A bronze statue of an enslaved woman from Massachusetts who went to court to win her freedom in 1781 is being unveiled in the Berkshires this weekend.
This undated image shows a painting owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society of one Elizabeth Freeman. The story of the enslaved woman who went to court to win her freedom more than 80 years before the Emancipation Proclamation has been pushed to the fringes of history. A group of civic leaders, activists and historians hope that ends Sunday, Aug.
“She’s clearly a hidden figure in American history, and I really believe Black history is American history,” said Pignatelli, a Democrat. “But unfortunately, Black history is what we haven’t been told and taught.”And what she heard did not make sense. It is believed that Bett, after hearing a public reading of the constitution, walked roughly 5 miles from the Ashley household to the home of attorney Theodore Sedgwick, one of the citizens who drafted the Sheffield Resolves, and asked him to represent her in her legal quest for freedom, said Paul O’Brien, president of the Sheffield Historical Society.Women had limited legal rights in Massachusetts courts at the time, so a male slave in the Ashley household named Brom was added to the case.
Gwendolyn VanSant, the CEO of BRIDGE, an area nonprofit that fosters racial understanding and equity, is overseeing the scholarships. She was a healer, a nurse and a midwife, who bought her own property in nearby Stockbridge, VanSant said.The Sedgwicks had such a deep respect for Mumbet that when she died in 1829 at about the age of 85 she was buried with them, the only non-family member in the family plot. Much of what historians know about her was written by one of Theodore Sedgwick’s daughters, the novelist Catharine Maria Sedgwick, O'Brien said.
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Statue honors once-enslaved woman who won freedom in courtA bronze statue of an enslaved woman from Massachusetts who went to court to win her freedom in 1781 is being unveiled in the Berkshires this weekend
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Statue honors once-enslaved woman who won freedom in courtA bronze statue of an enslaved woman from Massachusetts who went to court to win her freedom in 1781 is being unveiled in the Berkshires this weekend
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