How An Enslaved Woman Sued For Her Freedom In 18th-Century Massachusetts

Elizabeth Freeman is buried in the Sedgwick family plot in the Stockbridge, Massachusetts, cemetery. (Nancy Eve Cohen/NEPR)

Nearly 250 years ago this month, 11 men gathered in a house on the Housatonic River to draft a document on equality and independence aimed at the British crown. A woman who was enslaved in the house overheard the discussion, and determined the words applied to her, too.

Elizabeth Freeman later used those ideas to win her freedom.

A house in Sheffield, Massachusetts, built in 1735, was home to Colonel John Ashley, his wife Hannah and their four children. People enslaved by the Ashleys lived there too, including Brom, Zack, John, Harry and Freeman — known then as Bett, and later MumBett.

Mark Wilson, curator of collections for the Trustees of Reservations — which owns the house — said the organization has shifted its focus from the story of Ashley, a prominent landowner and judge.

“We began working on retelling the story from the perspective of the enslaved members of the household,” he said. “In terms of the story of Elizabeth, it wasn’t being told properly, and it wasn’t being given its due.”

Freeman was brought to the house in 1758 as a teenager. She helped keep the fires going. She cleaned, cooked and served.

Read the rest of the story at NEPM’s website.