View source for Elizabeth Freeman

{{short description|American woman (1744–1829)}}
{{hatnote group|
{{other people}}
{{Distinguish|Elisabeth Freeman}}
}}
{{Essay-like|date=July 2024}}
{{use mdy dates|date=September 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Elizabeth Freeman<br />(a.k.a. Mumbet)
| image              = mumbett70.jpg
| image_size         = 220
| alt                = Miniature portrait, oil pastel on ivory by Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick, 1811
| caption            = Portrait by [[Susan Anne Ridley Sedgwick]], c. 1812
| birth_date         = {{circa}} 1744
| birth_place        = [[Claverack, New York|Claverack]], [[Province of New York]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1829|12|28|1744}}
| death_place        = [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| other_names        = Bett, Mumbet, Mum Bett
| known_for          = ''Brom and Bett v. Ashley'' (1781), gained freedom based on ''constitutional right to liberty''
| occupation         = Midwife, herbalist, servant
}}

'''Elizabeth Freeman''' ({{circa}} 1744 {{ndash}} December 28, 1829), also known as '''Mumbet''',{{efn|Variously also Bet or Mum Bett.}} was one of the first enslaved [[African Americans]] to file and win a [[freedom suit]] in [[Massachusetts]]. The [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]] ruling, in Freeman's favor, found slavery to be inconsistent with the 1780 [[Constitution of Massachusetts]]. Her suit, ''Brom and Bett v. Ashley'' (1781), was cited in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appellate review of [[Quock Walker]]'s freedom suit. When the court upheld Walker's freedom under the state's constitution, the ruling was considered to have implicitly ended [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] in Massachusetts.

Freeman was fighting for her freedom in the state where the legalization of slavery in early America first derives from. The northern United States, along with the south, engaged in harsh treatment of Black people, with Massachusetts even considering  “slavery as a way of life” until 1788.<ref name=":2" />

{{blockquote|text=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'' [sic] a free woman—I would.|sign=Elizabeth Freeman<ref name=sedgwick>{{cite journal|first=Catharine Maria|last=Sedgwick|title=Slavery in New England|journal=[[Bentley's Miscellany]]|year=1853|volume=34|pages=417–424|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-ARAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA417}}</ref>}}

==Biography==
{{More citations needed section|date=November 2022}}

Freeman was illiterate and left no written records of her life. Her early history has been pieced together from the writings of contemporaries to whom she told her story or who heard it indirectly, as well as from historical records.<ref name=piper>{{cite book|title=One Minute a Free Woman: Elizabeth Freeman and the Struggle for Freedom|first1=Emilie|last1=Piper|first2=David|last2=Levinson|publisher=Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area|location= Salisbury, CT|year=2010|isbn=978-0-9845492-0-7}}</ref><ref name=bzrose>{{cite book| title=Mother of Freedom: Mum Bett and the Roots of Abolition|first=Ben Z.|last=Rose|publisher=Treeline Press|location=Waverley, Massachusetts|year=2009|isbn=978-0-9789123-1-4}}</ref>

Freeman was born on April 4th 1744, enslaved by Pieter Hogeboom on his farm in [[Claverack, New York]], where she was given the name Bet. When Hogeboom's daughter Hannah married John Ashley of [[Sheffield, Massachusetts]], Hogeboom gave Bet, around seven years old, to Hannah and her husband. Freeman remained with them until 1781, when she had a child, Little Bet. She is said to have married, though no marriage record has been located. Her husband (name unknown) is said to have never returned from service in the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Mumbet: The Life and Times of Elizabeth Freeman: The True Story of a Slave Who Won Her Freedom|first=Mary|last=Wilds|isbn=1-888105-40-2|publisher=Avisson Press Inc|location=Greensboro, North Carolina|year=1999}}</ref>

Throughout her life, Bet exhibited a strong spirit and sense of self. She came into conflict with Hannah Ashley, who was raised in the strict Dutch culture of the New York colony. In 1780, Bet prevented Hannah from striking a servant girl with a heated shovel; Bet shielded the girl and received a deep wound in her arm. As the wound healed, Bet left it uncovered as evidence of her harsh treatment.<ref name=sedgwick /> [[Catharine Sedgwick]] quotes Elizabeth: "Madam never again laid her hand on Lizzy. I had a bad arm all winter, but Madam had the worst of it. I never covered the wound, and when people said to me, before Madam,—'Why, Betty! what ails your arm?' I only answered—'ask missis!' Which was the slave and which was the real mistress?"<ref name=sedgwick />

John Ashley was a Yale-educated lawyer, wealthy landowner, businessman, slaveholder, and community leader. [[Colonel John Ashley House|His house]] was the site of many political discussions and the probable location of the signing of the [[Sheffield Declaration]], which predated the [[United States Declaration of Independence]].

