Watch the P4P Discussion with New York Times bestselling author, Ilyon Woo

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On Thursday, February 22nd 2024, people from across the country joined Politics for the People host Cathy Stewart for a virtual discussion with Ilyon Woo, about her recent book:

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

You can watch the full video below.

Here are some highlights from our conversation.

Ilyon on the space she wanted to create in liiieu of the “happy ending” at the end of her novel:

“I wanted to create that sort of big operatic epic scale. And the end is also a coda, which also appears in music, so I wanted the finale to be with Ellen. I wanted her to sing the last word that was going to be her note. But I didn’t want to leave readers hanging and wondering what happened afterwards and of course there is much, much, much more that did happen. And I guess I thought about it as a fermata. It’s like it’s a space that’s like a rest but it’s not quite a rest because there’s still movement in it and it leaves us kind of hanging.”

Answering Tiani Coleman’s question on the challenges we face today:

“… the past should give us the safest place possible to look at parallels, to look at problems that we are continuing to face from a distance. So, if we can deal with those, if we can examine those problems in a thoughtful way, that’s a way for maybe us to have a more nuanced and less explosive, less invested investigation into our current issues. But of course, we’re not able to do that. I feel like we’re not able to look at the past any better than we’re looking at our present, which probably speaks a lot to how divided we are right now.”

In response to Jan Wooten’s question about the legacy of her work as historian:

“… I read so many dry books and tomes, but I want to bring them alive. I think they’re really animate and they’re really relevant to now. And if I can do something to make the history feel present, to make the past feel present, that’s my job. And I think that’s what narrative does for us. That’s what story does for us.”

Read the full transcript of the conversation here.

Here are the links for the announcements:

Independent Voting’s Spokesperson Training is Independent Voting’s flagship program, designed to give independents tools to talk about why you’re an independent and to go up against the media’s portrayal of us as hidden partisans. The training is part educational, part performance training and includes a Q&A section with Jackie Salit. You’ll have the opportunity to work with top notch performance trainers.  The program has received rave reviews from people who have participated.  The next training date will be announced soon and spaces are limited so if you’re interested, send an email to Gwen Mandell, Director of National Outreach at gmandell@independentvoting.org

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Reader’s Forum – Tiani Coleman on Master Slave Husband Wife

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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.

Grab your copy today of this New York Times Bestseller

On Thursday, February 22nd at 3pm ET

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Reader’s Forum – Allen Cox on Master Slave Husband Wife

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I generally don’t like reading books about the history of slavery in this country. I find it just too painful to look at, the pain and humiliation that our people experienced during this period.

But the experience I had reading this book was different. It did describe the experience of the enslaved at that time, to some extent more explicit than I thought about before. Your every gesture and movement was scrutinized, the way you walked the way you talked, the way you looked, your posture in the presence of white folks all had to be acceptable and subservient to white folks or run the risk of being verbally harassed, humiliated, jailed, whipped, or hung. You could even be criticized for being too good of a slave, as was seen in Ellen and William’s journey. It was in this environment that I loved reading about the bold, clever, courageous, creative resilience of the Crafts.

The other thing this book opened my eyes to, and that I was really moved by, is the lecture circuit that existed at that time. I knew there was an underground railroad that assisted slaves’ escape to Canada, but I had no idea the existence of such a vast abolitionist support community existing with these eloquent speakers until reading this book. I really enjoyed how the author takes you on this journey with the Crafts with unknown danger at every turn and knowing you could never really be sure of your safety even after you successfully made your escape, makes this an absolute masterpiece in my opinion.

And lastly, as a long time performance activist, using play, performance and humor in the fight for Social change, I really appreciate and identify with the performatory aspect that the book expresses throughout, from the Craft’s behavior in servitude to their performance in disguise in their journey, to their performance of their story telling on circuit with the likes of speakers like William Wells Brown.

I want to thank ILyon Woo for this book that for me describes the Craft’s journey as a Performance of a Lifetime.

Allen Cox lives in the Bronx and is a lifelong independent and grassroots community organizer. He is an outreach consultant for the Black Leadership Commission on Health.

