Ellen Craft 
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom 

This is a 19th century memoir written by a slave who escaped the South before the Civil War. Here’s an excerpt from the intro:










‘Having heard while in Slavery that ‘God made of one blood all nations of men, ‘ and also that the American Declaration of Independence says, that ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;’ we could not understand by what right we were held as ‘chattels.’ Therefore, we felt perfectly justified in undertaking the dangerous and exciting task of ‘running a thousand miles’ in order to obtain those rights which are so vividly set forth in the Declaration.










I beg those who would know the particulars of our journey, to peruse these pages.










This book is not intended as a full history of the life of my wife, nor of myself; but merely as an account of our escape; together with other matter which I hope may be the means of creating in some minds a deeper abhorrence of the sinful and abominable practice of enslaving and brutifying our fellow-creatures.’