By Abdi Mohamed Ali, Ed. D
Hollywood didn’t invent the escape story. That honor goes to people like Henry “Box” Brown, who literally mailed himself to freedom in 1849, and William and Ellen Craft, whose escape was so wild it sounds made up.
Here’s what happened: Ellen, an enslaved woman, disguised herself as a white man. William, her husband, pretended to be her servant. They walked right out of Georgia and into freedom. Just like that. Well, not just like that—it took incredible planning, nerves of steel, and about a thousand things that could have gone catastrophically wrong.
Ilyon Woo tells their story in Master Slave Husband Wife, and when she visited our Pros&Conversation, WordPowered’s annual fundraiser event, last spring, she had us all leaning forward in our chairs. This book needs to be in your classroom and here’s why.
Why Your Students Will Actually Read This One
We’ve all assigned books that students endure rather than enjoy. This isn’t one of those books. Ellen’s disguise alone will have them hooked—she wrapped her jaw in bandages (to avoid talking), wore green spectacles, and walked with a cane. She created a character so convincing that it fooled everyone. This was the performance of her life.
But here’s the thing: underneath all the page-turning suspense is a story about identity, courage, and love that will stick with students long after they’ve forgotten whatever else you taught them this semester.
What Makes This Work in the Classroom
It’s a thriller that happens to be history. Students get caught up in whether Ellen and William will make it (spoiler: they do, but the how is everything). Along the way, they’re learning about slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the legal systems that made escape necessary.
The themes are huge but not heavy-handed. What does it mean to be free? How do we perform identity every day? When is breaking the law the right thing to do? These questions emerge naturally from the story.
It connects to right now. Students will recognize something familiar in Ellen’s performance of whiteness, in the way the Crafts had to navigate hostile systems, in their determination to live, to live as a couple. While revisionists would have us believe that slavery was benign, students will wonder what horrors haunted their escape and what compulsion for freedom fired their imagination.
It’s beautifully written without being show-offy. Woo knows when to get out of the way and let the story speak for itself.
What You Can Do With It
Have students track Ellen’s transformation scene by scene. Debate the ethics of the Fugitive Slave Act. Compare the Crafts’ escape to other resistance narratives. Ask them to imagine the story from different perspectives.
Or just let them read it and talk about what amazes them. Sometimes that’s enough.
Why This Matters
Your students are going to remember Ellen Craft. They’ll remember her bandaged jaw and her steady nerve and the way she held William’s arm as they walked through train stations full of people who would have destroyed them if they’d known the truth.
They’ll remember that two people with everything stacked against them found a way to rewrite their lives. In a world that often tells students they’re powerless, that’s not a bad thing to remember.
Support your local bookstores. Here are two of our favorites:
Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo is available to purchase at Frugal Bookstore and justBook-ish.
About Us:
WordPowered (formerly WriteBoston) helps teens find the power in their voice. We equip young people with the critical reading and writing skills they need to express themselves—and to be heard. To expand our reach, we partner with schools and educators to create environments where students feel safe to explore their power. Whether they’re dreamers, writers, musicians, athletes, or still exploring, we help teens discover and strengthen their voices to change their worlds for the better.
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