A Revolutionary War - earned run average court case that yield an enslaved woman freedom from her cruel enslavers . A openhearted whitened lawyer turned employer . A name variety at a all important turn point . These are all moments in Elizabeth Freeman ’s living . Her story — or at least what we know of it — read like a tale of grit and justice that ’s ripe for Hollywood dramatization . But , in reality , the context of Freeman ’s triumph were root in necessity and survival .
Freeman — prognosticate Bett before she choose her newfangled moniker — was gestate intoslaveryon an unknown date in the 1740s . By either inheritance or purchase , Freeman was enslaved as a tiddler by Colonel John Ashley and his wife , Hannah . At theAshley housein Sheffield , Massachusetts , Freeman did domestic study , serve visitant and dealt with the reported savagery of Hannah Ashley .
But by 1780 , Freeman had become cognizant that documents like theDeclaration of IndependenceandMassachusetts Constitutionespoused the idea of freedom and equality as birthrights . Freeman ascertain that she , too , was entitle to freedom by law . In the aftermath of other enslaved Black citizenry and abolitionists who took their claims to motor lodge , Freeman settle to action for her freedom . She had the avail of lawyers Theodore Sedgwick and Tapping Reeve to do so .
This was n’t a rough-cut course of military action . Some enslaved people were n’t aware that they could petition for their freedom and winnings , nor did they have the resources to do so . On top of that , challenging the law and one ’s enslavers could be risky and vain . However , freedom suits , or illustration when enslaved multitude filed suit against their enslavers to gain their freedom , were n’t unprecedented in compound times . Many of these suits were bring by men , and many of the claimants gainsay the legitimacy of their own enslavement rather than the entire institution of slavery . For instance , Elizabeth Keysued for her exemption in Virginia in 1656 on the basis that her sire was a gratuitous white valet and she was a Christian , consideration that entitle her to freedom by English unwashed law .
L’Merchie Frazier — an artist , pedagog , and director of educational activity and interpretation at theMuseum of African American History , Boston and Nantucket — speak about the many reasons for enslaved people petitioning for exemption and about their cognizance of the power to do so . " Maybe [ the enslaved petitioner ] have n’t been manumit [ place free ] when their contract bridge says they should be manumitted , " enounce Frazier . " Maybe they should be , at this point in clip , garner wages for their overhaul . There are clear-cut differences in font where prayer are bring , but they are not without the knowledge that they live . They ’re not existing in a vacuum . " Some enslaved people find room to organize to win their freedom , she says .
Freeman asserted that she was liberal according to the rules that American politicians saint in governing text file . Catharine Maria Sedgwick , the daughter of attorney Theodore Sedgwick , laterwrote aboutFreeman ’s sentence . Sedgwick cite Freeman : " I am not a silent critter , wo n’t the law give me my exemption ? " Sedgwick went on to say about Freeman , " I can imagine her upright form as she resist dilating with her fresh Bob Hope based on the announcement of her intrinsical inalienable right . " Freeman helped raise Catharine Sedgwick , and Catharine ’s records of the life of her beloved " Mumbet " have offer historians more information about Freeman ’s history than they would have had otherwise .
Freedom suit were often abortive , resulting in neither the emancipation of the plaintiff nor the abolishment of slaveholding in the position where the casing was brought . But some , includingBrom and Bett v. Ashley , were account of sack . Freeman ’s lawyer make up one’s mind to tot up Brom , one of four other enslaved the great unwashed at the Ashley estate , to the suit . Freeman may have sought the help of Theodore Sedgwick since he visited the Ashley house , or Sedgwick and pink Reeve may have engage Freeman and Brom in edict to essay whether thralldom was legal in Massachusetts under the young state constitution .
Either path , Sedgwick got awrit of replevin , which is anorderauthorizing the recapture of place by its lawful possessor , from the royal court ordering John Ashley to release Freeman and Brom because they were not his place . He resist to free them and was place to appear in court . On Aug. 21 , 1781 , Sedgwick and Reeve argued before the Court of Common Pleas in Great Barrington that slavery was unconstitutional , since the Massachusetts Constitution state that " all men are born free and equal . " The next day , the panel decide that Brom and Freeman should be liberate . The two were awarded 30 shillings in redress , and Ashley had to pay 5 pound , 14 shillings , and 4 pence in court cost . Upon her victory , Freeman took her new name , an assertion of her newfound independence .
The outcome of Freeman ’s typeface , and the typeface of an enslaved human race namedQuock Walkerwho advance his exemption in 1781 , showed that the legal ( and moral ) introduction of the mental institution of slaveholding were disintegrate . These cases marked the beginning of the end of slaveholding in Massachusetts — according to the1790 nosecount , no enslaved peoplelived in the state . That said , the state constitution was not amended to outlaw bondage , and people remained in thrall as chattel slaveholding became obsolete in Massachusetts .
Freeman went on to work for the Sedgwicks , providing her service in the household and community as a servant , midwife and governess . In a reverse almost too improbable for a third routine , Freeman became one of the first women in Massachusetts to own dimension . She bought a home and Edwin Herbert Land of her own , amassing enough wealth and property tocreate a willa duo of months before she died in December 1829 . The point she owned and chose to exit down — shawl , gown , earring , quilts , spoon and gold beading , among other aim — tell apart a storey about her character and what she valued , despite the lack of first - individual story of Freeman ’s life .
" As we see her life spread out in the way that are accessible to us , " says Frazier , " we find a woman who is not deterred from her honesty , her true statement and her will to be free . "
