5/27/2023 0 Comments Elizabeth freemanand was the first slave, or one of the first, to be declared free under the Bill of Rights of 1780. Such a one was that cousin of my grandmother, whom western Massachusetts remembers as "Mum Bett." Scarred for life by a blow received in defense of a sister, she ran away. First and naturally they assumed the panoply of the ancient African mother of men, strong and black, whose very nature beat back the wilderness of oppression and contempt. "They came first, in earlier days, like foam flashing on dark, silent waters - bits of stern, dark womanhood here and there tossed almost carelessly aloft to the world's notice. DuBois wrote about Mum Bett in his 1920 book of essays, Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil.
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