== Brom and Bett v. Ashley (1781) ==
In 1780, Freeman either heard the newly ratified Massachusetts Constitution read at a public gathering in Sheffield or overheard her enslaver talking at events in the home. She heard what included the following:<ref name=sedgwick/>{{blockquote|All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.|[[Massachusetts Constitution#Part the First: A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts|Massachusetts Constitution, Article 1.]]}}

Inspired by these words, Bet sought the counsel of [[Theodore Sedgwick]], a young [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition]]-minded lawyer, to help her sue for freedom in court. According to Catherine Sedgwick's account, she told him: "I heard that paper read yesterday, that says, all men are created equal, and that every man has a right to freedom. I'm not a dumb ''critter''; won't the law give me my freedom?"<ref name=sedgwick /> After much deliberation, Sedgwick accepted her case, as well as that of Brom, another person Ashley had enslaved. It is to be considered, however, that Brom was added to the case to strengthen it as "women had such limited legal rights" during the 18th century.<ref name=":1" /> Sedgwick had not acted on the issues of slavery until he represented Freeman.

Sedgwick enlisted the aid of [[Tapping Reeve]], the founder of [[Litchfield Law School]], one of America's earliest law schools, located in [[Litchfield, Connecticut]]. They were two of the top lawyers in Massachusetts, and Sedgwick later served as a US Senator. Arthur Zilversmit suggests the attorneys may have selected these plaintiffs to determine the status of slavery under the new state constitution.<ref name=Zilversmit /> This meant that when Sedgwick took on the case, he hoped to find an answer to the question of constitutionality regarding slavery in Massachusetts through his representation of Freeman in court. Hence, ''Brom and Bett v. Ashley (1781)'' was a "test case".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Kerri Lee |date=2019 |title=Elizabeth Freeman |url=https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizabeth-freeman |website=National Women's History Museum}}</ref>

The case of ''Brom and Bett v. Ashley'' was heard in August 1781 by the County Court of Common Pleas in [[Great Barrington, Massachusetts|Great Barrington]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mass.gov/courts/sjc/constitution-slavery-d.html|title=Massachusetts Constitution, Judicial Review, and Slavery – The Mum Bett Case|work=mass.gov|year=2011|access-date=July 4, 2011}}</ref> Sedgwick and Reeve asserted that the constitutional provision that "[[all men are created equal|all men are born free and equal]]" effectively abolished slavery in the state. When the jury ruled in Bett's favor, she became the first African-American woman to be set free under the Massachusetts state constitution.

The jury found that "Brom & Bett are not, nor were they at the time of the purchase of the original writ the legal Negro of the said John Ashley."<ref>[http://www.mumbet.com Transcript of Case No. 1, ''Brom & Bett vs. John Ashley Esq.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528065716/http://www.mumbet.com/ |date=May 28, 2008 }}, Book 4A, p. 55. Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, MA, 1781, transcribed by Brady Barrows at Berkshire County Courthouse, 1998.</ref>  However, like many slave owners, Ashley refrained from admitting to the true nature of his actions. While arguing for his right to own Brom and Bett in court, Ashley described them as his “servants”’ for life, rather than ''slaves''.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Blanck |first=Emily |date=2002 |title=Seventeen Eighty-Three: The Turning Point in the Law of Slavery and Freedom in Massachusetts |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1559880 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=24–51 |doi=10.2307/1559880 |jstor=1559880  |access-date=May 1, 2024 |archive-date=March 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330203514/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1559880 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> This intentional word choice underscores the attempts at minimizing the reality of the institution of slavery.

The court assessed damages of thirty shillings and awarded both plaintiffs compensation for their labor. Ashley initially appealed the decision but a month later dropped his appeal, apparently having decided the court's ruling on the constitutionality of slavery was "final and binding."<ref name="Zilversmit" />

Sedgwick (its author) and Ashley both served on the committee that approved the [[Sheffield Declaration|Sheffield Resolves]] (resisting British rule), prior to finding themselves opposing each other in this case.{{clarify|date=November 2024|reason=Sued for what?}}

== Relationship with the Sedgwicks ==
After the ruling, Bet took the name Elizabeth Freeman. Although Ashley asked her to return to his house and work for wages, she chose to work in attorney Sedgwick's household. She worked for his family until 1808 as a senior servant and governess to the Sedgwick children, and in fact, the name "Mumbet" that Freeman is commonly called was invented by the Sedgwick children.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Edelstein |first=Sari |date=2019 |title=Good Mother, Farewell: Elizabeth Freeman's Silence and the Stories of Mumbet |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=92 |issue=4 |pages=584–614 |doi=10.1162/tneq_a_00770 }}</ref>

