one minute’s freedom
Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman and Brom and Bett v. Ashley
In 1780, Elizabeth Freeman heard seven words that would change her life: “All men are born free and equal.”
She heard the sentence in passing, as a crowd gathered in the village common to celebrate the newly-ratified Massachusetts Constitution. A man read aloud from the document, which echoed the Declaration of Independence in declaring that:
All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties …
As Elizabeth walked back to her enslavers’ house, the sentence wouldn’t leave her mind. All men are born free and equal.
Elizabeth had lived 36 years in slavery. Her enslavers, John and Hannah Ashley, brutally abused herself and her sister, Lizzy. At one point, Elizabeth took a beating to spare Lizzy, resulting in a lifelong injury to her arm. The words of the Massachusetts Constitution offered a fleeting glimpse of hope — if all men were born free and equal, what did that mean for her? Could she and Lizzy finally know what it would be like to live as free women?
