Person    | Female  Born 1826  Died 1891

Ellen Craft

Categories: Race Issues

Countries: USA

Slavery abolitionist. Born in Clinton, Georgia. She and her husband William were enslaved and escaped to the north of America. Although born of mixed-race parents she was very light skinned and, dressing appropriately, was able to pass as a white man with William posing as her servant. Their escape was widely publicised and they were threatened by slave catchers. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, they emigrated to England. Here they lectured publicly about their escape, and published Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, 1860, which tells their story.

They returned to the USA in 1868 and opened an agricultural school for freedmen's children in Georgia.

The English Heritage page is very informative.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Ellen Craft

Commemorated ati

Ellen and William Craft - blue plaque

Ellen Craft, c.1826 - c.891, and William Craft, c.1824 - 1900, refugees from ...

Read More

Ellen and William Craft - Craft Court

William and Ellen Craft, black American former slaves and campaigners against...

Read More

Other Subjects

Luis L. Ramirez

Luis L. Ramirez

Ramirez's divorced wife's lover was murdered in Texas in 1998.  Ramirez was indicted for solicitation of capital murder. In 1999 he was sentenced to death and executed in 2005.

Person, Law, Race Issues, Tragedy, USA

1 memorial
King James II

King James II

England's last Roman Catholic king, James II of England but James VII of Scotland. Born in St James's Palace and designated Duke of York until he ascended the throne in 1685 on the death of his bro...

Person, Race Issues, Royalty, France

8 memorials
Sir Robert Viner (or Vyner)

Sir Robert Viner (or Vyner)

Lord Mayor of London, 1674-5.  Born Warwick.  Goldsmith and banker.  Lived at  Swakeleys House in Ickenham, where a school is named for him.  Died Windsor. Involved in the slave trade.

Person, Lord Mayor, Race Issues

2 memorials
Josiah Wedgwood

Josiah Wedgwood

Master potter. Born in Burslem, Stoke, Staffordshire, into a potters family. Married his cousin, Sally. Childhood smallpox left him with a limp. His inability to operate the potters wheel meant he ...

Person, Craft / Design, Industry, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, Seriously Famous

4 memorials
Brixton Black Women's Group

Brixton Black Women's Group

Started by Olive Morris and other women who had been active in the Black Panther Movement. It was formed to address the specific issues faced by black women, and to offer advice and support to thos...

Group, Community / Clubs, Gender Issues, Race Issues

2 memorials

Previously viewed

Barbara Harmer

Barbara Harmer

The first qualified female supersonic pilot and the first to fly Concorde. Born at the house with the plaque, she was raised in Bognor Regis and left school aged 15 to become a hairdresser but the...

Person, Gender Issues, Transport

1 memorial
Councillor H. Adams

Councillor H. Adams

Councillor and member of Housing Committee, Parmiter Street, and of the Bethnal Green Baths Committee in 1926.

Person, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
George Nissel

George Nissel

Born Transylvania, studied engineering. His sister Dorothy married Dallos and in May 1937 they all came to London. As an enemy alien was not allowed to fight in WW2 but after the war he gained Brit...

Person, Medicine, Transylvania

1 memorial
Michael Black

Michael Black

Sculptor, based in Oxford  active around 1971 - 85. 2023: We were sorry to receive this from Tiffany Black, Michael's daughter: "I am writing to let you know that Michael Black who sculpted the Cr...

Person, Sculpture

2 memorials
Edith Fletcher

Edith Fletcher

Donor to St George's Cathedral, Southwark.  From The Tablet 25 February 1922: "A crucifix standing twenty feet in height has been erected outside St. George's Cathedral, Southwark, as a  memorial t...

Person, Benefactor

1 memorial