Check Out the Mum Bett Exhibit and Participate in the Walk
The Sheffield Historical Society presents an outdoor exhibit celebrating Mum Bett (a.k.a. Elizabeth Freeman), the first slave to successfully sue for freedom. It runs from Friday Aug. 21 through Sunday Aug. 23, from 11 am to 4 pm on the society grounds next to the town hall parking lot. The exhibit is free and open to the public and follows social distancing and mask guidelines.
In a related event, the 11th Annual Mum Bett Walk to Freedom will be held on Sunday, Aug. 23. Meet at the Ashley House, 117 Cooper Hill Rd., Ashley Falls at 9 am and bring your mask and water bottle. The walk is free, though event organizers encourage donating to the NAACP. BLM signs are welcome. For more information call 413-429-6561.
Elizabeth Freeman (c.1744 – December 28, 1829), also known as Bet, Mum Bett, or MumBet, was the first enslaved African American to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling, in Freeman's favor, found slavery to be inconsistent with the 1780 Massachusetts State Constitution. Her suit, Brom and Bett v. Ashley (1781), was cited in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appellate review of Quock Walker's freedom suit. When the court upheld Walker's freedom under the state's constitution, the ruling was considered to have implicitly ended slavery in Massachusetts.
Above information taken from Wikipedia
You can get more information about Mum Bett/Elizabeth Freeman by going here and also here.
Photo Image: Cover of the book by authors Jana Laiz and Ann-Elizabeth-Barnes entitled: 'A Free Woman On God's Earth: The True Story of Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman, The Slave Who Won Her Freedom' - Crow Flies Press.
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