Elizabeth Freeman
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Elizabeth Freeman (abt. 1744 - 1829)

Elizabeth "Mum Bett" Freeman
Born about in Claverack, Albany, New York Colonymap
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
[spouse(s) unknown]
Died at about age 85 in Stockbridge, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United Statesmap
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Contents

Biography

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Elizabeth Freeman is Notable.
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Elizabeth Freeman was a part of the Abolitionists Movement.

Elizabeth Freeman was the first female black slave to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Freeman was born a slave on the farm of Pieter Hogeboom in Claverack, New York and given the name "Bet". At the age of seven she was given to Hogeboom's daughter Hannah, when she married John Ashley, a lawyer and businessman, from Sheffield, Massachusetts,

She was with them until 1781. She married a man whose name has not been recorded - he is said to have fought in the Revolutionary War but did not return from it. She had a daughter named Little Bet.

In 1780, she heard the newly Massachusetts Constitution read at a public gathering. She was inspired by the words:

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

which she interpreted to mean that slavery should not exist. She found a lawyer, Theodore Sedgwick, and convinced him to help her sue for her freedom in court. He also included Brom, another of John Ashley's slaves.

The case, Brom and Bett v. Ashley was heard August of 1781 before the County Court of Common Pleas in Great Barrington. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Freeman's favor, finding slavery to be inconsistent with the 1780 Massachusetts State Constitution. The decision was upheld on appeal by the state Supreme Court.

Slave Owners

  1. Pieter Meese (Hogenboom) Hogeboom (abt.1676-bef.1758)
  2. Annetje (Hogeboom) Ashley (bef.1712-1790) and her husband, John Ashley II (1709-bef.1802)

Emancipation

After she won her court case she changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman. Although the Ashleys offered to employ her with pay, she chose instead to work for the Sedgwick family as a senior housekeeper and governess for his children.

After his children grew up, she and her daughter bought a home in Stockbridge, Mass, where she lived until her death.

Elizabeth ‘Mumbet’ Freeman was the first black woman to gain her freedom in court in the newly formed United States. She was both a witness to and a participant in American History.
Mumbet was born a slave and was acquired with her sister Lizzy by a Dutchman, Pietre Hoogenboom from Claverack, New York at the slave market in Albany. Sometime after 1758, after Pietre’s death, Mumbet and her sister were acquired by Colonel John Ashley and his wife Hannah, who was Pietre’s daughter, as a result of the execution of Pietre’s will. Mumbet would have been around the age of 14. Some suggest she came to the Ashley home when she was six months old. Mumbet served as a slave in the Ashley home with her sister till the age of 37. The home where she served still exists and is the oldest home in Berkshire County. Mumbet had a common law husband, Brom.
Mumbet had been listening in on conversations between Colonel Ashley, Theodore Sedgwick, Ethan Allen, Tapping Reeve and others who had met in the Ashley home where she served these men food and drink, listening to conversations that formed a part of the basis for American Independence.
In 1773 these men wrote what has become known as the ‘Sheffield Resolves’ which declared that “Mankind in a State of Nature are equal, free and independent of each other.” Mumbet was attending these men when these words were spoken in her presence. Colonel John Ashley before this was loyal to the British, but this was a statement of grievances against England and has been noted as one of the early protests of the kind in the colonies. Later it became known as the Sheffield Declaration of Independence. One of the ‘Resolves’ which Mumbet heard spoken was:
“Resolved that the great end of political society is to secure in a more effectual manner those rights and privileges wherewith God and Nature have made us free.” —Sheffield: Frontier Town, Priess, p.172
Catharine Sedgewick indicated that sometime after the close of the War of Independence, Mumbet happened by the meeting house in Sheffield and heard a reading of the Declaration of Independence. The next day after a blow meant for Lizzy she walked with her young child, little Bet, the four miles from the Ashley home to Theodore Sedgwick’s law office on a cold, wet day, trudging through the mud and entered into the room and said,
“Sir…I heard that paper read yesterday that says all men are born equal, and that every man has a right to freedom… I am not a dumb critter; won’t the law give me any freedom?”[1]
Sedgwick was assisted by Tapping Reeve from Litchfield, Connecticut who formed the first law school in America. Some very important lawyers of the period were brought into the case, not only Tapping Reeve with Theodore Sedgwick for Mumbet, but also David Noble, and Jonathan Canfield for the defense of Colonel Ashley.
After Mumbet was declared free, Colonel Ashley offered to employ Mumbet in the home, but she decided to work in the home of the lawyer that helped her gain her freedom. The Sedgwick home was filled with children whom Mumbet raised as a substitute mother since Theodore Sedgwick’s wife, Pamela was sickly. The youngest child, Charles Sedgwick, who wrote Mumbet’s epitaph. When Charles was born, his mother was confined to her bed. Theodore Sedgwick, upon looking at his son remarked, " He is not worth raising."
Mumbet raised and nurtured the child and after four months the Judge returned from one of his trips and upon seeing the child, according to Catharine, ‘tears came in the Judge’s eyes,’ and he took a silver crown out of his pocket and gave it to Mumbet who kept the crown until she died.
Later Colonel Ashley took a leading part in the Revolutionary War in the Berkshires which certainly Mumbet was effected by the call to freedom which she no doubt felt applied to her just as much as anyone else.
The primary source of information is one of the children that Mumbet raised, Catharine Sedgwick, because Mumbet was her substitute mother. Another child she raised wrote Mumbet’s epitaph on her gravestone that exists today in the Sedgwick family plot and reads:

“ELIZABETH FREEMAN

known by the name of MUMBET
Died Dec. 28, 1829
Her supposed age was 85 Years

Freedom

August 1781
Great Barrington, Great Barrington, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States
Court of Common Pleas Brom & Bett v. Ashley
First Slave in Massachusetts to win her freedom through court action (a case brought in the County Court of Common Pleas in Great Barrington)

Sources

  1. — Bentley’s Miscellany 34 (1853) and “Slavery in New England” p. 418
  • Sedgwick, Catharine Maria. "Slavery in New England". Bentley's Miscellany (London) 34: 417–424. 1853. Retrieved August 2010.
  • Piper, Emilie; Levinson, David & Berkshire Genealogist Indexing Committee. One Minute a Free Woman: Elizabeth Freeman and the Struggle for Freedom. 2010. Salisbury, Connecticut: Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area /African American Heritage Trail. ISBN 978-0-9845492-0-7.
  • Wilds, Mary. Mumbet: The Life and Times of Elizabeth Freeman: The True Story of a Slave Who Won Her Freedom. 1999. Greensboro, North Carolina: Avisson Press Inc. ISBN 1-888105-40-2.
  • Massachusetts Court System. Massachusetts Constitution and the Abolition of Slavery: Guide: The Mum Bett Case. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Accessed 16 Jun 2021.
  • Elizabeth Freeman mumbet.com 1999. Accessed 16 Jun 2021.
  • Sedgwick Family Plot, Stockbridge Cemetery. Section B, and photo of epitaph by Charles Sedgwick.
  • Greenidge, Kaitlyn. "What Walmart Doesn’t Get About Juneteenth" New York Times, June 18, 2021.
  • Sedgwick, Catharine Maria. "Mumbett" (manuscript draft), Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Published originally 1853

See also:





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Freeman-17848 and Freeman-7941 appear to represent the same person because: Clear duplicate
posted by Connie Graham