MACON, Ga. — This year's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography spotlights a grim bit of Macon's history.
A biography called "Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom" by Ilyon Woo is about two enslaved people who escaped from Central Georgia to freedom.
The book not only tells their true story from slavery to freedom but also highlights history's importance.
Woo was in Macon in March to discuss her New York Times bestseller.
Muriel Jackson also received special recognition. Jackson is the head of the genealogical and historical room and archivist of the Middle Georgia archives at the Washington Memorial Library.
She helped the author gather information about Ellen and William Craft.
Ellen and William Craft were both enslaved in 1848 in Jones County.
Ellen was a seamstress and William was a carpenter.
They knew they needed to escape, so they crafted a plan.
"They came up with the story to escape from Macon," Jackson said. "She dressed as a sickly white male because she was so thin and he was her slave that was going with her while she was headed to the doctor. They caught the train from there and proceeded south to Savannah and then Charleston and just made their journey."
Jackson said she has known about the history of the Crafts for over 20 years, but pulling records, newspapers and publications made her discover more and feel more personal.
"We're stepping forward to put our history back out front," Jackson said. "If we have the information necessary, we have it pulled together, we've researched it, then it makes it so much easier to tell the story. The more I looked at it, we were losing a number of people prominent in the African American community who were dying off without their stories being told."
Lee Shoemaker is a research assistant and says Jackson is an inspiration for uncovering these stories.
"Muriel works tirelessly on a lot of projects that never get recognized," Shoemaker said. "I like to eavesdrop and hear her helping these authors. It's like she's a walking Google for history, African American history, Georgia history, the entire world history."
Shoemaker says after researching more about the Crafts and their story, the book tells a universal story of struggling and fighting for freedom.
"I'm not sure that I would have the courage to do what they did in that time period," Shoemaker said. "I would probably just give up, but they did not. They did it and it was carefully planned and carefully crafted."
Shoemaker mentioned that she has even dug deeper into her own family's history and ancestry to help her understand herself.
"Those that don't examine the past are doomed to repeat it, so we're doing everything we can here at the library to do that."
Jackson says she looks forward to more research and collaborating with authors to tell the community's stories.
"History is cyclical," Jackson said. "You learn about it and then people move on and then you got current events and we have to sometimes put ourselves in history, our place in history. We can't go back to this but being able to document as much of Macon's early history and acknowledge that Macon has a place in the national scheme of history."
You can visit the Washington Memorial Library's genealogical and historical room to learn about ancestry, explore the Middle Georgia archives, and discover Macon's culture. It's a good way to celebrate National Preservation Month, which is May.