Historical Event
Brom and Bett v. Ashley Verdict (August 22, 1781)
On August 22, 1781, a Massachusetts jury ruled in favor of Bett, an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley, and a man named Brom, finding that the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution's declaration that "all men are born free and equal" was incompatible with slavery. Represented by lawyer Theodore Sedgwick, Bett had sought him out after enduring violence in the Ashley household, and her victory, decided alongside the similar Quock Walker case that same year, is credited with judicially ending slavery in Massachusetts. Bett took the name Elizabeth Freeman and lived free for nearly five more decades.
Why This Matters
This verdict matters because it shows a state's founding constitutional language being tested and enforced from the bottom up, by an enslaved woman who insisted the words be taken literally. Freeman's case set a legal precedent that helped end slavery in Massachusetts through the courts rather than legislation, a model of judicial abolition that resonates through the diaspora's long history of forcing written promises of equality to actually mean something.
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