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Reader’s Forum – Dr. Jessie Fields and Julie Leak on Master Slave Husband Wife

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Dr. Jessie Fields

Dr. Jessie Fields

I fell in love with the book on reading the first few pages, Revolutions of 1848, when the enslaved couple, William and Ellen Craft begin their journey for emancipation. From the very beginning the author, Ilyon Woo ties global world events to what is happening in the United States, north and south. You feel the fierce courage and determination of the Crafts. The history of the anti-slavery movement, the organizing for full emancipation and the fight for equality in American democracy is conveyed through their story. The book is intimate, moving and full of surprising historical detail, opening up new insights on the country. I have not wanted to put it down.

Dr. Jessie Fields is a physician practicing in Harlem, and a Board member at Independent Voting and Open Primaries.

Julie Leak

Julie Leak

I appreciate the information we receive about the selected books.  We learn much about the books and the authors. Even with this, I find myself slowly reading and reviewing the book jacket comments and with Master Slave Husband Wife the many photos inside. Without reading a single page of the book, I was taken back in many ways to where I was born and raised in the south.

In addition, at this time we are in the midst of an election year unlike no other.  One of the candidates, Dr. Cornel West, in a recent interview said he knows folk get tired of hearing him talk about jazz but that is who he is and provides him with the ability to improvise.  That really stuck with me as I thought about how the Crafts had to improvise beyond measure their entire lives.   

As my mama and others in the south would say, the Crafts made a way out of no way. Ms. Woo wanted people to see the Crafts as American Heroes and they surely were.

Juliette Leak lives in Manhattan and describes herself  as “an Independent finding her voice”.  She is a longtime independent activist.

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On Thursday, February 22nd at 3pm ET

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Reader’s Forum – Night’s Liberation by Leah Clifford

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The Crafts’ Journey

Night’s Liberation

By Leah Clifford

The night air buzzes,
No matter how cold you are,
The heat here always
Begins to weigh life down.

They can no longer linger,
Like rust on iron chains,
Their impatience begins to form.

Intrepid footsteps land,
While moonbeams strike the dark sky,
Slashing the melody of night.
Like the edge of a knife; they glint back.

Hour hands halt them,
And seconds wag like disapproving fingers.
The time is now.

Night removes distinction,
Disguises erase designation.
Soliloquies scratch at their minds,
As they practice their roles.

Donning her vesture, his rags,
They'd hide their souls
And willfully pursue fantasy.

Their threads spread, and
Love beats in the rhythm
Of the night, guiding fellow man
Into independence.

Stars watch with indifference,
But their brilliance is reflected in their story,
Embracing freedom like a vow.

The leaves of their story
Branch out, galvanizing resistance.
Demanding justice is not a mistake,
But denying rights creates outlaws.

Loudly, we can now turn the page,
Just as fiercely as they
Would follow the other, anywhere.

Leah Clifford lives in Saratoga Springs, NY and is an Administrative Assistant at Independent Voting.

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Reader’s Forum – An American Story by Caroline Donnola

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Ellen and William Craft

PHOTO: NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

An American Story

By Caroline Donnola

One thousand miles up the coast
along the Overland Mail Route
on train tracks
with fires blazing 
and furnaces groaning,
by steamer and stagecoach and sheer cunning;
a light-skinned woman
passing for white
dressed as a planter
travels with her servant—
a tall, dark man,
his first cameo appearance
as a slave
escorting his master 
on a journey to the North—
But really
a husband escaping bondage with his wife.
Push on, Ellen!
Push on, William!

A story with a hundred twists and turns—
of terror and courage,
devotion and hope—
a quest for freedom
with still so many miles ahead,
and not nearly enough behind.

Finally, they reach the North, 
with its abolitionists 
and Anti-Slavery Society,
its passionate former slaves,
now freedom fighters,
leading together in righteous battle.

And then, 
the Fugitive Slave Act—
taunting, hobbling, goading them,
the constant threat
of being dragged back South
in chains. 

Decent Bostonians
defied the new law.
They tricked and foiled 
those slavecatching-bounty-hunting-sons-of-bitches
and sent them running back to Georgia.
Push on, abolitionists!
Push on!

Still,
they could not protect
Ellen and William
against the deadly power of the law,
so the running
began
again.
Their breathing fast,
their resolve steady.

