Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections Online: "Mumbett" (manuscript draft), by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, 1853

In The Margins is a series that covers the history they didn’t teach in school.

Elizabeth FreemanMiniature portrait, watercolor on ivory by Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick, 1811 "Mumbett" (manuscript draft), by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, 1853 I found this article on how slavery ended in Massachusetts. "I think the Idea of Slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct & Constitution..."~William Cushing, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 1783 Slavery persisted in Massachusetts through most of the eighteenth century. While individual enslaved people had successfully sued for freedom, and groups had petitioned the colonial government for freedom (although without success; see "The Struggle for Freedom" section of this website for more information), the institution of slavery was not legally abolished until the 1780s, in direct response to the new Massachusetts Constitution.

Before Harriet Tubman led enslaved people to freedom and long before Rosa Parks sat down on a Montgomery bus, there was Mum… The post Mum Bett: How One Black Woman’s Lawsuit Helped End Slavery In Massachusetts appeared first on Shine My Crown.