In  1849, abolitionist and attorney Wendell Phillips wrote: "We should look  in vain through the most trying times of our revolutionary history for  an incident of courage and noble daring to equal  that of the escape of William and Ellen Craft; and future historians and  poets would tell this story as one of the most thrilling in the  nation's annals, and millions would read it, with admiration of the hero  and heroine of the story." Unfortunately, almost 170 years later,  William and Ellen Craft aren't well known anymore.