Elizabeth Freeman was brought to a house in Sheffield, Massachusetts in 1758 as a teenager. She helped keep the fires going. She cleaned, cooked and served.
A statue of Elizabeth Freeman on display in the National Museum of African American History and Culture's Slavery and Freedom exhibition.
“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.” Historian Emily Blanck of Rowan University said about 2% of the population in Massachusetts was enslaved in the 1770s. At that same time, she says, white residents of the colonies, like Ashley, were arguing that America was a country of freedom.
About nine years after she heard these words, something happened in this house that changed everything for Freeman. The exact details vary, but the story goes that it was winter and a foot of snow blanketed her path. Freeman walked several miles to the home of one of the men she overheard writing the Sheffield Resolves.
They won their freedom, and the judge ordered John Ashley to pay 30 shillings each to Brom and Freeman. After appealing and then dropping the appeal, Ashley paid the money.Blanck said that in the aftermath, two facts point to a kind of quiet emancipation in the state.
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