Fighting for Freedom

Elizabeth Freeman was the first slave to fight for her freedom from slavery by taking her case to court.  Her fight for her own freedom changed history forever.

Elizabeth was born to native African slaves on the farm of Pieter Hodgeboom around 1743.  The name she was given was Bett Mum.  When Hodgeboom's daughter married Colonel John Ashley, Hodgeboom gave the newlyweds both Bett and her sister Lizzy as a wedding gift.  The two girls were teenagers.  About this time, Bett gave birth to her daughter.  She was called "Little Bett."  The father is unknown.  Bett, Lizzy and Little Bett now lived in the Ashley house in Sheffield, Massachusetts.

The Ashley House

Hannah Ashley was mean to her slaves.  The story goes that once Mrs. Ashley went to discipline Lizzy with a heated shovel and Bett stepped in between the heated shovel and her sister.  She was severely injured on her arm from the hot shovel.  It took a long time to heal and the scar was quite ugly.  Even though Bett was illiterate and had no schooling, she was quite clever.  She didn't hide her wound behind clothing, but kept it open for all to see.  When visitors would ask what was ailing her arm, Bett reportedly answered, "Ask missis!"  Elizabeth later said that "Madam never again laid her hand on Lizzy."

Colonel Ashley was a wealthy citizen in Sheffield.  He served as a judge of the Berkshire Court of Common Pleas. In January of 1773, he moderated the local committee that wrote the Sheffield Declaration.  This declaration was approved on January 12, 1773. It stated that “mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and property.”  This same language was used in the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776 and in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.

Theodore Sedgwick

Bett Mum heard the discussions for the constitution and took the words to heart.  In 1781, along with an enslaved man named Brom, she took her plea for freedom to the prominent
attorney, Theodore Sedgwick.  Sedgwick had helped draft the Sheffield Declaration.  He decided to take her case as a "test case" to determine if slavery was legal under the new Massachusetts constitution.  Even though the case demanded that Ashley release the two, he refused to free Bett and Brom, stating they were his property.  Sedgwick took his case farther up the judicial ladder, arguing that slavery was illegal under the new constitution (ironically because of the initial words formed by Ashley himself).  Sedgwick won the case and slavery was banned throughout the state.

The Sedgwick Home

Once freed, Bett Mum changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman.  Ashley offered her a position as a paid servant if she returned to his home, but Elizabeth refused.  Instead she and her family became paid domestic worker in the Sedgwick home.  She also worked as a healer, midwife, and nurse. After 20 years, she was able to buy her own house where she lived with her children.

Smithsonian National Museum of
African American History and Culture.

Elizabeth Freeman died on December 28, 1829 and was buried in the Sedgwick family plot in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  She is the only non-Sedgwick to be buried in the “inner circle” of the Sedgwick family plot.   She was approximately 85 years old.  

Ms Freeman never did learn how to read and write.  But she was still able to make history by being the first black woman to take her freedom to court and doing so, gained freedom for all slaves in Massachusetts.

And so it goes
peace~~~