Hundreds of miles
on land and on sea,
through Maine and Nova Scotia,
barely making it to their ship.
Forced to travel in steerage
with Ellen already ill,
they tossed and turned through winter storms
until finally sighting Liverpool.
Dry land at last!
Freedom at last!
Where the slave catchers held no sway.

They had run and run and run—
slogged through mud,
bounced up and down
on bumpy trains and stagecoaches,
escaped the paddy rollers of Macon,
survived the treacherous trip to the North,
then thousands more miles
across an unforgiving sea,
the wind always pushing them up and out.

How strange it must have seemed
to Ellen and William—
these gutsy, defiant former slaves,
these leaders of the cause—
to be forced to cross the Atlantic
to escape the great experiment
in order to be deemed fully human,
to be welcomed
in the very country
that invented slavery.
A strangely American story.

And yet
many thousands of miles,
hundreds of years
and millions of tears later,
here we are.

We still stand at a precipice.
Will we push on as Ellen and William did?
As the abolitionists did?
Or will we sink into the kind of despair
that shuts the door on creating a fighting chance
to build a new kind of world?
One that we haven’t yet begun to shape
but which we, nonetheless, must.

Caroline Donnola has been writing poetry since childhood. In 2021, she published The Year That Was: Poems for Troubled Times and is currently working on a new poetry collection. She recently edited A Poet’s Journey: Life, Love, and the River by Harry Kresky. Caroline has been an independent political activist for four decades. After retiring from her position at Independent Voting in 2022, she launched a freelance writing and editing business. This month she is teaching a weekly virtual poetry writing class. She can be contacted via LinkedIn or by email at carolinedonnola3@gmail.com.

Grab your copy today of this New York Times Bestseller

On Thursday, February 22nd at 3pm ET

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Reader’s Forum – Steve Hough on Master Slave Husband Wife

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Wow, what a story! 

The book “Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom” by Ilyon Woo is a wonderful, gut-wrenching, account of William and Ellen Craft’s escape from slavery. Despite knowing the outcome in advance, Woo’s telling produced physical reactions at multiple points along the Craft’s perilous route to freedom. The skillfully executed narrative is second only to the amount of effort dedicated to researching the subject matter. Well done!

The book evokes a wide range of thoughts and emotions, but as an independent-centric book club, I’m always attuned to material relatable to our predicament as second-class voters in the electoral process. Politics played a major role in the environment in which these events took place, but anti-slavery activists were also a vital component. Unless activists organize and build a movement, there can be no viable challenge to the status quo. 

This period in our history was unlike any other (perhaps with the exception of the war of independence) in that the political waters roiled and then boiled to the point of a civil war. The “compromise” of 1850, with its enhanced “octopus powers”, merely delayed the inevitable. Despite recent remarks by a former President, the issue of slavery could not be negotiated, and it would not have died a natural death any time soon. 

Although not nearly comparable to the South’s intractable position on the abomination that was slavery, I noted a few snippets directly relatable to today’s bitterly hostile political environment. 

“Ward excoriated the “Northern dough-faces”—pliable collaborators—who would “lick up the spittle of the slaveocrats and swear it is delicious.”

Woo, Ilyon. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom (p. 201). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

Sound familiar?

“Through false news, they would attempt to appropriate her will, her desire.”

Woo, Ilyon. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom (pp. 319-320). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

For the discriminating consumer, how much of our political “news” has become suspect? Perhaps the better question is, how many consumers of news differentiate opinion-based entertainment from factual news? There are plenty of outlets for real news in the media sphere, but entertainment and opinion-based outlets command the attention of massive audiences, and their messaging is amplified on social media platforms. Although these tactics have been employed forever, a former president was able to denounce all criticism of him as “fake news” and his core supporters believed him. 

The Southern contingent in Congress held that the preservation of the union was dependent upon the preservation of slavery. We can all understand why the preservation of the union required the Confederacy to be defeated in the Civil War, but fast forward one hundred sixty years. 

No dispute today (except possibly abortion among the most radical pro-life faction) is incurable, yet we hear terms like “soft” or “cold” civil war often being used to describe the level of division in our current political environment. It doesn’t have to be this way. 

