Black History Month, Elizabeth Freeman "mum bett"

Portrait of Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett) 1811

Image by Susan Ridley Sedgewick miniature portrait watercolor on ivory, Elizabeth Freeman was nearly 70 years old. Sedgewick married to Theodore Sedgewick, Jr., whose father represented Freeman's claim for freedom from slavery under the Bill of Rights and the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.

Susan Sedgewick, was the granddaughter of New Jersey governor and was a writer of juvenile fiction. She was 23 at the time the portrait was painted. Image Credit: Courtesy Massachusetts Historical Society Boston. Freedom and Bondage in the Colonial Era

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Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published works before 1923 (THIS IMAGE) are now in the public domain.

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While the Revolution was still being fought, Mum Bett declared that the new nation’s principle of liberty must extend to her too. It took eighty years and a far more terrible war to confirm the rights she demanded. by Jon Swan THE SLAVE WHO SUED FOR FREEDOM

Mum Bett, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mum Bett, later known as Elizabeth Freeman, was born to New York slaves in Claverack, New York, circa 1742. At the age of six months she and her sister were sold to John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, who she served until 1780. During that time she married and had a child. Her husband was killed in fighting 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.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article, Mum Bett.

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