Elizabeth Freeman, Spinster
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5954233 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeannine Marie Delombard (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 172 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 71-90 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Representations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0734-6018 • E-ISSN: 1533-855X |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1525/rep.2025.172.5.71 |
| OpenAlex | W7103993465 |
| Language | EN |
Elizabeth Freeman is remembered today for bringing one of the lawsuits credited with ending slavery in Massachusetts and for serving as "surrogate mother" in the family of her white lawyer, Theodore Sedgwick. This article finds a corrective to the Sedgwicks' paternalistic, antebellum narrative of "Mumbet" in the legal documents Freeman generated when she sued her enslaver, purchased land, and dictated her will. Rather than a triumphal narrative of the founding generation's exceptional commitment to human rights, these documents provide a glimpse into a very different revolution, one in the legal-cultural concept of legal personhood
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |