Elizabeth Freeman’s Legal Fight for Freedom

But by far, the most interesting part of the Sedgwick plot is not inhabited by a Sedgwick family member. It belongs to Elizabeth Freeman, a formerly enslaved black woman from Massachusetts who gained freedom in 1781.

Many enslaved people gained freedom by escaping to Pennsylvania; Elizabeth gained freedom through the law. In Colonial America, most black women were confined to the roles of domestic servants and child bearers. However, the American Revolution opened a new avenue for black women to become rebels and revolutionaries. Bet, a formerly enslaved woman, is an excellent example. Upon winning her freedom, she chose the name “Elizabeth Freeman” as a celebration of her victory.

Elizabeth Freeman was born sometime around 1744. She was enslaved by a man named Pieter Hogeboom, who forced her to work on his farm in New York. She was given the name “Bet,” a shortened version of Elizabeth, which was a common name for enslaved people. When Bet was only seven years old, Hogeboom gave her to his daughter Hannah. Until 1781, Freeman would remain with Hannah and her husband, John Ashley—a Massachusetts gentleman who owned a fifty-​acre farm, sawmill, and general store. Enslaved women like Bet were forced to work the fields, prepare meals, serve guests, spin flax and wool for clothes, and help raise children. Bet distinguished herself as a midwife and helped raise John and Hannah Ashley’s four children.

Bet was illiterate and left no records of her personal life. Her ancestry, birth date, and country of origin remain a mystery. She was married, but her husband never returned from the Revolutionary War when he fought on behalf of the Continental Army.

After the birth of her child, Bet wanted to be free of the Ashleys. In 1780, Hannah Ashley reprimanded a different servant named Lizzy. As punishment, Ashley heated a kitchen shovel in the fire to maim Lizzy. Pitying the young girl, Bet shielded Lizzy and received a nasty burn and scar on her arm. Ashley yielded, and according to Bet, she never laid another hand on Lizzy. Bet refused to cover the wound. She wanted everyone to know how badly the Ashleys had treated their slaves. Whenever anyone asked about her scar in the company of Hannah Ashley, she explained the story in detail to embarrass her tormentor.

In 1773, town leaders gathered in John Ashley’s home to debate how to protest the British government. A list of grievances emerged from Sheffield’s leaders, known as the “Sheffield Declaration.” Bet, who was serving the guests, listened closely. Though she had no formal education, the discussions fascinated her. Here, she met Theodore Sedgwick, an ambitious twenty-​seven-​year-​old attorney and Yale graduate.

Seven years later in 1780, Massachusetts ratified its state constitution. One article states: “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights.” Yet, the Constitution did not outlaw slavery. Though the Constitution failed to provide for equal rights for black and Native Americans, it left future developments open. The Constitution did not mention slavery or even recognize the institution, and Bet seized this crucial moment in American history to gain her freedom.

Knowing the new Constitution left slavery ambiguous, Bet approached Thomas Sedgwick, the lawyer she had met years prior. Bet asked Sedgwick if he would represent her against the Ashleys and sue for her freedom. She told him, “The Bill of Rights said that all [in the nation] were born free and equal, and since I’m not a dumb beast, I’m certainly one of the nation.” A surprised Sedgwick asked how she learned of this idea. Bet replied, “By keepin’ still and mindin’ things.” She implored, “I am not a dumb critter. Won’t the law give me my freedom?”

Though Sedgwick took on the case, he had good reasons to hesitate. John Ashley, his former mentor and client, was also the most influential citizen in Sheffield. To put it lightly, Ashley was a formidable adversary even for a leading Sheffield attorney. Sedgwick enlisted the help of Tapping Reeve, the founder of Litchfield Law School in Connecticut, one of America’s earliest law schools. The pair filed the case in Berkshire County Court.

The first challenge for Bet and Sedgwick was that no black or white woman could file a suit on their own and be recognized in a court of law. Sedgwick decided to combine Bet’s case with another person enslaved to John Ashley named Brom to ensure Bet’s case would not be thrown out on purely procedural grounds.

On the day of the trial, the crowd from the simple unpainted wooden court overflowed onto the town’s main street. A jury of Berkshire farmers decided Bet’s and Brom’s fate.

The case began with Sedgwick and Reeve issuing a writ of replevin, a procedure of English common law designed to provide grounds for the recovery of property. Sedgwick and Reeve argued that Bet and Brom were not the property of the Ashleys, nor were they merely being mistreated as enslaved people. They were being misclassified as something they were not: property.

We lack records of the arguments advanced and the deliberations of the judge and jury. Ultimately, the jury ruled that “Brom and Bet are not and were not at the time of the purchase of the original writ the Legal Negro servants of him the said, John Ashley.” Brom and Bet were awarded thirty shillings as damages and to cover the costs of the suit. Though thirty shillings as payment for a lifetime of labor seems insulting, Bet’s case set a precedent for future freedom suits in Massachusetts. It aided in establishing the principle that slavery is unconstitutional according to the Massachusetts Constitution.

Following the verdict, Bet triumphantly left the Ashleys and began working for the Sedgwick household. To celebrate her victory and her new life as a free woman, she changed her name from Bet to Elizabeth Freeman. Elizabeth Freeman was renowned for her independent character and kind nature as a governess of the Sedgwick home. Freeman cemented her reputation in the Sedgwick family when she defended the home from offshoots of Shay’s rebellion attempting to attack.

Elizabeth Freeman helped raise Theodore Sedgwick’s children, including his daughter and future novelist Catherine. Later in life, Catherine recorded Elizabeth discussing her trial. Elizabeth said, “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 airth [sic] a free woman—I would.” Theodore Sedgwick’s daughter-​in-​law Susan Sedgwick painted a portrait of Elizabeth Freeman wearing a blue dress, an ivory-​colored headscarf, and a necklace with golden beads. It was uncommon at the time for a black American to be depicted so well dressed.

Elizabeth Freeman died on December 28, 1829, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. For years of service, Elizabeth was buried on the Sedgwick family plot with a marble tombstone, a rare ornate memorial for a black woman of the eighteenth century. She was the only servant who ever received this honor from the Sedgwick family.

No legislation was passed to abolish slavery in Massachusetts until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. In Massachusetts, slavery was gradually repealed through legal challenges and judicial review. At a time when colonists had to move swiftly to form governments and systems of law, many stories like that of Elizabeth Freeman were lost or simply not recorded.

Elizabeth Freeman’s case illustrates that the American Revolution marked a turning point in the relationship between enslaved people and the colonists. Freeman’s case cleared the way for the enslaved people of Massachusetts to fight against slavery by standing their ground on the letter of the law, rather than running away to Pennsylvania. This tactic would become commonplace among nineteenth-​century abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, who held the US Constitution in high regard.

Cases such as Elizabeth Freeman survive as a rare example of white colonists being forced to confront the disconnect between the ideal of all men being “born free and equal” and the concrete reality of slavery. The story of Elizabeth Freeman shows how knowledge of one’s rights and the law can empower individuals, even in the most dire circumstances, to take action.