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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A bronze statue that honors an enslaved woman who went to court to win her freedom more than 80 years before the Emancipation Proclamation will Sunday be unveiled in Massachusetts.
The
unveiling will take place in the town of Sheffield in honor of Elizabeth
Freeman who choose her name after her freedom about 241 years ago, The Associated
Press reports.
The enslaved
woman, known as Bett, was an illiterate but she pursued her freedom nonetheless.
Where did Elizabeth Freeman serve as a slave?
As a slave
in the household of Col. John Ashley, her master and other prominent citizens
of Sheffield met to discuss their grievances about British tyranny, according
to The Associated Press. In 1773, the group wrote in what was known as the
Sheffield Resolves that “Mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and
independent of each other,” the Associated Press reported.
In 1780, the
words were adopted in Article 1 of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780,
which begins “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential,
and unalienable rights,” according to The Associated Press.
How did Bratt (Elizabeth Freeman) get her freedom?
Brett
reportedly walked about 5 miles from the Ashley household to the home of
attorney Theodore Sedgwick, one of the citizens who drafted the Sheffield
Resolves, and asked him to represent her in her legal quest to win her freedom,
The Associated Press quoted Paul O’Brien, president of the Sheffield Historical
Society.
Sedgwick and
another attorney, Tapping Reeve, agreed to represent her in the case but a male
slave in the Ashley household named Brom was added to the case, since women had
limited legal rights in Massachusetts courts at the time.
On August 21, 1781, the jury in its ruling agreed with the attorneys, and freed Bett and Brom, according to The Associated Press.
After Freeman
won the court case, Ashley asked Freeman to return to his household a paid
servant, but she refused and decided to work for Sedgwick, where she helped
raise his children and was known by the affectionate name, Mumbet, according to
The Associated Press.
Freeman
reportedly bought her own property in nearby Stockbridge and was a healer, a
nurse and a midwife.
She died at
the age of 85 in 1829 and was buried in Sedgwicks family home.