In the text, Behind the scenes, A narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and “ The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft, several points are made about the cruelty of slavery and how freedom is important to the main characters. Two of these text, A narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and “ The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft, are all about how people attempt and succeed to escape from slavery. Behind the scenes includes a character that wants to fight for her sons freedom since his father is a white man. She would rather do it the legal way than run away. Keckley, Douglass, and the Crafts emancitpation stories were similar because they all wanted freedom, but different in their stories of slavery and how they recieved their emancipation.
Elizabeth Keckly’s emancipation story talks about the fight for her freedom, and doing it the right way. Her slavery story gives details and shows the reader that she wants freedom because she cares about her son. This story includes a part of her talking to her master. Her master tells her to run away but unlike the other texts she wants to buy herself and do it legally. Keckly stated in chapter three, “I can cross the river any day, as you well know, and frequently done so, but will never leave you in such a manner.” Keckly wants her freedom for her boy since he has white/freemans blood in him, but she doesn't want to leave the way the master wants her to leave. She believes it isn’t fair that her son can’t be free so she keeps fighting for her freedom until she gets it. Another example from Behind the scenes is, “... ; that I deserve my freedom and that he would take one thousand two hundred for myself and boy.” After begging nonstop the master finally gives her a deal so that she could be free. When she said that she was going to go to New York and get the money, a friend talked her out of it. A few days later some other friends started saving up money for her to get out of freedom. She successfully made it out of there a couple years later. Keckly’s love for her son gave her and her son a gift of freedom.
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Like Keckly, Fredrick Dougless dislikes slaver. Instead of forgetting the future like his master told him to, he is planning to run away. This story is different from the others because there is barely any detail. This story has a difference from other text because this is written from a first person point of view. Also the other text shows who they worked with, but Douglass didn’t give that kind of detail. Based on the text, A narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” ...If I would be happy, i must not lay out no plans for the future.” Fredricks boss didn’t want him to worry about the future because his boss didn’t want him to leave. He wanted Douglas to be happy where they were. HIs boss didn’t want him to run away. Fredrick Douglas also stated, “He said, if I behaved myself properly he would take care of me.''If Douglass would have not run away, his boss would have rewarded him. Douldess was so eager to not be a slave he left family and friends for his freedom. He left everything just so he could be free. Overall Fredrick Dougless would rather his freedom over an advantage in slavery.
The Crafts had a clever plan unlike Keckly and Dougless, changing a pale black girl into a white man with “his” servent, her husband, and tricking many people so they could get their freedom. Their plan fools many people leading them to their freedom. This story gives every little detail about the process. This story is also told in third person. One example from the text, “The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft,”is , “ One of the most ingenious escapes was that of a maried couple from Georgia, Ellen and William Crafts, who traveled in first class trains, dined with a steam boat captain and stayed in the best hotels during their escape to philadelphia and freedom in 1848.” One of the greatest planned out escapes took so many risks. Ellen and William were so eager to be free they had to make a plan that would work, a clever plan. Another example is, Pondering various plans, William, knowing that slave holders could take their slave to any state, slave or free, hit upon the ideas of a fair complexioned Ellen passing herself off as his master…” Their successful and clever plan led them to their freedom. They had help from people that didn’t even know they were helping. Now they are welcome anywhere but their homelands. In conclusion this clever plan led William and Ellen to a life of joy.
These three texts show how the people prove a point. There were slaves that failed to escape, but the ones that did escape were either clever or very convincing. Keckley, Douglass, and the Crafts emancitpation stories were similar because they all wanted freedom, but different in their stories of slavery and how they recieved their emancipation.
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