Category: Freedom Seeker Page 3 of 10

In Abolitionist, Freedom Seeker, UGRR Operative

Ellen (1826-1891) and William Craft (1824-1900) rose to international fame for their daring escape aboard a train from Georgia in 1848. Ellen, who was light-skinned, posed as a male slaveholder, and William acted as her enslaved valet. The Crafts settled for several years in Boston, where they publicly defied the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, before ultimately relocating to England. There, the couple published their story, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860). After the Civil War, the Crafts returned to Reconstruction-era Georgia and opened schools for freedpeople.

ESSAYS: Blackett // Crew // Grover // Larson // Oakes // Sinha

ROLES: Abolitionist // Freedom Seeker // UGRR Operative

Crosswhite, Adam

Adam Crosswhite (1799-1878) was a freedom seeker at the center of a controversial fugitive slave rescue in 1847 that led many slaveholders to call for harsher federal fugitive slave legislation. Crosswhite, wife Sarah, and their four children John Anthony, Benjamin Franklin, Cyrus Jackson, and Lucretia, escaped from Kentucky in 1843 and settled at Marshall, Michigan. When slave catchers caught up with the Crosswhites there in January 1847, local residents defended the family and aided their escape.

ROLES: Freedom Seeker

Dorsey, Basil

Basil Dorsey (ca. 1808-1872) was a freedom seeker whose 1837 escape and slave catchers’ attempt to recapture him in Pennsylvania led to the founding of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. Dorsey latter settled in Northampton, Massachusetts

ESSAYS: Grover // Sinha

ROLES: Freedom Seeker

Edmonson, Emily and Mary

In Abolitionist, Freedom Seeker

Mary and Emily Edmonson were enslaved sisters who unsuccessfully attempted to flee Washington, DC aboard the Pearl in 1848. Abolitionists later helped raise funds to purchase the sisters’ freedom.

ROLES: Abolitionist // Freedom Seeker

Eglin, Harriet

Harriet Eglin was a freedom seeker from Maryland whom William Still interviewed in Philadelphia.

ESSAYS: Foner

ROLES: Freedom Seeker

Ford, Nelson

Nelson Ford was one of four freedom seekers who escaped from Maryland slaveholder Edward Gorsuch and resisted recapture during the Christiana resistance in 1851.

ESSAYS: Jackson // Oakes // Pinsker

ROLES: Freedom Seeker

Garner, Margaret

Margaret Garner was a Kentucky freedom seeker who in January 1856 killed her young daughter when surrounded by slave catchers rather than allow her child to be returned to slavery.

ESSAYS: Churchill

ROLES: Freedom Seeker

Garnet, Henry Highland

In Abolitionist, Freedom Seeker

Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) was a freedom seeker and abolitionist, whose 1843 “Address to the Slaves” urged enslaved Southerners to resist the slave system.

ESSAYS: LaRoche // Sinha

ROLES: Abolitionist // Freedom Seeker

Giles, Charlotte

Charlotte Giles was a freedom seeker from Baltimore who was interviewed by William Still in Philadelphia.

ESSAYS: Foner

ROLES: Freedom Seeker

Glover, Joshua

On April 18, 2023