Elizabeth Freeman also known as Mumbett was the first enslaved Black American to successfully sue and win her freedom in the United States of America. Born in slavery in 1744, Freeman was a passionate and willful person with a strong sense of her own identity. Though she could not read, it is believed that she heard the words of the newly adopted Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which read, “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights”. These words prompted her to take legal action. As it was deemed inconsistent with state law, in the case of Brom and Bett V. Ashley in 1781, the institution of slavery was effectively abolished. From this case the State of Massachusetts would be the center of the abolitionist movement through the outset of the American Civil War.
https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/boaf-40.htm
The Unhidden Minute is part of the Unhidden Podcast Project supported through a National Geographic Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society, with the cooperation of the National Park Service. This series celebrates the untold stories of Black American history.
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Elizabeth Freeman