The Sedgwick children were known to have a close relationship with Freeman as she was an integral part of the family. Of the Sedgwick children, [[Catharine Sedgwick]], later became a well-known author and wrote an account of her governess's life. Also working at the Sedgwick household during much of this time was [[Agrippa Hull]], a free black man who had served with the [[Continental Army]] for years during the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>[http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/agrippa-hull-revolutionary-patriot Nash, Gary B. (July 2, 2008), "Agrippa Hull: revolutionary patriot"], [[BlackPast.org|Black Past]]. Retrieved March 12, 2012.</ref>

Additionally, Catharine Sedgwick was denoted as the only “major American writer” who also happened to be a woman for many years. Despite having been one of the children Freeman had helped raise, Catharine's essay, “Slavery in New England” doesn't emphasize the severity of slavery in the North, and New England especially.<ref name=":0" /> She describes it as if there weren't that many enslaved people for there to be a “condition of a great evil”. She even goes on to describe slavery in the state as a “gentle” and “mild” which further undermines the severity of the institution of slavery in Massachusetts.<ref name=":0" />

Nonetheless, Catharine Sedgwick continued to portray the positive relationship she had with Freeman in her work as Freeman was extremely involved in her and her siblings' upbringing. Interestingly enough, however, Sedgwick is believed to have not attended Freeman's funeral despite their supposed close relationship.<ref name=":0" />

Freeman is believed to have spent over two decades acting as a motherly figure for Theodore and Pamela Sedgwick's children, as Pamela was suffering from a mental illness that prevented her from being fully present.<ref name=":0" /> From the time Freeman gained her freedom, she became widely recognized and in demand for her skills as a healer, midwife, and nurse. After the Sedgwick children were grown, and Freeman spent around 20 years collecting money,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Kelley |first=Mary |title=Jury Decides in Favor of Elizabeth "Mum Bett" Freeman |url=https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/jury-decides-in-favor-of-elizabeth-mum-bett-freeman.html |access-date=March 13, 2024 |website=Mass Moments|date=April 2, 2013 }}</ref> Freeman moved into her own house on Cherry Hill in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts|Stockbridge]], near her daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

==Death==
Freeman's actual age was never known, but an estimate on her tombstone puts her age at about 85. She died in December 1829 and was buried in the [[Sedgwick Pie|Sedgwick family plot]] in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]]. Freeman remains the only non-Sedgwick buried in the Sedgwick plot. They provided a tombstone inscribed as follows:

{{blockquote|ELIZABETH FREEMAN, also known by the name of MUMBET died Dec. 28th 1829. Her supposed age was 85 Years. She was born a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years; She could neither read nor write, yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal. She neither wasted time nor property. She never violated a trust, nor failed to perform a duty. In every situation of domestic trial, she was the most efficient helper and the tenderest friend. Good mother, farewell.<ref name=piper />}}

==Legacy==
[[File:Elizabeth Freeman Mumbet Statue Sheffield Massachusetts.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Statue on a short stone pedestal of a Black woman in a long dress and bonnet, holding a scoop in one hand and a slaip of paper in the other|Statue in Sheffield]]
The decision in the 1781 case of Elizabeth Freeman was cited as precedent when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard the appeal of ''Quock Walker v. Jennison'' later that year and upheld [[Quock Walker|Walker]]'s freedom. These cases set the legal precedents that ended slavery in Massachusetts. Vermont had already abolished it explicitly in its constitution.<ref name=piper/><ref name=bzrose/><ref name=Zilversmit>{{cite journal| title=Quok Walker, Mumbet, and the Abolition of Slavery in Massachusetts|first=Arthur|last=Zilversmit|journal=The William and Mary Quarterly|series=Third|volume=25|number=44|date=October 1968|pages=614–624|publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture|doi=10.2307/1916801|jstor=1916801}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p39.html|title=Africans in America/Part 2/Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett)|work=pbs.org|access-date=July 7, 2010|archive-date=February 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190213030924/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p39.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The gold bead necklace visible in the portrait of Freeman was re-made into a bracelet and carries her nickname.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sedgwick|first=Catharine Maria|date=2022-12-30|title=Bracelet made of gold beads from necklace of Elizabeth Freeman ("Mumbet")|url=https://www.masshist.org/database/548|access-date=2022-12-30|website=Massachusetts Historical Society|archive-date=July 18, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718185332/https://www.masshist.org/database/548|url-status=live}}</ref> This necklace was re-made by Catharine Sedgwick as she obtained it after Freeman had died.

