Pulitzer Prize winner Ilyon Woo visits Clemson as part of the Pathways Initiative speaker series

Pulitzer Prize winner Ilyon Woo is coming to Clemson University to discuss her award-winning book, Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom.

Originally subtitled “An American Love Story”, Woo’s book traces Ellen and William Craft’s 1848 escape from slavery in Georgia. Woo’s compelling look into the Crafts’ lives won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for biography. Her talk is a part of the Pathways Initiative speaker series and will be held on Wednesday, March 26 at 5:30 p.m. in the Academic Success Center, room 118.

Stephanie Hassell, a member of the Pathways-sponsored Slavery and Memory Faculty Learning Community, shares her excitement about Ilyon Woo’s visit.

“I’m looking forward to hearing from the author who wrote this Pulitzer Prize-winning book! It’s a masterful work about the lives of Ellen and William Craft who courageously and creatively escaped bondage in the mid-19th century. Their life story is embedded in American history and the broader global antislavery movement. Woo’s biographical approach makes this history more accessible while still tackling a myriad of themes.”

Ellen and William Craft disguised themselves as master and slave (Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled white man and William as “his” slave) and evaded capture on their freedom-journey North. When they made it to the North, they continued to fight for abolition, sharing their own experiences despite the fear of being found and taken back to the South.

An artful piece of nonfiction, Woo brings the Crafts’ story to life through a combination of sources: newspapers clippings, foreign narratives, maps, the Crafts’ own letters, and other historical records.

Love in the Crafts’ story is much more nuanced than a relationship between two people. For Woo, that’s what makes their story worth exploring.

“I might call this as an American jung story,” Woo stated in her Master Slave Husband Wife book club kit. “Jung is a Korean word, with no equivalent expression in English. It might be translated as attachment or love, but it is a cast iron connection, accumulated in layers, sometimes despite oneself. This is not a ‘love’ of fairy tales and sunsets. Indeed, in some cases, it can be coexistent with loathing. But it is a powerful connection that endures. And that’s what the Crafts had with each other, but also, differently, with the United States of America: a deep and abiding, complex connection.”

Woo is also the author of The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother’s Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and The New York Times.

Woo earned a B.A. in the Humanities from Yale College and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University, which is where she first encountered the Crafts’ story.

The goal of the Pathways initiative is to highlight and enhance the role of the humanities and social sciences at Clemson. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the initiative is focused on two core themes: slavery and memory, and crisis. This Spring, the initiative is hosting its first ever speaker series, bringing in six uniquely accomplished individuals that represent a variety of disciplines.

Students interested in Pathways can explore the Pathways in the Humanities and Social Sciences minor, which will allow them to take a range of courses that may not typically be in their major curriculum. Pathways is compatible with any major, cultivating human-centered skills that are sought-after by employers.

For faculty, Pathways offers interdisciplinary groups to explore areas of common interest. Those interested should email David Coombs at dcoombs@clemson.edu.