Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett)

Elizabeth Freeman (a.k.a. Mumbet)
Elizabeth Freeman, aged ca 67
Born	c.1744 Claverack, Province of New York
Died	December 28, 1829(1829-12-28) (aged 85) , Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Other names	Bett, Mumbet, Mum Bett,
Occupation	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 Bet or Mum Bett, was the first black slave 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 Massachusetts State Constitution. 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.

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.

Freeman was illiterate and left no written records of her life. Her early history has been pieced together from the writings of contemporaries to whom she told her story or who heard it indirectly, as well as from historical records.

Freeman was born into slavery around 1744 at the farm of Pieter Hogeboom in Claverack, New York, where she was given the name Bet. When Hogeboom's daughter Hannah married John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, Hogeboom gave Bet, around seven years old, to Hannah and her husband. Freeman remained with them until 1781, during which time she had a child, Little Bet. She is said to have married, though no marriage record has been located. Her husband (name unknown) is said to have never returned from service in the American Revolutionary War.

Throughout her life, Bet exhibited a strong spirit and sense of self. She came into conflict with Hannah Ashley, who was raised in the strict Dutch culture of the New York colony. In 1780, Bet prevented Hannah from striking a servant girl with a heated shovel; Elizabeth shielded the girl and received a deep wound in her arm. As the wound healed, Bet left it uncovered as evidence of her harsh treatment.Catharine Maria Sedgwick quotes Elizabeth saying, "Madam never again laid her hand on Lizzy [sic]. 'I had a bad arm all winter, but Madam had the worst of it. I never covered the wound, and when people said to me, before Madam, "Betty, what ails your arm?" I only answered - 'ask missis!' Which was the slave and which was the real misses?"