Elizabeth Freeman ("Mumbet")
Miniature portrait, watercolor on ivory by Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick, 1811
Portrait: 7.5 cm x 5.5 cm; in gilded wood frame: 13 cm x 9.7 cm
Elizabeth Freeman, depicted in this miniature by Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick, created the legal precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. Freeman, familiarly known as "Mumbet," sued for her freedom from Col. John Ashley of Sheffield, Mass. in 1783. Theodore Sedgwick of Stockbridge, Mass. represented her, successfully arguing that Freeman should be freed under the Bill of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution, which reads "all men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and inalienable rights." Mumbet became a paid domestic servant of the Sedgwick family following the decision and is buried in the Sedgwick family plot in Stockbridge.
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