Freeman is the namesake of the Elizabeth Freeman Center, a [[Berkshire County]] organization dedicated to combating domestic and sexual violence.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=https://elizabethfreemancenter.org/who-we-are/about-us/|website=Elizabeth Freeman Center|access-date=2024-11-27}}</ref>

A celebration of Elizabeth Freeman's role in the walk to freedom from enslavement included unveiling a statue in her honor by the [https://sheffieldhistory.weebly.com/ Sheffield Historical Society] in August 2022.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Elizabeth Freeman Monument|url=https://sheffieldhistory.weebly.com/elizabeth-freeman-monument.html|access-date=2022-08-19|website=Sheffield Historical Society|language=en|archive-date=July 18, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718185253/https://sheffieldhistory.weebly.com/elizabeth-freeman-monument.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Equity, logistics and the impacts of the Orange Line shutdown|url=https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2022/08/19/august-19-2022-rb|access-date=2022-08-19|website=www.wbur.org|date=August 19, 2022|language=en|archive-date=August 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819194729/https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2022/08/19/august-19-2022-rb|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Connection to W. E. B. Du Bois===
Civil Rights leader and historian [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] claimed Freeman as his relative and wrote that she married his maternal great-grandfather, "Jack" Burghardt.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dusk of Dawn|first=W. E. B.|last=Du Bois|publisher=Transaction Publishers|location=Piscataway, NJ|year=1984|page=11}} Originally published 1940.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=W. E. B. Du Bois, Biography of a Race 1868–1919|first=David|last=Levering|author-link=David Levering Lewis|publisher=Henry Holt and Co.|year=1993|page=14|location=New York City}}</ref> However, Freeman was 20 years senior to Burghardt, and no record of such a marriage has been found. It may have been Freeman's daughter, Betsy Humphrey, who married Burghardt after her first husband, Jonah Humphrey, left the area "around 1811" after Burghardt's first wife died (c. 1810). If so, Freeman would have been Du Bois's step-great-great-grandmother. Anecdotal evidence supports Humphrey's marrying Burghardt; a close relationship of some form is likely.<ref name=piper />

===In the media and arts===
* Season 1, episode 37 of the television show ''[[Liberty's Kids]]'', titled "Born Free and Equal", is about Elizabeth Freeman.<ref name="tvguide1">{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/libertys-kids/episode-37-season-1/born-free-and-equal/194970/|title=Watch Liberty's Kids Season 1 Episode 37: Born Free and Equal|work=TV Guide|access-date=2018-02-09|archive-date=February 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210062348/http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/libertys-kids/episode-37-season-1/born-free-and-equal/194970/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was first aired in 2003, and in it, she was voiced by [[Yolanda King]].<ref name="tvguide1" />
* The story of Elizabeth Freeman was featured in season 1, episode 4, of '' [[Finding Your Roots|Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.]]'' Freeman's lawyer, [[Theodore Sedgwick]], is the fourth great-grandfather of [[Kyra Sedgwick]], one of the guests of the episode.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTaWFjV15aY|title=Finding Your Roots (Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick) – PBS America|date=January 22, 2013|via=YouTube|access-date=January 19, 2019}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead YouTube link|date=February 2022}}</ref>
* The Portuguese fiber artist [[Joana Vasconcelos]] created a large installation in Freeman's honor in 2020 entitled ''[https://maam.massart.edu/exhibition/joana-vasconcelos Valkyrie Mumbet]'' for the [[MassArt]] Art Museum (MAAM) in Boston, MA.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Joana Vasconcelos {{!}} MassArt Art Museum|url=https://maam.massart.edu/exhibition/joana-vasconcelos|access-date=2021-04-07|website=maam.massart.edu|archive-date=April 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413095035/https://maam.massart.edu/exhibition/joana-vasconcelos|url-status=live}}</ref>
*Elizabeth Freeman's identity as a determined individual was captured in the book written for children and adolescents titled “A Free Woman On God's Earth: The True Story of Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman, The Slave Who Won Her Freedom" by authors Jana Laiz and Ann-Elizabeth Barnes.<ref name=":0" />
*Freeman and her contributions are honored at D.C.’s Museum of African American History, and Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution.<ref name=":0" />

=== Impact as a pioneer ===
Elizabeth Freeman has been noted as “the Rosa Parks of her time".<ref name=":0" /> Freeman's actions helped to inspire the abolitionist movement.

==See also==
{{Portal|United States}}

* [[American slave court cases]]
* [[List of slaves]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[Nathaniel Booth (slave)]]
* [[Elizabeth Key Grinstead]]
* [[Sojourner Truth]]

==References==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{wikiquote-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Elizabeth}}
[[Category:1740s births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1829 deaths]]
[[Category:Women in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:African Americans in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:18th-century American women]]
[[Category:People from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from colonial New York]]
[[Category:African-American abolitionists]]
[[Category:American abolitionists]]
[[Category:18th-century American slaves]]
[[Category:Freedom suits in the United States]]
[[Category:People from Berkshire County, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Claverack, New York]]
[[Category:Race legislation in the United States]]
[[Category:United States slavery case law]]
[[Category:American midwives]]
[[Category:Activists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:18th-century African-American women]]
[[Category:18th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American women]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:American women slaves]]
[[Category:People enslaved in Massachusetts]]