When reading Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, I was interested in William Craft's use of poetry. At least once he quoted another poet, but it seems he composed most of the poems himself. At one point in the narrative he explicitly states that he wishes to express in poetry emotions that prose cannot convey (he describes in this scene the auction of a formerly free family sold into slavery after the death of their white patriarch). I found myself rushing through each of the poems as I came across them because I almost always felt they failed to convey emotions, and as a 21st century reader, I almost never enjoy simple rhyme schemes. I wonder how contemporary readers responded to the poems. I think poetry was more important to Americans back then. For me, the prose captured the horror much more effectively.

I wonder too if the poems were an effort on Craft's part to display how learned he had become.

In a slightly related note (the common theme being form), Craft is very conscious of language and propriety. For example, he points out how blacks in Georgia and South Carolina speak "worse" english than slaves anywhere else: a "corruption" of both english and African. Craft does not look down upon one slave who speaks improperly, but rather shares a tender moment with him. Craft does, however, despise white slave traders, who on top of being cruel, Craft often describes as being "uncouth" and having bad manners. By contrast, some of the whites who are kind to him and Ellen, Craft describes as handsome or attractive. Of course, Craft judged people primarily upon their relation to the cruelty of slavery, but appearance and manners seems to figure into his moral system.