Mum Bett
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Elizabeth Freeman, in early life known as "Mum Bett", (c.1742 - 1829) was among the first black slaves in United States history to win freedom in court, and great-grandmother to W. E. B. Du Bois.
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[edit] Biography
Mum Bett was born into slavery at the farm of Pieter Hoogeboom in Claverack, New York. When Pieter died, Mum Bett was left with Pieter's daughter and her husband, John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, and she served with them until 1780. During that time she married and had a child. Her husband was killed in combat during the Revolutionary War.
In 1780, Mum Bett prevented her mistress from striking her sister Lizzy with a heated shovel and was struck instead. She immediately left the Ashley house and refused to return. When John Ashley appealed to the law to force her to return, Mum Bett sought the counsel of Theodore Sedgwick, an abolitionist-minded lawyer, who in turn enlisted the aid of Tapping Reeve, the founder of America's first law school.
Mum Bett had overheard conversation regarding Massachusetts new constitution which was adopted in 1780. She reasoned that her right to freedom was now coded into law. The exact wording was as follows:
| “ | Article I. 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. | ” |
Sedgwick willingly accepted her case, as well as that of a man named Brom who was another of Ashley's slaves, and used that very defense - contending that "all men are born free and equal" was fully applicable in the situation. The case of Brom and Bett vs. Ashley was heard in August 1781 before the County Court of Common Pleas in Great Barrington. When the jury ruled in her favor she became the first African American woman to be set free under the Massachusetts constitution. The jury found that Brom and Bett had been illegally detained in servitude by the Ashleys, assessed damages of thirty shillings, and awarded Mum Bett compensation for her labor from age 21 onwards.
After the ruling, John Ashley pleaded with Bett to return to his house and work for wages. Instead, Bett changed her name and went to work for the household of her lawyer, Theodore Sedgwick. She remained in his service for a number of years. In later years she was well-known for her skill as a midwife and nurse. As a free woman, she and her daughter also set up a house of their own. One of her great-grandchildren was W. E. B. Du Bois.
Regarding her case, Bett is quoted as saying:[1]
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' airth a free woman--I would.
[edit] Death
Elizabeth Freeman was around 87 years old when she died in 1829. She was buried in the Sedgwick family plot in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Her tombstone is engraved:
| “ | 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. | ” |
[edit] Legacy
Elizabeth Freeman, Quock Walker and others set the legal precedents that made Massachusetts the first state in the Union to abolish slavery.
