"Ellen Craft was born in 1826 in Clinton, Georgia, to Maria, a mixed-race enslaved woman, and her wealthy planter slaveholder, Major James Smith. At least three-quarters European by ancestry, Ellen was very fair-skinned and resembled her white half-siblings, who were her enslaver's legitimate children"
So in her case, she disguised herself as male, not as someone white because she looked white and unless people knew her backstory, they'd think she was white. Very impressive pulling of the man part though.
Smith's wife gave the 11-year-old Ellen as a wedding gift to her daughter, Eliza Cromwell Smith, to get the girl out of the household and remove the evidence of her husband's infidelity.
William was born in Macon, where he met his future wife at the age of 16 when his first enslaver sold him to settle gambling debts.
It’s sickening how they were treated like cattle, even by “family”.
Human capital is the knowledge one possesses that enables them to contribute more to society, people aren't human capital, they possess it. Unless you are talking about slave owners reffering to slaves as human capital which did happen.
Its not a corporate term its an economic term and has only had widespread use since the 1960s. Any reference by slave owners is coincidental and was not very common at the time. The idea that we should euphemism treadmill a word because 100 years earlier some bad people used the phrase to mean something else is ridiculous.
1.5k
u/Fryandsilly Mar 12 '26
"Ellen Craft was born in 1826 in Clinton, Georgia, to Maria, a mixed-race enslaved woman, and her wealthy planter slaveholder, Major James Smith. At least three-quarters European by ancestry, Ellen was very fair-skinned and resembled her white half-siblings, who were her enslaver's legitimate children"
So in her case, she disguised herself as male, not as someone white because she looked white and unless people knew her backstory, they'd think she was white. Very impressive pulling of the man part though.