WIREFRAME ONLY - NOT YET DESIGNED
1744 - 1829
In 1781, Sheffield, Massachusetts, resident Elizabeth Freeman, once known as “Mumbet”, successfully sued for her freedom. [i]
Elizabeth, known before her emancipation as Mumbet or Mum Bett had been born into slavery on the plantation of Pieter Hogeboom in Claverack, New York. When Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield married Hogeboom’s daughter in 1735, he became the enslaver of Mumbet and Lizzy, who was either Elizabeth’s sister or daughter. Mrs. Ashley was not always kind to her enslaved people. One day she attempted to hit Lizzy with a hot peel (fireplace shovel.) Elizabeth blocked the blow with her arm, receiving a severe burn. She never regained full use of her arm.[ii]
Colonel Ashley was a judge for the Berkshire Court of Common Pleas and in January of 1773, he met with 10 other men to create the Sheffield Declaration, resolving "[t]hat 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. The meetings took place at his house and Elizabeth overheard parts of their conversations as she served the men refreshments. Local attorney, Theodore Sedgwick served on the committee and often visited the Ashleys. [iii]
In 1776, she attended a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, where she heard and took to heart: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." In 1780, she listened to Sedgwick’s conversations with others about a new Massachusetts Constitution (that would be adopted in 1781.)
After her injury at Mrs. Ashley's hands, Elizabeth sought Sedgewick's help and ultimately moved into his household where she helped to raise the Sedgewick children. Catherine Sedgwick, who became a famous female author in the 19th century, was one of Elizabeth’s charges. According to Catherine, : “conscious of superiority all around her, she (Elizabeth) felt servitude intolerable…. Nor was it awe of her kind master, or fear of her despotic mistress, but it was the galling of the harness, the irresistible longing for liberty. I have heard her say, with an emphatic shake of the head peculiar to her: ‘Any time, any time while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it- just to stand one minute on god’s airth a free woman- I would.’”[iv]
It is said that a combination of the injury inflicted by her enslaver, hearing discussions about the Sheffield Declaration, the Massachusetts Constitution, and listening to the Declaration of Independence inspired Elizabeth to turn to Theodore Sedgwick to help her fight for her freedom and that of Ashley’s enslaved man, Brom. Sedgwick and other attorneys on the “Bett and Brom vs Ashley” case filed a “writ of replevin” (a legal action to reclaim property) in May of 1781, demanding that Ashley release Mumbet and Brom to the sheriff and pay damages because the new Massachusetts Constitution outlawed slavery. They claimed that "no antecedent law had established slavery, and that the laws which seemed to suppose it were the offspring of error in the legislators and that such laws, even if they had existed, were annulled by the new Constitution."
Ashley refused to comply, stating that he believed that he had legally purchased them. In August of 1781, the case went to court, where the jury decided that Elizabeth and Brom belonged to no one and gave them each 30 shillings in damages. [v]
Elizabeth continued to live with the Sedgewicks for many years as a free person, caring for their seven children. She also served the community as a nurse and midwife. Although Ashley offered to pay her for her services if she would return to his home, she refused. Once she gained her freedom, MumBet changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman. Colonel Ashley asked her several times to return to his home as a paid servant, but she declined. She instead chose to work for the Sedgwick household. 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.
Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman died on December 28, 1829 and was buried in the Sedgwick family plot in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Her protraits hangs in the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. She is believed to have been 85 years old and is the only non-Sedgwick buried in the “inner circle” of the Sedgwick family plot. Her tombstone reads:
She was born a slave and
remained a slave for nearly
thirty years. She could nei-
ther read nor write, yet in
her own sphere she had no
superior nor equal. She nei-
ther wasted time nor property.
She never violated a trust, nor
failed to perform a duty.
In every situation of a domes-
tic trial, she was the most effi-
cient helper, and the tenderest
friend. Good Mother, farewell.
[i] For an excellent summary with images of primary source documents relating to this and other freedom lawsuits in Massachusetts, see the on-line exhibit, “The Legal End of Slavery in Massachusetts,” Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/features/endofslavery/end_MA.
[ii] For this and other biographical information regarding the life of Elizabeth Freeman, see Emilie Piper and David Levinson, One Minute A Free Woman: Elizabeth Freeman and the Struggle for Freedom (Salisbury, Connecticut: Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, 2010.
[iii] Massachusetts Spy or Thomas’s Boston Journal, Feb. 18, 1773
[iv] Mary Dewey, ed., Life and Letters of Catharine M. Sedgewick, 1871, p. 40
[v] “The Mum Bett Case”, in “Massachusetts Constitution and the Abolition of Slavery” https://www.mass.gov/guides/massachusetts-constitution-and-the-abolition-of-slavery#-the-mum-bett-case-