"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 earth a free woman- I would." - Elizabeth Freeman 

Elizabeth Freeman was born an enslaved woman in the mid-1700s, in approximately 1744, on the farm of Pieter Hogeboom in Claverack, New York. She was given the name Bet. Freeman was given to John Ashley, who had married Hogeboom's daughter, at seven years old. While owned by Ashley, she is said to have married, although no marriage records exist. She bore a child, called Little Bet. Her husband is said to have never returned from service in the American Revolution. 

Freeman always had a strong, unbending spirit. She hated every moment of being enslaved. This clashed with her mistress, Hannah Ashley's views, as Hannah had been raised in the strict Dutch culture of New York. In 1780, Lizzie, Freeman's sister, took a small amount of dough she was using to make a meal for the family and attempted to make a small wheaten cracker for herself. Hannah called Lizzie a thief and attempted to hit her with a heated shovel. The shovel had been in the fire, and the blade of it was red from the heat. Freeman interceded, taking the blow upon her arm instead. 

The blow cut to the bone, and her arm never healed exactly as it was. It was nearly useless for the rest of the winter. She never covered her wound, instead using it to embarrass her mistress. When telling the story later in life, she is quoted saying, "Madam never again laid her hand on Lizzie. 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!'" 

The Ashley home was the site of many political discussions and the probable site of the singing of the Sheffield Resolves, the document from which many of the ideas used in the Declaration of Independence were drawn. Freeman, serving the men participating in these discussions, overheard much talk of freedom, liberty, and revolution. 

In 1780, either at a public reading or at one of these gatherings in her master's house, she heard the newly ratified Massachusetts Constitution. Realizing that the document claimed that all men were born equal and had a right to freedom, she sought the counsel of Theodore Sedgwick, a young, abolitionist lawyer. She reportedly asked him, "I'm not a dumb critter; won't the law give me my freedom?" 

Freeman wanted to sue for her freedom. After thought and deliberation, Sedgwick took her case. Brom, another person enslaved by Ashley, also wanted to sue for his freedom. Sedgwick accepted his case as well. He enlisted the aid of Tapping Reeve, who founded Litchfield Law School, one of the first law schools in the United States, in Litchfield, Connecticut. 

Sedgwick and Reeve were the best lawyers in Massachusetts. In their prosecution, they claimed that the words "all men are born free and equal" effectively abolished slavery within Massachusetts. 

Brom and Bett v. Ashley was heard before the County Court of Common Pleas in Great Barrington in August 1781. The jury ruled in the plantiffs' favor. Brom and Freeman were awarded damages of thirty shillings and compensation for their work. 

Ashley appealed the decision, but later dropped his appeal, apparently having decided that the ruling was binding. 

Following the ruling, Ashley asked Freeman to return to his household, where she would be paid for her work. Freeman refused, opting instead to work for Sedgwick. She was his senior servant and the governess of the Sedgwick children until 1808, at which point she moved into her own house closer to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She died on December 28, 1829, assumed to be about 85 years of age. She was buried on the Sedgwick plot and remains the only person outside of the Sedgwick family to be buried there. 

Elizabeth Freeman was the first enslaved woman to successfully sue for her freedom in Massachusetts. Her case was used as precedent in future cases that upheld the freedom of all previously enslaved people and ended slavery in Massachusetts. 

Elizabeth Freeman's story deserves to be remembered. Tell her story. 

Work Cited: 

Alexander, Kerry Lee. "Elizabeth Freeman." National Women's History Museum, 2019. Jan. 23, 2021. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizabeth-freeman

I got some information from Wikipedia too, but I don't think Wikipedia deserves an MLA citation. (Don't misconstrue this, Wikipedia. I love you.)

I was inspired to write this by Episode 57 of the podcast Let's Go To Court!, The Seamen Family & Elizabeth Freedman's Quest for Freedom. 

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