That she wrote this letter — that she, a woman who had learned to read and write only three years earlier, sat down and composed a public document and put her name to it — is itself worth pausing on. The Ellen Craft who had needed a sling on her arm because she could not hold a pen and didn’t know the letters was the same woman who, three years later, was writing open letters to the American press refuting pro-slavery propaganda.
## Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom
The narrative of their escape was published in 1860 in London under the title Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. The title page names William Craft as the author, which reflects the conventions of the period — and the fact that William may have done more of the actual writing — but the story it tells is theirs jointly, and scholars have since examined the question of what Ellen contributed to its composition, framing, and voice.
The 1860 date places the narrative in a particular historical moment: the eve of the Civil War, published in London, aimed at a British and American audience at a time when the question of whether Britain would support or remain neutral toward a Confederate state was politically live. The Crafts were experienced lecturers by 1860; they knew what an audience needed to hear and how to give it to them. The narrative they produced was strategic as well as testimonial.