money. William would use that money to travel to Philadelphia and he also bought a men’s shirt and a tall beaver hat for the disguise. Ellen sewed men’s pants. She had to cut her hair short and she still did not look like a man so she had to put a bandage around her face. She still didn’t look like a man so she had to were dark glasses to hide her scared eyes. Ellen panicked what if they asked her to sign something slaves didn’t go to school they didn’t know how to write so she put a sling on her arm so if she were to sign something she would have someone else do it for her. Ellen’s disguise name Mr. Johnson.
Finally they were finished and it was time to start their voyage. Ellen slipped out into the cold dark night and was planning to take her first steps toward freedom. William and Ellen walked separately to the train station nearby. She walked up to the window Ellen asked for two tickets one for her and one for her slave. The agent didn’t say runaway slave or anything then Ellen knew this plan would work. She held the tickets tight she couldn’t ride with William though he had to ride in the railroad car for slaves. Ellen would travel in a car for white passengers and now she was on her own.
There was a lot of white men in the car they were smoking and chatting and having a good time and then suddenly a white man sat down next to Ellen. The white man said “ it’s a very fine morning sir .” Ellen’s heart pounded she knew this man. He was Mr. Cray. Mr. Cray knew Ellen since she was a little girl would Mr. Cray recognize Ellen? Ellen just turned her head to the window and at first she pretended she was deaf. But Mr. Cray kept asking questions Ellen made her voice sound like a mans voice as much as possible and answered his questions. He never knew she was a runaway slave.
Once they were in Savannah, Georgia Ellen and William Got on a boat and headed for South, Carolina. It was a cold night there was no space for slaves so they had to sleep on some cotton bags on a deck. Ellen got to sleep in a clean warm bed but she couldn’t go to sleep she had been Mr. Johnson for a day and she still has 4 days to go.
When the sun came up Ellen wanted to stay in bed but she had to go to breakfast and face the white men. William helped her and acted like her slave he was calling her master and sir. Ellen had to act like a master but she was way to nice to William the other men at breakfast were curious about Mr. Johnson he was to nice to his slave they said. Your going to spoil your slave one man said to Ellen. You have to treat slaves like dogs you have to yell you have to scare them otherwise they get proud and runaway. The other men at the table agreed. Ellen wanted to shout slaves are not dogs! But all she did was nodd and talked about her health instead.
In Charleston William and Ellen ate at a dinner hotel William had to eat in the kitchen off of and broken dirty old plate. Ellen was served in a fancy dining room by two slaves. She had to act like the man she wasn’t which was Mr. Johnson but she couldn’t be rude to them so she thanked them very kindly and handed them extra money but soon it was time to go to the ticket office town. Ellen had asked for two tickets to Philadelphia the ticket agent had to be certain that William was her slave he knew that some white people risked their lives to help slave get away to freedom the ticket agent gave Mr. Johnson a form to sign. Ellen showed the agent her arm I cant use my arm. Would the ticket agent sign the form instead? Nope he said I don’t do favors for strangers. Ellen had no idea what to do. Finally a man was kind enough to say that William was her slave and someone signed the form and now William and Ellen are one step closer to what they want FREEDOM.
Just two more days Ellen and William traveled on the boat and the train. Ellen could not sleep at all each night she lay awake restlessly worrying. She worried about getting there on time. On Christmas Eve they arrived in Baltimore, Maryland. They needed only one more trip to get to freedom. Once again Ellen arrived on the train full of the white passengers. As William was walking to the car for black people some one tapped him on the shoulder hard. It was a train officer he said were are you going boy? William said I am going to Philadelphia I am traveling with my master. The man said you have to get approval so you better get him into the office.
William and Ellen went into the office. They tried to hide their fear could they be captured so close to freedom there answer awaits. The officer was dead serious he wasn’t going to let any dirty slaves escape to freedom. He wanted Mr. Johnson to show proof that William was really her slave. She said she had no proof. The officer said if she knew anyone in Baltimore who could help her Ellen answered no. And then a crowd had gathered outside of the office getting ready to plead for Ellen. But Ellen showed no panic. What could she do? She thought to herself What would a white man do? She thought a white man would deserve better there is nothing that can stop me from what I need to do so she stood up for herself and she said I bought these tickets to go where I want and you have no right to keep me I am not your slave you do not make my decisions. And the crowd agreed.
The bell clanged it was time for the train to leave but they were stuck in the office and finally he believed Ellen and said I give up. I suppose its all right. Then they hurried into the train Ellen took a seat by the window. When she looked out the window all she could see was the dark cold night. In the a couple of hours it would be Christmas day. The train ride seem to last forever and she could see Philadelphia nowhere.
Early Christmas morning Ellen saw light far side It was Philadelphia! As soon as that train stopped They climbed off after the rolling rocking ride they felt proud to step foot on the solid still ground it was safe ground it was free ground. Ellen looked around she saw people hugging their families and Ellen said to William we can be a family now. They thought were free we will never be slaves again and then William took Ellen’s hand And they walked together toward the free streets of Philadelphia.
Timeline:
1826-Ellen Craft was born
1846-Ellen and William were married
December 21,1848-Ellen and William begin their escape
December25,1848-The crafts arrived in Philadelphia
October 1852-Ellen gives birth to the first of five children
December 6,1865-The thirteenth amendment officially outlaws slavery in the United States
Summer,1869-The Crafts moved back to the united states
1872-The Crafts buy a plantation and start a school for African American children in Georgia
1891-Ellen Craft dies followed by William
Moore, Cathy. The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 2002. Print. This is my recourse from my book.
“Ellen Craft.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., , n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Craft. This is where got my information on the big escape.
“Ellen Craft Biography.” enotes.com. N.p., 2010. Web. 1 Jan. http://www.enotes.com/slavery-biographies/craft-ellen-craft-william. This is the recourse where I got a lot of information.