Impressions My Latest Reenactment Impression

[Bryan_C]

My wife and I portrayed William & Ellen Craft at an even at Aquia Harbor (where the Potomac River and Aquia Creek meet in Virginia) this past Saturday. For those unfamiliar with their story, they were a slave couple in Georgia who escaped by train to Philadelphia by disguising Ellen as a sick, injured White man (Ellen was very light-skinned and I think she was pretty much a White woman). I guess that's why they asked my wife to portray her. It's a great story that would make a fantastic movie someday.

Anyway, here are pictures of us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_and_William_Craft

 

[chellers]

You two look really good! Like the pics. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Littlestown]

Wow, I love the portrayals. The William & Ellen Craft story does indeed sound very interesting. I'm going to read more about them.

 

[AndyHall]

Wow, most excellent!

You know, those impressions could be worked up into an education program.

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

Agreed.....You look great and your impression would make a great educational program!!

 

[Northern Light]

Very nice indeed! It is always nice to put a face to a name! Your costumes are great.

 

[unionblue]

My wife and I portrayed William & Ellen Craft at an even at Aquia Harbor (where the Potomac River and Aquia Creek meet in Virginia) this past Saturday. For those unfamiliar with their story, they were a slave couple in Georgia who escaped by train to Philadelphia by disguising Ellen as a sick, injured White man (Ellen was very light-skinned and I think she was pretty much a White woman). I guess that's why they asked my wife to portray her. It's a great story that would make a fantastic movie someday.

Anyway, here are pictures of us.

View attachment 51034
View attachment 51033

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_and_William_Craft

Bryan_C,

You and the wife look absolutely fantastic! And I agree with others here that there is an educational program here that needs presenting!

Awesome job.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

 

[M Anthony Young]

Brian C,
Are you that fella out of "GLORY", Andre Braugher?
Micky.

 

[Bryan_C]

Thanks everyone fort all the compliments. I agree that an educational program would be nice. As far as last Saturday's program, it din't go that well because we were outside at Aquia Landing (and right next to the river) and it was FREEZING. It was way too windy and cold.

The things that struck me most about the Crafts' story were 1) they wrote of White people who were slaves in the 19th Century (through many years of White master/children and grandchildren of a biracial slave mother relations; 2) Ellen having to remain completely silent and still on a very long train ride; 3) their purposely refusing to have children so they would not have to watch their kids sold away from them (in a time without a lot of birth control, I wonder how that went); 4) moving to England to avoid the Fuigitive Slave Law of 1850. After the war, they returned to the South to educate former slaves but their building was destroyed by the Ku Klux Klan. Sad to say, they died penniless.

 

[Bryan_C]

Brian C,
Are you that fella out of "GLORY", Andre Braugher?
Micky.

Haha, if I had a dollar for every time somebody asked me that, I wouldn't need to go to back to work. You should see me in my uniform.

 

[Bryan_C]

Here is the link to an online copy of William and Ellen's book. Note the similar pose of Ellen and my wife.

https://archive.org/details/runningthousandm00craf

 

[Northern Light]

Here is the link to an online copy of William and Ellen's book. Note the similar pose of Ellen and my wife.

https://archive.org/details/runningthousandm00craf

Thanks for posting the book, Bryan. I look forward to reading it.

 

[James B White]

Wow, very nice!

 

[Oxkern]

Great photos, thanks for sharing them!

 

[Union_Buff]

Love the impressions - you did an amazing job, and their story is really interesting; thanks for posting the photos Bryan

 

[Bryan_C]

Here are a couple more pictures. I like this one of me though it's not much different from the other one I posted. So I put it through some Photobucket effects to make it look more period.

Since my wife was dressed up like a man, I thought it would be a good time to take advantage of the moment. So I took this picture.

 

[Northern Light]

Here are a couple more pictures. I like this one of me though it's not much different from the other one I posted. So I put it through some Photobucket effects to make it look more period.

View attachment 51089

Since my wife was dressed up like a man, I thought it would be a good time to take advantage of the moment. So I took this picture.

View attachment 51090

She is really to pretty to be a man!