SPEAKER_02: I'm Johnny B. Good, the host of the podcast, Creating a Con, The Story of Bitcoin.This podcast dives deep into the story of Ray Trapani and his company, Centratech.I'll explore how 320-somethings built a company out of lies, deceit, and greed.I've been saying since a very young age that I was going to be a millionaire.
SPEAKER_10: If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money?I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_05: Bye.Bye.Bye.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side.
SPEAKER_03: Imagine you're a fly on the wall at a dinner between the mafia, the CIA, and the KGB. That's where my new podcast begins.This is Neil Strauss, host of To Live and Die in LA.And I wanted to quickly tell you about an intense new series about a dangerous spy taught to seduce men for their secrets and sometimes their lives.From Tenderfoot TV, this is To Die For.To Die For is available now.Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_09: I used to have so many men.How this beguiling woman in her 50s.She looked like a million bucks.Scams a bunch of famous athletes out of untold fortunes.
SPEAKER_05: Nearly $10 million was all gone.
SPEAKER_09: It's just unbelievable.Hide your money in your old rich man, because she is on the prowl.Listen to Queen of the Con, Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_04: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.Historically, women have been told to make themselves smaller, to diminish themselves.Some have used that idea to their advantage, disappearing into new identities.For others, a disappearance was the end to their stories, but the beginning of a new chapter in their legacies.This month, we're telling the stories of these women.We're talking about disappearing acts. In 1848, two freedom seekers came up with one of the most ingenious plans to escape from slavery.Today's Wamanakin, one half of this duo, disappeared into a disguise despite great risk.Her ability to masquerade would lead to the couple's freedom or certain doom.Please welcome Ellen Craft.
Ellen was born in 1826 in Clinton, Georgia.Her mother was an enslaved woman.Ellen's father was her first enslaver.Growing up, Ellen faced targeted mistreatment from her father's wife, the plantation mistress.Ellen's facial features were similar to her father's, and her light skin often led her to pass as white.The mistress would become enraged whenever Ellen was mistaken as one of the family's white children. When she was 11 years old, the mistress gifted Ellen as a wedding present to one of her daughters, also Ellen's white half-sister.The sister lived in Macon, Georgia.Ellen no longer had to deal with the cruelty of the plantation mistress, but she was separated from her mother in the process.From a young age, Ellen knew if her own children were born into slavery, they could always be taken from her.
In Macon, Ellen met William, an enslaved carpenter.Much like Ellen, William had been torn away from his family.The couple married and expected to live under slavery for the rest of their lives.But one day, an idea popped into William's head.It was permitted for male enslavers to travel with their enslaved person anywhere in the country. What if Ellen disguised herself as a white slaveholder and claimed William was his enslaved man to escape North?When William explained this plan to her, Ellen dismissed it out of fear.But the hope lingered, and she came back to the idea.William and Ellen obtained holiday passes from their enslavers, granting them permission to leave for a few days. but just when their plans seemed to fall into place, a thought flashed through Ellen's mind.
She looked at the travel pass, unable to decipher the words on the paper.It was forbidden for enslaved people to read and write in Georgia.Moreover, Ellen's beardless chin and feminine facial features posed another risk to being discovered.Hope was once again fading.When Ellen lifted her head, teary-eyed, I think I have it, she exclaimed. Together, the Crafts disguised Ellen against all suspicion.At dawn, William cut Ellen's hair up to her jaw.Ellen dressed herself in a pair of trousers and a top hat.Then she placed her arm in a sling.This way, she could ask officers to write her name for her if approached.
With a pair of green glasses perched on her nose to feign bad eyesight, her illiteracy was no longer an issue.She tied a handkerchief around her head to cover her beardless chin and feminine cheeks.And for good measure, she pretended to have a tooth problem as well to avoid using her voice too much.Morning arrived and the two took off for the East Coast in December of 1848.To avoid drawing suspicion at the railway station, the pair took different paths. Ellen went through the main entrance and bought two train tickets, one for William in a segregated carriage and one for herself up front.When she boarded, Ellen noticed a familiar face take the seat next to her.Her heart dropped when she realized it was a friend of her enslavers, who had met Ellen on several occasions.Ellen pretended to be deaf to avoid conversation with him. Luckily, it worked.
She wasn't recognized.The couple continued their journey eastward.Each stop was another opportunity for a close call.But Ellen's disguise worked wonders.On the way to Charleston, a fellow passenger advised her to keep an eye out for abolitionists coming up to William.He told her, You have a very attentive boy, sir, but you had better watch him like a hawk when you get on to the north. On Christmas Eve, William and Ellen reached Baltimore, their last stop before Philadelphia.As they waited for the train, an officer asked Ellen for proof of ownership of William.Otherwise, he couldn't board the train.This was it.
Neither of the crafts had a solution.The minutes until departure began to tick louder.It was only a matter of time until they were discovered. Suddenly, the conductor from their previous train stepped in.He told the officer the two passengers he was detaining had been on his last train.Finally, as the bell rang for the train to leave, the officer yielded.Ellen, in her sling and head wrap, looked ill, the officer decided.So it'd be a pity to stop him here.Ellen and William boarded their train, and on Christmas Day, they arrived in Philadelphia. They were aided by the abolitionist network, and they were taught how to read and write.
Abolitionists advised them to continue their journey to Boston.There, it would be almost impossible for their former enslavers to seek them out.In Boston, the couple attended anti-slavery rallies.They told the story of their escape, sharing stages with other fellow freedom seekers like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.In 1850, the Crafts' freedom was once again put at great risk. the Fugitive Slave Law was signed.This law allowed bounty hunters to kidnap enslaved people who had escaped to free states and take them back to their enslavers.In the fall of 1850, two bounty hunters appeared in Boston, looking for Ellen and William.By the end of the year, the couple had left the city and fled to England.There, they were finally able to start a family.
In 1860, William published a memoir of his and Ellen's 1848 escape, In it, William wrote of their time abroad, as the free air of good old England agrees so well with my wife and our dear little ones, as well as with myself.It is not at all likely we shall return at present to the peculiar institution of chains and stripes.Ellen likely contributed to the book's writing and story.Nearly 20 years later, after the end of the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment, the Crafts returned to Georgia. They founded a farm school for emancipated people in the 1870s.By the next decade, the couple moved to Charleston, where they resided with their daughter and grandchildren for the rest of their lives.Ellen passed away in 1891.William passed nine years later. All month, we're talking about disappearing acts.
For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast.Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.Talk to you tomorrow.
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SPEAKER_02: I'm Johnny B. Good, the host of the podcast Creating a Con, The Story of Bitcoin.This podcast dives deep into the story of Ray Trapani and his company, Centratech.I'll explore how 320-somethings built a company out of lies, deceit, and greed.I've been saying since a very young age that I was going to be a millionaire.
SPEAKER_10: If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money?I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to Creating a Con, The Story of Bitcoin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_05: Bye.Bye.Bye.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side.
SPEAKER_03: Imagine you're a fly on the wall at a dinner between the mafia, the CIA, and the KGB. That's where my new podcast begins.This is Neil Strauss, host of To Live and Die in LA.And I wanted to quickly tell you about an intense new series about a dangerous spy taught to seduce men for their secrets and sometimes their lives.From Tenderfoot TV, this is To Die For.To Die For is available now.Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
