Analysis Of Running A Thousand Miles For Freedom

As a primary source, slave narratives have become an invaluable in the way they portray the plight of fugitive slaves and the phenomenon of running away. Like many who recorded their own slave narratives, the author of Running a Thousand Miles For Freedom, William Craft, intended to accurately portray his own fugitive slaves experience in a way that emphasized the atrocities of slavery in an attempt to convince the public to abolish slavery. The slave narrative was published by William Tweedie in London during the year 1860. London was a common place for African Americans to go to be published because of the less racist climate which made publishers more accepting of African American literature. The significance of Running a Thousand Miles …show more content…
The Crafts were motivated by the fear of being separated through sale. Many slave narratives cite separation as a motive for running away, including The Fugitive Black Smith. Both the Crafts experienced being separated from their family through sales. Ellen was taken from her mother as a child and sold to a distant part of the country, while William’s “old master also sold a dear brother and a sister, in the same manner as he did my [William’s] father and mother” (Craft, Page 10). Due to the fact that slaves could not enter into legal marriages under the slave code, the bond of marriage was not respected by masters and slave families could be divided through sale. Similar to many other slaves, William and Ellen Craft sought the freedom of a legal marriage without the risk of separation by a master when they chose to run …show more content…
The main modes included: roads, waterways, and railroads. Choices were made based on season and geography. While many runaways decided to travel on roads, slaves from the Deep South could not make the journey North entirely by foot. Traveling by river or rail became common for runaways from deeper parts of the South. The Crafts were slaves on a plantation in Georgia far from their desired destination in the North. Similar to many slaves in their situation, they chose to travel by train. The frequency of this practice among fugitives is exemplified when the Crafts are stopped twice when procuring tickets and the disguised Ellen was demanded to show proof of ownership. The fear that abolitionists may be claiming slaves as their own and using trains to herd fugitives northward was not unfounded and was displayed in railway policies of the time, even if it’s frequency was exaggerated. Transportation was an integral part of escape universally described in slave narratives like Running a Thousand Miles For Freedom because of its