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Such a good read! The Crafts were daring and strong in their escape, but this book also offers more about their life in “freedom” than just the escape. Excellently written, captivating, and a great learning experience. We need more books like this!

Flee North, don‘t stop until you reach Canada. This was the advice given to those held in slavery by Thomas Smallwood, their hero and rescuer. Yet he did not follow his own advice for years. This was an intense story of bravery.

I forgot to mention that I received a free copy of this book when I volunteered for Authors! at my local library. Ilyon Woo, now a Pulitzer winner, was delightful and eloquent.

12-5 May 24 (audiobook)
A very well told non-fiction narrative about the escape of two enslaved peoples from Georgia and their journey first north and then abroad to escape the Fugitive Slave Act. Woo puts the story of the light skinned Ellen passing for an invalid white slaveowner travelling with William, her husband/slave, in its broader context of the abolitionist movement pre-civil war both in the US and England.
Informative and entertaining.

This is narrative history at its best - a thrilling historical narrative about a specific/narrow event (the self-emancipation of Ellen and William Craft and the years following as they dealt with the effects) with some deep dives into the broader historical background (slavery, the Compromise of 1850/new Fugitive Slave Law, abolition movements) with both the micro and macro narratives illuminating each other.

1. I turned in my last assignment for my MLIS!
2. Crohn‘s symptoms have improved enough that my GI says I can stay on my current medication!
3. Trip to Des Moines for the MAC conference went well.
4. April, as always, is the best cat (My opinion is *very* biased).
5. Listening to the tagged book on audio (so interesting) and talking to my mom about books.
#5JoysFriday

Understandable for a book about a revolutionary abolitionist who was both cast out and voluntarily withdrew from society, but there is a lot of filler in here. The parts about Lay were interesting; the deep dives into his friends, the lives of his influences, and the page long dissections of a few sentences were less so. I skimmed a lot in the second half, but his is a good story and one worth knowing.