Macon Magazine

"There's certainly renewed interest in our great-great- grandparents," said Julia-Ellen Cra Davis, who carries her great-great- grandmother's name. Davis, her sister Vicki Davis Williams, and cousin Gail DeCosta — all hailing from Charleston, South Carolina — were in Macon in February as part of Macon200's Bicentennial Lecture Series. They spoke at Wesleyan College, in area schools, and at the Cannonball House. Coincidentally, the Cannonball House is just two doors down from 830 Mulberry St., the mansion where Ellen was enslaved. It was from there that she and William set out in predawn darkness, hoping to reach safe haven in Philadelphia. They traveled by train, steamship, and stagecoach. But how could they do that without getting caught? Ellen was the mixed-race daughter of an enslaved Black woman, Maria, and her white enslaver, James Smith. Smith was a well-known citizen of Clinton, Georgia, just north of Macon in modern day Jones County. The rape of Maria, a tragically common occurrence during slavery, meant that Ellen appeared light-skinned. At times, she was mistaken for one of the Smith children, a fact that angered Smith's wife. At age 11, Ellen was gi ed to Smith's daughter Eliza upon the latter's marriage to Robert Collins. The three relocated to Macon at the Mulberry address. Captive by different enslavers, Ellen and William were skilled workers — she a seamstress in the Collins household who lived in a cottage to the rear of the house, and he the enslaved apprentice of a cabinetmaker living downtown. Though prized for their skills, they nonetheless suffered multiple injustices, including the trauma of family members torn from them through sale and the violent whims of their enslavers. It was illegal for enslaved people to learn to read or write in Georgia or for any white person to teach them. Ellen and William desired education, but that paled in comparison to their wish to be free. They didn't want to have a child born into slavery, subject to being dragged from their loving arms. Because Ellen was light-skinned, their plan was to disguise her as a sickly white man with masculine clothing, shaded glasses, short hair, and a face partially covered with a poultice. William would travel as her attending enslaved man. It was a brilliant plan, but not without grave risk. It's the stuff adventure stories are made of, and in fact two films are in the works. One is in long-term pre-production with a Cra descendent as consultant, and another titled Everlasting Yea! is close to completion. According to Variety, it will star Juliana Canfield as Ellen and Jovan Adepo as William. A documentary from Savanah College of Art and Design (SCAD), A Thousand Miles and Counting, has already been made and can be viewed on SCAD's website. However, the details of their travels to Philadelphia, Boston, Canada, England, and subsequent return to the United States is best told in two books. The first is a slim volume written by Ellen and William themselves while in England called Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. The second is a new, historically rich telling of their tale by Ilyon Woo. It's called Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom and was published by Simon & Schuster in January. Woo's in-depth research and skillful storytelling make it the cornerstone of the current rediscovery of the Cra s. "Growing up, we had pictures of Ellen and William in our home along with their children and other relatives — they were all just part of our lives," FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ELLEN AND WILLIAM CRAFT. VICKI DAVIS WILLIAMS, GAIL DECOSTA, JULIA-ELLEN CRAFT DAVIS - ALL GREAT- GRANDDAUGHTERS OF ELLEN AND WILLIAM'S FIRST SON WHO CAME TO THE UNITED STATES AND SETTLED IN CHARLESTON. ON RIGHT, JULIA HODGES, DECOSTA'S DAUGHTER. PHOTO BY MIKE YOUNG. 46 maconmagazine.com | APRIL/MAY 2023

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