A Crafty Escape

A Crafty Escape. Written by Susan Lennox. Illustrated by James Nathaniel. Focus Question. Who were the crafts, and why are they remembered?

《机智大逃亡》 苏珊·伦诺克斯 撰文 詹姆斯·纳撒尼尔 绘图 思考问题 克拉夫特夫妇是谁？为什么人们至今还记得他们？

Introduction Dressing up as someone else can be fun. Now imagine that your life depends on how well you play that part. Years ago, the crafts did just that. They pretended to be different people to escape from slavery in the South.

引言 扮成别人是件很有趣的事 你不妨想想：你的性命全靠你扮演得像不像 多年以前，克拉夫特夫妇就这么做了 他们靠乔装改扮，逃离了美国南方的奴隶制

Born into Slavery William and Ellen Craft were black Americans born into slavery. William was born in 1824 and lived in Macon, Georgia. His family was owned by a man who liked to gamble. When the man lost a bet, he got money to pay it by selling his slaves. William was sold when he was sixteen years old. He was a skilled carpenter. The new owner saw that William did good work. He let William make things to earn money for him. Ellen was two years younger than William. Her mother was a slave and her father a white slaveholder. Ellen's skin was so light that many people didn't realize she had a slave mother. When Ellen was eleven, she was given to her married half -sister to work as a servant. When the half -sister moved to Macon, Ellen went with them. There she met William.

出身奴隶 威廉和埃伦·克拉夫特是生来为奴的美国黑人 威廉生于1824年，住在佐治亚州的梅肯 他们全家都归一个爱赌博的主人所有 主人赌输了钱，就卖奴隶还债 威廉十六岁那年，被卖掉了 他是个手艺很好的木匠 新主人见威廉干活靠谱 就让他接活干活，帮自己赚钱 埃伦比威廉小两岁 她的母亲是奴隶，父亲是白人奴隶主 埃伦的肤色很浅，很多人都看不出她有个奴隶母亲 埃伦十一岁时，被送给已婚的同父异母姐姐当佣人 姐姐搬到梅肯定居，埃伦也跟着过去了 就在那里，她遇见了威廉

a decision fueled by love. In time, William and Ellen fell in love. They wanted to be together. Getting married, however, was not easy for slaves. They needed their owner's permission to wed. If married slaves had different owners, the couple could not live together. In 1846, Ellen and William got permission and were married. For two years, the crafts lived apart. They could see each other only once in a while. They worried that one of them could be sold at any time and sent far away.

因爱而生的决定 相处久了，威廉和埃伦相爱了 他们想要一直在一起 可对奴隶来说，结婚并不是件容易事 他们必须得到主人的允许才能成婚 如果夫妻分属不同的主人，根本没法住在一起 1846年，埃伦和威廉得到准许，结为了夫妻 婚后两年，克拉夫特夫妇一直分居 他们只能偶尔见上一面 他们还担心，随时会有一方被卖掉，卖到远方再也见不到

The crafts knew that the only way they could live as a family would be to escape to the north. Black people could live freely in states there. But how could the crafts leave without being caught? William had a clever plan.

克拉夫特夫妇明白，想要一家人安稳生活，只能逃去北方 北方的各州允许黑人自由生活 可他们要怎么逃才不会被抓住呢？ 威廉想出了一个巧妙的计划

Preparing and Planning William's idea was a daring one. They would travel to Pennsylvania, the nearest free state. Since Ellen's skin was so light, she would pretend to be a white person. William could travel with her as her house servant. There was just one problem. Ellen could not travel as a woman. Women of that time did not travel alone. They certainly didn't travel with a male slave. There was only one way their plan would work. Ellen had to pretend to be a white man.

筹备计划 威廉的计划非常大胆 他们要逃去最近的自由州宾夕法尼亚 埃伦肤色很浅，所以她要扮成白人 威廉则以埃伦家仆的身份随行 但这里有一个问题 埃伦不能扮成白人女性出行 那个年代，女性不会独自出门旅行 更不可能带着一名男奴隶出行 要让计划成功，只有一个办法 埃伦必须扮成一名白人男性