Elizabeth Freeman

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Elizabeth Freeman (a.k.a. Mumbet)
Elizabeth Freeman, aged about 67
Born	c. 1744 Claverack, Province of New York
Died	December 28, 1829(1829-12-28) (aged 84–85) Stockbridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other names	Bett, Mumbet, Mum Bett
Occupation(s)	Midwife, herbalist, servant
Known for	Brom and Bett v. Ashley (1781), gained freedom based on constitutional right to liberty

Elizabeth Freeman (c. 1744 – December 28, 1829), also known as Mumbet,^[a] was one of the first enslaved African Americans to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling, in Freeman's favor, found slavery to be inconsistent with the 1780 Constitution of Massachusetts. Her suit, Brom and Bett v. Ashley (1781), was cited in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appellate review of Quock Walker's freedom suit. When the court upheld Walker's freedom under the state's constitution, the ruling was considered to have implicitly ended slavery in Massachusetts.

Freeman was fighting for her freedom in the state where the legalization of slavery in early America first derives from. The northern United States, along with the south, engaged in harsh treatment of Black people, with Massachusetts even considering  “slavery as a way of life” until 1788.^[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's airth [sic] a free woman—I would.

— Elizabeth Freeman^[2]

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