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 escape was caused by this feeling of victimization. William