Resource for Remarkable Colonial African American Women, slide #7

Elizabeth Freeman was an enslaved woman who lived in Massachusetts in the 1700s, more than 250 years ago. She and her sister lived with their enslavers, Mr. and Mrs. Ashley. The Ashleys called Elizabeth “Mum Bett”. Mr. Ashley thought it was important that people living in Massachusetts have freedom and good laws to protect them. When he and his friends talked about this at his house, Mum Bett would listen. She decided that since she lived in Massachusetts, she should have her freedom and be protected by these laws too, even though Mr. Ashley had only been thinking about White people.

One day Mrs. Ashley got very mad at Mum Bett’s sister and tried to hit her with a hot fireplace shovel. Mum Bett got in the way to protect her sister and the hot shovel hit her instead. Mum Bett was so angry that she left the house and asked a lawyer named Mr. Sedgwick to make Mr. Ashley free her. Mr. Sedgwick took Mum Bett’s case to court and the jury decided that she could be free. The jury also decided that since Mum Bett had to pay Mr. Sedgwick to help free her, that Mr. Ashley should pay her back.

Even though Mr. Ashley promised to pay Mum Bett for her work if she would return to his house, she went to work for Mr. Sedgwick instead. She was his housekeeper and helped take care of his children. He paid her for her work. She also worked as a nurse and helped mothers to have babies. Eventually, Mum Bett and her sister got their own house. On her gravestone it says she never “failed to perform a duty” and “she was the most efficient helper and the tenderest friend. Good mother, farewell.”

Vocabulary

Court, judge, jury, lawyer – if somebody breaks a law or can’t agree with somebody else about something important, they go to court, where a group of people called the “jury” listen to each person’s story about what happened and then they decide who was telling the truth, or what should happen next.  The people who tell the stories to the jury are called lawyers.  The judge is like a boss of the court.  The judge tells the person who did something wrong what their punishment will be, or the judge tells the people who don’t agree what they should do.

Efficient – able to get work done quickly without wasting time.