In some instances, a compromise might be the best solution. In others, representatives must be willing to admit that the other side has the better idea. Neither can happen under our current electoral process. That must change, and it must change sooner rather than later. That’s why I’ve been involved with other independent voters and organizations seeking electoral reforms for the last twelve years. Progress has been made, but there’s much more to be accomplished. Thankfully, momentum is building. Even if due to an increasingly dysfunctional government, I’ll take it. Twelve years is a long time, but others in this space have been at it longer. So, I leave you with this. 

“This was the seventeenth annual convention of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society… 1832: twelve White men in all, with leaders of the veteran Massachusetts General Colored Association bearing witness. As the ceremonies closed, Garrison declared, “Friends, we have met tonight in this obscure schoolhouse, but, before many years, we will rock Faneuil Hall.”

Woo, Ilyon. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom (p. 156). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

And so, it came to pass.

Steve Hough is a lifelong independent and became an activist for political reform after retiring as an accountant. He is the director of Florida Fair and Open Primaries.

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Reader’s Forum – Frank Fear on Master Slave Husband Wife

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Master Slave is a Call to Action

Don’t just sit there. Do something. Act.

Then, as now, the exhortation applies. Few of us will be as bold or heroic as Ellen and William Craft, author a book about our efforts, or make history. But none of that is important. What is? 

Act. Make a difference. We can all do that.

I live part of each year in the North (Michigan). In Michigan, State Rep. Josh Schriver (R, Oxford) is promulgating what is known as The Great Replacement Theory. GRT is conspiratorial, asserting that nonwhites are immigrating to the U.S. (among other Western countries) to “replace” white voters to achieve a liberal/progressive agenda. White Supremacists, anti-immigration groups, and other hate-laden groups/organizations believe in GRT, share its tenets, and act accordingly.

Don’t just sit there. Do something. Act.

House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) said he is removing Schriver from previously assigned committees, pulling his funding allotment for office functions, and reassigning his staff because of what he called “racist, hateful, and bigoted speech.” Schriver “has a history of promoting debunked theories and dangerous rhetoric that jeopardizes the safety of Michigan residents and contributes to a hostile and uncomfortable environment for others,” Tate said. (Source, Bridge Michigan)

I also live part of the year in the South (Florida). Mike Andoscia, a veteran high school civics/social studies teacher, has served students in the North Fort Myers, FL, school district for the past eight years. His classroom space includes a 600-book personal library, with those books available to his students. That situation changed on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, when Andoscia arrived at work and found the books removed from his classroom. The school administration was the source, with administrators responding to FL House of Representatives Bill 1069, which passed the FL Legislature in 2023. 

Among other things, the wide-ranging bill (a centerpiece of Governor DeSantis’s culture war) “tightens restrictions on school lessons about sexual identity and gender orientation, which lawmakers say should happen at home. It requires libraries to pull books from shelves within five days if someone objects to the content. The measure is part of the push by Florida conservatives to uproot what they say is “indoctrination” in schools.” (Source, Politico)

Andoscia had been instructed to cover the books before parent-student meetings, which he did. It wasn’t enough, and his books are now stored in his garage. 

Don’t just sit there. Do something. Act.

Andoscia resigned from his teaching position. “I did not want to tell the kids this is OK,” he said. But the story is not over. Andoscia was informed by the Professional Standards Director of the country school system that he remains “under investigation.” (Source: Fort Myers News-Press)

The narrative Dr. Woo shares in Master Slave happened a century-and-a-half ago, and the clips I just shared are happening today. But in a very real way, they are (as the malapropism goes) “the same difference.” 

Extremely difficult and frightening times always require “good people” to respond to oppression. And no matter what the era, when people think the situation cannot get worse, it does. Counter-pressure is necessary in the form of wise and strategic action with conviction, courage, and concerted effort the antidotes to silence and inaction. 

That’s what the Crafts’ displayed long ago, and it is what Tate and Andoscia display today. Any era. Any place. It is always “the same difference.”

Master Slave tells us a lot about America back then. It also helps us better understand America today. Among many things, it helps us see that the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act have contemporary equivalents (e.g., state laws banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in public institutions) and that categorizing people can obfuscate reality (e.g., “The law of barbarism (Act of 1850) was passed…by Northern men.” (p. 205). 

