Elizabeth Freeman’s stone is frequently visited as is clear by the many visiting stones and other offerings left there.
Elizabeth Freeman (1742-1829) was born into slavery in Claverack, NY, and given as a child to the wealthy Ashley Family living in Sheffield Massachusetts in the mid 1700s. She was one of five enslaved people working in the home of Col. Ashley which still stands today and is a museum. Their website presents Elizabeth Freeman’s story as at least as important if not more important to the site than the white inhabitants. https://thetrustees.org/place/ashley-house/ I am curious to visit in non-Covid times to hear the docents’ interpretation of this material.
Elizabeth Freeman, who was known as Bett or Betty while enslaved, observed the agitations for freedom that were breaking out in the Massachusetts colony leading up to the Revolutionary War. Col. Ashley was a great supporter of the American Revolution and his house rung with exhortations of freedom and equality, including the Sheffield Declaration which used the same language as the subsequent Massachusetts constitution:
“mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and property”
Elizabeth attended a local reading of the Declaration of Independence and approached Theodore Sedgwick a local lawyer to take her case, along with a fellow enslaved man known as Brom. The case was heard in the Great Barrington County Court in August 1781 and Sedgewick argued that the language of the constitution effectively abolished slavery in the state. “Bett and Brom” won their case and were granted their freedom. This ruling did not lead to the immediate emancipation of all slaves in Massachusetts (as I was taught in my youth.) But, of course, it was more complicated. The 1790 census in Massachusetts recorded no slaves, but it is believed that slave-owners were discouraged from mentioning slaves on the census. Glenn Knoblock writes: “While it is commonly and erroneously thought that the Walker and Mum Bett cases effectively ended slavery in Massachusetts (slaves were held in the state even after 1800), they were very important precedents in that slave owner’s claims could no longer be effectively argued or upheld in a court of law in Massachusetts.” -African American Historic Burial Grounds and Gravesites of New England G. Knoblock. After she gained her freedom Elizabeth took the name “Elizabeth Freeman” and went to work for the Sedgwick family, she also worked as a midwife delivering many local children in Stockbridge MA. Her gravestone is in Sedgewick's family plot in the cemetery in Stockbridge MA and was probably written and purchased by Catharine Sedgewick whom she helped raise and who recorded most of the known stories about Elizabeth’s life.
There are many many books about the life of Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman. Many of them written for children and most written by white authors and historians. Elizabeth was clearly seen as heroic and was admired enough by the Sedgwicks to give her a space in their family plot where she is the only burial of a non-family member amongst many many graves. Most of the stories we know of Elizabeth Freeman are derived from the accounts of Catherine Sedgwick the daughter of Theodore Sedgwick. You can view the manuscript of Sedwick’s article here at the Massachusetts Historical Society and helpfully, there is a transcription of the text. The most often recounted story from Elizabeth’s time as a slave was when she demonstrated great physical bravery and a fierce sense of justice when wounded by her mistress who attempted to strike a fellow slave
(perhaps Elizabeth’s sister) with a red hot shovel protecting. Elizabeth interposed between them and took a deep wound on her arm which she always kept uncovered to be a mark of shame to her mistress. There are two other interesting vignettes exemplifying her bravery and strength of character: in one Elizabeth protects a teenager who has “girl trouble” from her mistress in order that the girl could petition Judge Ashley for help. This help resulted eventually in the capital conviction of the girl’s father, so it was some grave trouble. The other story involves her standing up to a mob of angry white men in Shay’s rebellion who came looking to assault Theodore Sedgwick and loot his home. Though the details of Elizabeth Freeman’s life were all recorded by whites they yield such a heroic portrait it is hard not to be moved by it. Almost nothing is known of the free life of Brom.
