Master Slave Husband Wife:
An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
A Conversation with Author Ilyon Woo and Clothing Historian Lynne Zacek Bassett
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 |  6:30 pm​
In person at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, 220 Main Street, Northampton
​and online as a virtual event on Zoom.​
The story of Ellen and William Craft’s dramatic escape from slavery in 1848 is the subject of Ilyon Woo’s new book.

On their journey, Ellen Craft disguised herself as a wealthy, disabled, male planter, while William Craft played the role of her slave.​

To ensure accuracy, Dr. Woo worked with clothing historian Lynne Bassett about the particulars of what the couple wore. Together they will discuss the significance of clothing to the Crafts’ successful self-emancipation.  Examples from the Historic Northampton collection of the types of clothing that they wore will be on display.  Dr. Woo will also read from the book.
 
The program will be introduced and moderated by Elizabeth Pryor, Associate Professor of History at Smith College.
 
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom (Simon & Schuster) was named one of the ten best books of 2023 by the New York Times.​
Free and Open to the Public.  Donations Encouraged. 
The in-person event ​at the Unitarian Society is filled to capacity.

Register for the Zoom presentation
Five communities are coming together during April 2024 in a partnership called All Hamptons Read
​to read the book, Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom.
In partnership with All Hampton’s Read, the David Ruggles Center and
​the Racial Justice Committee of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence.
Ilyon Woo is the author of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, one of the New York Times’s “10 Best Books of 2023."  MSHW was also named a best book of the year by The New Yorker, Time, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Boston, Chicago Public Library, and Oprah Daily.

Ilyon Woo is also the author of The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother’s Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times, Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and The New York Times, and she has received support for her research from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Antiquarian Society, among other institutions.

Ilyon Woo has been featured on such programs as NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and CBS Sunday Morning. She holds a BA in the Humanities from Yale College and a PhD in English from Columbia University, where she first came upon the story of William and Ellen Craft.
​Lynne Zacek Bassett is an independent scholar specializing in New England's historic costume and textiles. The former curator of textiles and fine arts at Old Sturbridge Village and at Historic Northampton, she has worked as an independent curator for a wide range of museums since 2001.  Her award-winning exhibitions, lectures, and publications on textile topics ranging from the 17th century to the present day have taken her all over the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region.

Lynne Zacek Bassett’s contribution to the field of historic costume and textiles has been recognized by the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, Historic New England, and the International Quilt Study Center.

Lynne Zacek Bassett has written numerous exhibition catalogues and articles that have appeared in The Magazine Antiques and Piecework Magazine.  Recent book publications include: Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War (2012 with Madelyn Shaw); Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth (2009); Textiles for Clothing of the Early Republic, 1800-1850: A Workbook of Swatches and Information (2001).
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor specializes in 19th-century U.S. history and race. Her first book, Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War, is a social history of black activists who, long before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, fought against segregation on public vehicles. Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor argues that their protest elevated the cars, compartments and cabins of public transportation to the frontlines for the battle over equal rights in the 19th century.

Her essay, “The Etymology of [the N-word]: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North,” won the Ralph D. Gray Prize for the best article of 2016 in the Journal of the Early Republic.

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is an Associate Professor of History at Smith College.  She holds a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an MA from Cornell University; and BA from Tufts University.​