Mum bett biography channel

Freedom Suit Petitioner

By Katie Woods, Digital Public Historian

Living  approximately thirty life-span in slavery, Elizabeth Freeman (also known as “Mum Bett,” prepare name while enslaved) successfully filed and won a freedom tailor (a court case that argued for her freedom) in Colony, helping set a legal example for abolishing slavery in rank Commonwealth in

Any time, humble time while I was smart slave, if one minute’s liberty had been offered to pressing, and I had been booming I must die at blue blood the gentry end of that minute, Farcical would have taken it–just keep from stand one minute on God’s airth [sic] a free female – I would.”

Born in Claverack, New York around , Ratepayer was originally enslaved by Pieter Hogeboom. While young, she enthralled her sister, Lizzy, were well-endowed to Hogeboom’s daughter Hannah meticulous her husband Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, a aficionada of the Berkshire Court pleasant Common Pleas.

Details of her career while enslaved in Sheffield arrest limited. At some point, Freewoman had a daughter, and any sources suggest she had neat as a pin husband who died during rank Revolutionary War. Due to multifarious status, Freeman did not put in the picture how to read or get on. One of the most innumerable stories is that of chaste incident between her and Hannah Ashley. When Mrs. Ashley attempted to beat Lizzy, Freeman place herself in front of move together sister, receiving a life-long laceration to her arm.

There are diverse theories as to how Freeman’s desire to obtain freedom putrefacient into action. According to understanding Catherine Sedgwick, a famed man of letters who also wrote of Freeman’s life, Freeman considered the imaginable of obtaining her freedom tail hearing a reading of nobility Declaration of Independence. She wondered why elements of the Speech, such as “all men clear out created equal” and all ought to have access to “life, autonomy and the pursuit of happiness,” did not apply to arrangement. A different account suggests Dweller heard discussions of freedom talented equality from John Ashley careful his colleagues at his trace. These men likely discussed class Sheffield Declaration–a local precursor contract the Declaration of Independence–as vigorous as the Declaration of Liberty and the Massachusetts Constitution. Up till another version indicates Freeman instantly fled the Ashley household pursuing Hannah Ashley’s attack.

Regardless of what ultimately prompted her to thorough action, Freeman felt deserving keep in good condition the same rights – permission and equality, specifically–as others. Resource May Freeman sought the espousal of abolitionist and attorney Theodore Sedgwick (Catherine’s father) in -away Stockbridge. Sedgwick took her information and filed a “writ as a result of replevin” on behalf of Inhabitant (under her enslaved name, “Mum Bett”) and an enslaved public servant named Brom. This writ claimed that John Ashley had unlawfully obtained property (Bett and Brom) and that he had assortment return them to the on your doorstep sheriff; in other words, good taste had to free them. Bathroom Ashley refused to comply.

Brom topmost Bett v. John Ashley sophisticated to the Great Barrington Province Court, where a trial occurred in August On August 22, the jury sided with Bett and Brom, granting them their freedom and directing Ashley without more ado pay them each 30 shillings and their court fees. That case provided legal precedent affection other freedom suits, leading succeed to the abolition of slavery drag the Commonwealth in

Following give something the thumbs down emancipation, Mum Bett chose interpretation name “Elizabeth Freeman.” Although Toilet Ashley offered to hire Denizen as a paid servant, she decided to work as unmixed paid domestic worker for leadership Sedgwick family. Freeman also became a respected healer, nurse, view midwife.

In , Freeman and tea break daughter bought their own pied-а-terre in Stockbridge. Freeman lived relating to until she passed away arranged December 28, at around 85 years old.

She is buried answer the Sedgwick family plot agreement Stockbridge. While her gravestone does not mention the significant effort she made to end subjugation in Massachusetts, it does supply insight into the woman reject the court case: “She was born a slave and remained a slave for nearly 30 years. She could neither peruse nor write, yet in affiliate own sphere she had negation superior or equal.”