Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

William and Ellen travel on a ship called the Cambria, the same ship that Charles Dickens rode a few years earlier. Ellen is extremely sick, nearly dying while balancing seasickness, exhaustion, and illness. The Crafts arrive in Liverpool at the same port where their ancestors were trafficked to the Americas. Now in England, William and Ellen can explore new identities.

After learning of the Crafts’ arrival in England, William Wells Brown is eager to employ them as lecturers. Ellen is hesitant to re-enter advocacy. She is ready to settle down and start a family. However, William assures Brown that they will join him as soon as Ellen is well enough to travel again. William meets Brown first, and Ellen soon follows.

The two Williams travel to Scotland and share their stories with European audiences. This new land presents unique challenges. European audiences are more firmly rooted in class and social expectation, and European abolitionists are divided. Although Prince Albert spoke out against American slavery, the British government still profits from American slavery and the cotton trade. William comes into his own as a speaker, captivating audiences with his humor and stirring speeches.

William Wells Brown uses a series of panoramas to bring American slavery to life for European audiences. Ellen makes her debut in Glasgow to huge effect. Rather than focusing on the Underground Railroad and the contributions of white abolitionists, Brown and the Crafts emphasize the bravery and efforts of Black individuals who escape slavery.

The Crafts are invited to speak all over Scotland and to dine with and meet celebrities. Everywhere they go, audiences clamor to see Ellen and hear her story. Ellen remains silent at these gatherings. However, she speaks up when a self-emancipated Black preacher claims that submitting to the Fugitive Slave Act is God’s will.

The Crafts meet a famous and influential writer named Harriet Martineau who has developed a reputation as an anti-slavery advocate. Martineau wanted to fully understand American slavery and even traveled to the South to witness auctions of enslaved people. When Martineau learns of William and Ellen, she is eager to hear their story. She is moved by their valiant journey and their desire to become educated. Martineau introduces the couple to Lord Byron’s wife, who takes a special interest in Ellen.

Lady Byron offers the Crafts a unique position at a school where they can work as teachers of their crafts—sewing and cabinetmaking—and receive an education themselves. Lady Byron hopes to give the couple a happy ending: a settled home where they can start their family. Although Ellen wants to accept Lady Byron’s offer, William pushes on. Ellen develops her own following. When some worry that Ellen is becoming vain, she responds in anger: “How can they think that one who is only so lately allowed to feel herself a woman, to know that she is no longer considered merely as a thing, can be set up by being treated as a fellow creature?” (304).

The Crafts learn of a fugitive from slavery who has been returned to the South and publicly lashed. Meanwhile, a Boston businessman writes a letter to Robert Collins, asking to purchase the freedom of Ellen. Collins, feeling he has a responsibility to the Union and the Constitution, answers in a public letter that he will not release Ellen from slavery.

London organizes the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. Anti-slavery activists recognize an opportunity to promote their cause to the entire world. The Crafts, William Wells Brown, and other advocates link arms and walk throughout the fair, demanding audiences confront their discomfort and beliefs. Afterward, William and Ellen settle at the school in Ockham, expecting their first child.

Ellen gives birth to a baby boy, born into freedom. Ellen names Lady Byron as her son’s godmother. William and Ellen are beloved teachers at the school, but they feel isolated from their friends and loved ones. Ellen learns that her mother has been given to the widow of James Smith. American newspapers publish lies about Ellen, but she denies the false stories written about her, using her education to write her own statement.

After two years in Ockham, William and Ellen move to London, where they remain for 20 years. In London, the Crafts open new businesses and continue their activism. They also have six more children. William travels to Africa and helps to end the slave trade in Benin and opens a school in Whydah. Ellen stays in London, providing aid and organizing education for emancipated people in the United States. After Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, Ellen mobilizes her friends and connections to locate her mother, Maria. General Wilson finds Maria and reads her a letter from Ellen encouraging her to join her in England. Seventeen years after separation, Ellen and Maria are united.

After the Civil War, the Crafts return to the United States and buy a plantation in Georgia. While William continues to lecture, Ellen works with her children to repurpose the farm into a school collective. William runs for state senator and is interviewed by President Ulysses S. Grant. A Georgian neighbor sues the Crafts, and they lose the suit. The school is shut down, but William and Ellen choose to stay. Ellen passes away in approximately 1891, and William follows in 1900.