Reckoning with the Past
By Tiani Coleman
The incredible, true story of Ellen and William Craft, told in the book Master Slave, Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, by Ilyon Woo is eye-opening to say the least. Ellen, a lighter-skinned slave (due to her original Master fathering her) dresses as a man in 1848 and becomes her husband’s master (and he her slave) for their journey to the North, seeking freedom.
While reading, memories rushed back from when I was four years old, watching the TV miniseries Roots. I don’t remember the details of that story, but I remember some of the images, and the horrifying feeling I had of slavery.
This time I had a new horrifying feeling: it was a sense of indignation that this barbarism was very real, embedded into our history, and happened in our own country not that long ago . . . yet, many in our country don’t want us to talk about it, or at least, they want us to talk about it as a thing of the past that we have fully overcome and that no longer affects us.
We tend to confront our country’s past moral failings by stating things such as, “Those were different times,” as though we’re now much too sophisticated for that kind of horror.
But the story shows us that people then were not any more depraved than people now. No doubt but that many had been conditioned not to see the glaring perversion of their way of life, but through the conversations and ongoings of the day, we come to know of the many people whose hearts were softened when they were confronted with the humanity of those who were or had been in bondage; we learn of the willing assistance rendered, of the people who were willing to put their own lives on the line to do what is right, of the countless people who would not look the other way, but who, day in and day out, sacrificed to engage in healing and transformative work. We also learn that some people of that day lived with less prejudice than do many people of our day.
I found myself astounded at what seemed to be the climax of the book in Boston, when everything seemed to be coming to a head, and realizing it was barely 1850 . . . that it would still be 11 more years before the Civil War. And then to think that even after the Civil War, it took nearly 100 more years before the civil rights movement, and we still have more to do.
The book was fascinating on other levels, too. It was stimulating to learn about people such as the Crafts, and be introduced to Robert Purvis and the compellingly powerful William Wells Brown, the Haydens and more, and how they were all working with and interacting with better known figures such as Frederick Douglas and how this was interplaying with the well known triumvirate of Clay, Calhoun and Webster (I frequent the Daniel Webster Hwy here in NH). Having spent much time in Boston and the surrounding area, I was intrigued to learn so many details of the abolitionist movement in the Boston area. The Crafts, whose story was told in their day, played a significant role in changing hearts and moving our country forward, yet, without this book, their story would be lost to history, mostly. To think that there are many such lives we know nothing about, but can be discovered, is awe-inducing. And it’s been soul expanding to make connections with other history I’ve been studying from that same time period in other parts of the country.
As someone who greatly values the Constitution and the rule of law, I found it striking to see the need for civil disobedience. Furthermore, to watch how so many politicians of the day were reluctant to disturb the social order or to rock the boat, or were matter of factly determined to prioritize continued economic prosperity, as though that takes precedence over the larger humanity of the situation, shows how absolutely crucial it is that people who see and understand, step up, committed to what is right unceasingly, never giving up, regardless of the seemingly rational arguments for why it can’t be done, or how long and arduous the journey is. The long-term consequences are always worse the longer we let deep moral problems fester.
At the end, the author points out that the story, not being tied up with a bow, potentially provides “a space or an opening in the story of America, whose reckonings with the past have the power to transform present and future.” Let us make it so.
Tiani Xochitl Coleman is a mother of five, a graduate of Cornell Law School, and President of New Hampshire Independent Voters and New Hampshire Ranked Choice Voting.
