Portrait Stories: African Americans and the Founding Era | BRIdge from the Past
What can portraits reveal about African Americans during the Founding Era? In this week's BRIdge from the Past, Mary explores what a miniature portrait of Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman, a formerly enslaved woman turned paid domestic servant, can tell us about her life and the lives of other African Americans during this time.
0:00 Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Bridge from the Past art Across US history. I’m your host Mary, and this series is for students like you to get ahead in your US. History class by using art as a point of departure to think about big and messy concepts and questions in US. History. Today, we’re looking at a portrait to think about what it can and can’t tell
0:23 us about African Americans in the founding era. How can we connect founding principles of liberty and equality to a tiny picture that’s over 200 years old? Let’s jump in and see. Here is our artwork for today. This is a miniature portrait of Elizabeth Freeman, or Mumbet.
0:45 And it is a watercolor on ivory by an artist named Susan Ann Livingston Ridgeley Sedgwick from 1811. So my starting question was, what could this portrait tell us about African Americans in the founding era? So, right off the bat, I can see that this is a portrait of an African American woman. I can see that her name is
1:06 Elizabeth Freeman from the title, and it was painted in 1811. So this is sort of after the founding era, but I’m assuming she must have lived through the founding era. She looks to be like an elderly woman. I could see some white hair peeking out from her cap.
1:26 I don’t know. I mean, I have really more questions than anything else. I can see that it says this is a miniature portrait. So I’m wondering, what was this for? Why was she painted? What’s her story? So this isn’t a giant picture like Washington crossing the Delaware or surrender at Yorktown. It’s a woman, and it’s very small.
1:49 So what’s her story? Why was she painted? I really have more questions than anything else. So let’s take a step back and think about the bigger picture context about the founding era before we can think about Mumbet and what she can reveal about African Americans during this time. So I’ve said the founding era a few times
2:10 now, so let me clarify what I mean by that. So, the founding era is just that when we are founded as a new sovereign nation, the birth of the United States. So we would start that with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, this wonderfully philosophical breakup letter where the American columnists say we’re no longer going to be
2:32 part of the British Empire because they violated our natural rights. So I’ve also talked about this idea of founding principles. So founding principles are these wonderful principles found in the Declaration of Independence and also in state constitutions. So the the preamble of the Declaration of Independence is very familiar.
2:55 We hold these truths to be self evident. All men are created equal. They’re endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So that’s the starter to us declaring independence from Great Britain. But other state constitutions in the same time period. Seize on this language.
3:15 So, I’m using the Massachusetts constitution from 1780 as an example. Article one of the Massachusetts constitution states, 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.
3:37 So, we have these ideas of liberty and equality, but we also have slavery. So how can we reconcile this right? If we’re talking about African Americans in the founding era, we have these principles, but we also have this massive violation of these principles of liberty and equality, and that is the existence of slavery.
3:59 Here is where Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman’s portrait comes in. So, the story of the founding and the story of slavery is very complex. And Elizabeth Freeman is an example of petitioning as a path to freedom. So, petitioning is officially bringing a grievance or request to a governing body.
4:20 So, this is a long standing tradition in Great Britain. It carries over to the American colonies. It’s basically like formally complaining. And I love complaining. Who doesn’t love to complain? But in this case, Elizabeth Freeman and others are going to formally petition for their freedom. It’s a path to freedom, one of many paths to freedom.
4:41 So let’s go back to her portrait and think about her story. So, again, like many born into a life of slavery, not much is known about Elizabeth Freeman’s early life. But we do know, again from records that in 1746, she became the property of a wealthy
5:06 Sheffield, Massachusetts, resident named John Ashley. So, again, in the United States, you have this idea of hereditary race based chattel slavery. So, this idea that enslaved persons can be bought and sold like property and they inherit their status.
5:26 So, if your mother was a slave, that means that you are a slave. It doesn’t, regardless of who your father was. So, slavery is not new in world history, but the situation in the United States is very unique, and it also has a lot of variations across different communities and in different places. But we do know this woman, Elizabeth Freeman, she’s born into slavery.
5:50 And again, that Massachusetts constitution that I read you, that first article, that all men are born free and equal is put out in 1780. In that same year, Elizabeth Freeman petitions the Massachusetts legislature for her freedom. So, this is what I love about her story.
6:11 You have this idea, these ideas of liberty and equality and the Declaration of Independence and state constitutions. You have the Revolutionary War going on where we’re fighting for freedom. All these ideas are around, and you have your own experience of wanting your own freedom, wanting to be responsible for your own life and your own happiness.
6:32 And she goes to court with the help of the local abolitionist excuse me. And she secures her freedom, and she also secures 30 shillings and damages. So she used the court and she used those founding principles in that language to secure her own freedom. And she becomes the domestic servant of the Sedgwick family, a paid domestic servant.
6:55 So that phrase, the Sedgwick family, sounds familiar because I can see the person who painted this was a member of the Sedgwick family before I said this was a miniature portrait. So this actual portrait is seven and a half by five and a half centimeters. So that’s about three by two inches. So it’s very small.
7:16 It’s an actual miniature portrait. And these miniature portraits would be painted so you could take them from place to place. So with the portrait of someone that you love, that you respect, that you want to keep with you. Elizabeth Freeman was a nurse to the Sedgwick children, and she was especially close to the youngest daughter, Catherine Sedgwick.
7:37 And in 1853, Catherine Sedgwick actually writes about Elizabeth Freeman’s life. But we don’t have any words of Elizabeth Freeman herself. I want to zero in here for a second on this is one of my favorite parts or an interesting part of the story she’s wearing. You can see she has on looks like pearls or gold beads.
8:00 These are in fact, it’s a gold beaded necklace. And the necklace, after Elizabeth Freeman dies, it goes to the youngest daughter that she was close with, Catherine Sedgwick. And Catherine Sedgwick actually has her necklace made into a bracelet that she can wear.
8:20 And you can see on the class that says Mumbet. So I love this idea. And these images are from the Massachusetts historical society, the portrait and Freeman’s necklace. So I love this idea. If you think about my grandmother gave me a pearl necklace and a ring. It’s something. It’s very dear to me.
8:41 I loved her, and she’s no longer with me, but it’s like a piece of her that I still have with her. And I think that this necklace is an interesting part of the story of the love between Elizabeth Freeman and the Sedgwick family. And she’s actually buried in the Sedgwick plot. The other thing I can hinted at in this picture is that it’s the way she’s stressed.
9:03 She’s very neat, she’s very dignified. She was managed to buy her own home after she secures her Freeman, and she’s working as a paid servant. So she has financial independence, she has her actual independence. And I think her story, it’s one of thousands of stories.
9:24 And these stories are all varied and very complex and nuanced, but it’s still an important story to think about when we think about these founding principles and the lives of African Americans and the founding era. So I started with this question of what portraits can reveal about African Americans during the founding era.
9:47 But again, there’s a lot that they can’t reveal. As I said, the words of Elizabeth Freeman and the words of other men and women from this time period, we don’t have that many of them. And that’s important to note if you can tell your own story, that differs from having someone else tell your story. So it can raise really good questions,
10:07 but there’s still more questions to be answered. I would love to know what questions you have about this picture, about African Americans in the founding era, any of these things. Any questions or comments that come to mind, be sure to drop them in the comment box below. You can like and subscribe to our channel and check out other videos that we’ll have
10:29 coming to you every other Thursday throughout this fall. So thanks so much for joining us, guys. We’re out of time, but we’ll see you again soon with more art and more history. Take care.
