Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1882 — An Ex-Slave’s Reminiscences. [ARTICLE]

An Ex-Slave’s Reminiscences.

Philadelphia Record. After a lapse of thirty-three years Airs. Ellen Craft is revisiting the city where once she was welcomed by friendly Quakers as a fugitive slave. There yet remain a goodly number of Abolitionists who can remember the Craft excitement of 1848, in the early days of the struggle for negro independence, and the younger generation have become acquainted with the eventful story of the lady through the writings of Lydia Maria Child, the oratory of Julia Ward Howe and the thrilling history of the underground railroad. Mrs. Craft is a well-preserved lady of fifty-five years, the only indication of her age being the few streaks of gray in her long, straight, black hair. She bears no traces ofhercolored origin, her skin being as white as that of a Caucasian,“while her address is polished and her conversation stamps net as being-possessed of high intellectual attainments. “Memories of days gone by rise up

before me as I go through the streets of Philadelphia,” saidMrs.-Craft yesterday afternoon to a party of friends who had gathered? to greet her at Professor Gilbert'aMCbnservittory of Music, on Twentieth v street, * near Berks. “Except for the feeling of security,” she continued, “it seems but yesterday since I was a fugitive slave hidden within a few miles of here, and dreading day and night* that my place of rest would be discovered by the kidnapers who were on mv trail. Ohl but those were stirring days, never to be forgotten. It is an old story, butone worth' repeating. When myself and my husband determined to an effort to gain our freedom it was arranged that I should dress as a man, and that William shoifiki -act as my servant. But to this plan there was one great obstacle. Travelers were required’tb register their names ’at the Custom House and hotels, and to sign a certificate for the slaves who accompanied them. Not having been educated, I could not write, but finally, after much sinking of heart, we hit upon the device of poulticing my right hand and carrying it in a sling r so as to have an exettee for asking the officers to write my flame for me. Then, so that my smoothness of chin might not betray me, I tied a bandage around my chin as though I was troubled with toothache. A suit of men’s clothes, a silk hat—one of the old-fashioned style, with high body and narrow flat brim—and close cropped hair completed the disguise. How we managed to travel the thousand miles between Florida and Philadelphia without being detected seems like a miracle. At all the principal hotels on the way I was the “invalid gentleman from the South,” and at times I was compelled to sit at dining tables and converse with meu who had knowju me as a slave. Finally, however, after running great risks, we landed in Philadelphia with our hearts in our mouths. We were driven to the colored hotel, then on Pine street, and I shall never forget how surprised and perplexed the landlord, looked when, half an hour after our arrival, I came down stairs in woman’s garments. When our presence became known we were called upon by many warmhearted Abolitionists, one of whom, Barclay ivens, induced us to spend h few weeks at his country farm at Byberry, just above the Purves homestead. From here we went to Boston, where,thanks to William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker and others, we lived in peace and happiness until 1850, when the fugitive slave law was passed and a pair of slave catchers came on from the South to take us back. Then it was that the : Craft excitement was at its height. The colored people held mass-meetings of protest, and 200 of them armed themselves and vowed that would defend us to the death. Fortunately, however, bur difficult position was solved by some kind friends,who put us on board a ship for England, and our troubles were at an end.”