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Activities: Author Activities
William and Ellen Craft - Author Questions
 Back to William and Ellen Craft Activities
- Comprehension: What kinds of boundaries, both literal and symbolic, do the Crafts cross in the course of their escape? Which boundaries do they seem to have the most difficulty crossing?
- Context: How does Ellen Craft's story compare with the "tragic mulatta" figure as she is characterized in Uncle Tom's Cabin? How does Ellen Craft's use of cross-dressing compare to Harriet Jacobs's use of cross-dressing in her escape? How does Craft's decision to "pass" for white complicate her narrative?
- Exploration: Cross-dressing was a popular motif in early national literature (a famous example is the narrative of Deborah Sampson, who served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War). Can you think of other American texts that involve stories of cross-dressing or racial passing? How do these acts of disguise take on different meanings over time? How do they challenge our assumptions about race and gender?
- Exploration: Feminist and queer theorist Marjorie Garber has argued that cross-dressing is usually a sign of "category crisis" in a text. That is, it points to the artificiality of other socially constructed categories such as race, class, or sexuality. What categories besides gender are "in crisis" in the Crafts' narrative?
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