While I enjoyed and benefited from reading Woo’s narrative, let me say that my learning style caused me to take a break from reading the book from cover to cover. I needed more context to proceed. I sought out information about Dr. Woo, including why she decided to author the book, read a variety of book reviews, and then read the final chapter (Coda) before returning to where I had recessed my reading (several chapters in). 

Walking that circuitous path made me appreciate Dr. Woo’s research diligence, and it also gave me the time and perspective to size up her offering. I tried constructing my own response but found that I could do no better than what Woo wrote on the book’s final page. I underlined nearly every word on p. 334; the words spoke to me. 

“This space is ours to enter” are Woo’s final words. Those words are an apt conclusion to the Crafts’ story, and they are an equally compelling invitation to us. 

Frank A. Fear is professor emeritus, Michigan State University, where he served as a faculty member for thirty years and worked in various administrative positions for nearly twenty years. Frank also writes about issues that intersect sport and society.

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Reader’s Forum – Steve Richardson on Master Slave Husband Wife

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Master Slave Husband Wife is an inspiring story about two courageous people who exhibit extraordinary spirit and thirst for freedom.  But it is also a remarkable lesson about more common examples of ignorance and prejudice that treat freedom as a privilege instead of a birthright. As the book’s title indicates, American society in the middle of the 19th century had a hierarchical structure that recognized enormous differences in status between people with different roles and especially skin color. What Ilyon Woo’s rendition of the Crafts’ story so skillfully highlights is how two illiterate slaves managed to turn that prejudice to their strategic advantage.  Ellen’s light skin and a costume that allowed her to pose as a (male) slave owner were her ticket to safe travel on trains and ships and across the Mason-Dixon line – a journey that would have been impossible, otherwise. 

She and William earned safe passage not just in looking the part in the South.  They continued to face challenges in the supposedly safe North, where many people lent their support largely because the couple were deemed “intelligent” and thus worthy of freedom.  In Worcester, MA, we are told, a pastor rallied the crowd to Ellen’s aid not because they were committed to freedom for all, but because she “may be called beautiful; she has no trace of African blood discernible in her features, eyes, cheeks, nose, or hair.”  Black people were not treated as equals in any state, and thanks to the Fugitive Slave Law (FSL) of 1850, which gave slave owners authority to pursue runaways into free states, “the Crafts remained outlaws, even up North.”  Daniel Webster, one of the era’s most influential figures and Secretary of State during the Fillmore Administration, demanded arrest of the Crafts.  And Benjamin Curtis, who would soon join the Supreme Court, considered fugitives invaders who were guilty of disturbing the peace in Massachusetts.

Although I was surprised to learn the extent of the prejudice and dehumanizing treatment of slaves in the North, I enjoyed reading about the civil disobedience of the FSL that helped the Crafts escape to Canada and England.  Their fame, largely a function of Ellen’s relative “whiteness” and the clever ruse that earned the respect of many abolitionists, led to public demonstrations of support that frustrated politicians and inspired slaves in the South.  The FSL made it a crime to assist fugitives and a duty to hunt them down, yet organized resistance emerged, such as the Colored Citizens and the Vigilance Committee in Boston.  These groups recruited local Sheriffs to protect the Crafts by charging the slave hunters from Macon, GA with slander, criminal intent, and kidnapping, and setting their bails extremely high. Thousands of people, white and black, gathered to demand punishment of the slave hunters. The mob tossed garbage at them, they were mocked as uneducated bottom dwellers, and they returned to Georgia empty-handed.

Steve Richardson

We know now that the FSL and the Compromise failed to avert civil war, and while the war settled the legal issue of slavery, it did nothing to change racist attitudes.  It took us a hundred years to legally recognize equal rights for Black Americans, and almost 80 years after that, Black Americans are still struggling to realize those rights.  It’s hard to celebrate such a gradual, reluctant abandonment of ideas that are so completely immoral and inhumane.  And I can’t help wondering how much of that is not due to universal acceptance of equality but because interracial relationships are more common and have given us far more people who look like Ellen.  As good as we might feel about her success story, we all know that it could never have happened if more of her African blood had been “discernible.”   

Steve Richardson is a founding member of the Virginia Independent Voters Association. Steve was a member of the Eyes on 2020 National Cabinet.

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