Craft and Crum families papers

William Craft (1824-1900) and Ellen Smith Craft (1826-1891) were slaves who met on a plantation in Macon, Georgia. Unwilling to raise children in slavery, in December 1848 they devised a plan to escape to Philadephia, Pennsylvania. Ellen dressed as an invalid male, her arm in a sling to avoid writing (neither William nor Ellen could read or write) and face in bandages to obscure her feminine voice and lack of facial hair. William accompanied her as a servant. They arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day, where they we were welcomed and assisted by well-known abolitionists, then lived and married in Boston, Massachusetts, until 1850, until the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Pursued by bounty hunters, they fled to England, where they settled and had five children, Charles Estlin Phillips (1852-1938), William II (b. 1855), Brougham (b. 1857), Ellen (1866-1917), and Alfred (b. 1869). In 1868, the Crafts returned to the United States and in 1870, they purchased Woodville Plantation in Bryan County, Georgia, where they opened Woodville Co-Operative Farm School to educate newly-freed slaves. Within a decade, the school closed for lack of funding, and in 1890 the Crafts moved to Charleston, South Carolina to live with daughter Ellen Craft Crum until their deaths. Ellen Craft Crum had married William Demos Crum (1859-1912), who, in addition to practicing medicine, served as Collector of Customs from 1902-1910 and minister to Liberia from 1910-1912.

The collection includes photographs, scrapbooks, autograph and tribute books, correspondence, legal documents, artifacts, and other material relating to William and Ellen Craft and their descendants; minutes and other material relating to the Brown Fellowship Society and Daughters of the Century Society; and newspaper clippings covering a range of topics such as family history, famous African Americans, art and culture, and others. Photographs and correspondence are heavily represented and document the lives of William and Ellen Craft and their children, Charles Estlin Phillips, William II, Brougham, and Ellen, and their families. Additional materials relating to William and Ellen Craft document their escape from slavery (including an 1860 publication of Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom), associations with well-known abolitionists and prominent African Americans, and the purchase of Woodville Plantation in Georgia. The Kinloch family of Emeline Aubin Kinloch Craft, wife of Charles P. Craft, is also represented with material such as cased photographs, a temperance card, embroidery sampler, and other material dating to the 18th century. Additional materials relating Julia Ellen and Herbert A. DeCosta document schooling at Howard University, the H. A. DeCosta Company, and participation in Charleston-area social and benevolent clubs. Materials relating to their children, Bernice DeCosta Davis and H. A. DeCosta, Jr. include Avery Normal Institute programs and announcements, photographs, and other materials. Materials relating to William and Ellen Craft Crum include scrapbooks, photographs, visiting cards, correspondence, and other materials documenting William Crum's employment as minister to Liberia (1910-1912) and other events in the couple's life. Also represented in photographs and correspondence are the descendants of Brougham and Mary Claggett Craft.