Running a Thousand Miles from Freedom: The Victimization of Women In Slavery Ellen Craft was born to Maria, a slave and her owner, Major James Smith, in Clinton, Georgia. At a young age, Ellen was separated from her mother (Craft 2). In Running a Thousand Miles from Freedom, William Craft states “that the mere thought of her (Ellen) ever becoming the mother of a child, to linger out a miserable existence under the wretched system of American slavery, appeared to fill her very soul with horror”(Craft 27). This statement leads me to believe that their plan of e