Book Club Kit

1. Open the book (or look above!) and you’ll see many faces—black-and-white portraits in the endpapers, identified in image credits. Which are your favorites? If you could read a book about one of these people, whose story would you most want to read?
2. MSHW opens with an “Overture”—why? Why not start at “The Cottage”? 
3. How did William and Ellen Craft’s childhood experiences prepare them for their 1,000 mile journey out of Macon and beyond?
4. Two women shape Ellen Craft’s childhood in profound ways: first, her mother Maria, but also the woman she was made to call “Mistress,” Eliza Cleveland Smith. What does Ellen learn from each?
5. How did the Crafts’ performances of the roles of master and slave evolve throughout their 1,000 mile journey? How did Ellen adapt as a “master,” and how did William change in his role as a “slave”?
6. The Crafts’ original plan was to go to Canada. Instead they choose to join William Wells Brown on the abolitionist lecture circuit. What were the risks, and why did they choose this path? What do they learn from Brown?
7. Compare the Crafts’ 1,000 miles from Georgia to Philadelphia to their second 1,000 miles journey on the abolitionist lecture circuit. How are these “performances” similar, different?
8. Imagine yourself in America in 1850, North and South. Would you have supported the “Great Compromise,” with its Fugitive Slave Act? Why or why not? Can you picture the other side?
9. One early reader suggested cutting the portraits of Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster, and Harriet Martineau. What purpose do these snapshots serve?
10. A “world turned upside down” is a refrain throughout the book. How are various worlds turned upside down in the wake of the Crafts’ actions? 
11. The story of the Crafts’ lives is full of twists and turns to the very end. How are their later choices like or unlike their earlier ones? What do you think motivated them?
12. Discuss the title. How does the Crafts’ relationship with the terms Master Slave Husband Wife evolve throughout the story?
13. The book’s original subtitle was An American Love Story. What are the love stories in the book? Do you prefer the existing subtitle or the old?
14. The author raises this question in the intro: “What is it about this unforgettable story that makes it so difficult for us, as a nation, to remember?” What is your answer?
15. It’s been said that we must go back to the years before the Civil War—the years of this book—to find a time when America was so divided. What can we learn from the Crafts’ story today?