Enslavement and Freedom: Elizabeth Freeman and the American Revolution

In 1781, an enslaved woman named Elizabeth Freeman heard the words “all men are created equal” read aloud from the Declaration of Independence and resolved to claim that promise for herself and other enslaved people. Known as Mum Bett, Freeman had been enslaved in Sheffield, Massachusetts. She sought the help of Stockbridge attorney Theodore Sedgwick, who filed a freedom suit on her behalf. The Great Barrington court ruled in her favor. Brom and Bett v. Ashley established a legal precedent that contributed to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. To this day, Freeman’s story stands as one of the most consequential acts of self-liberation in American history; however, her victory in that courtroom was not the end. It was a provocation—a call that echoes forward to a nation still measuring the distance between its founding ideals and the lives of its people.   Join us for a discussion moderated by Marcus P. Smith, History and Interpretive Fellow of the W.E.B. Du Bois Freedom… View Source