A picture of the house owned by Freeman before she died.
- Title of the Document
- A picture of the house owned by Freeman before she died.
- One Line Summary
- A house owned by Elizabeth Freemen post emancipation, which she lived in after retiring as the caretaker of the Sedgewicks.
- Author
- Elizabeth Freeman
- Date Created
- 1803
- Location
- Berkshire county, Sheffield, Massachusetts.
- Type of Document
- Land
- Transcription
- This simple wooden house in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, became Elizabeth Freeman’s home after she gained her freedom and worked for many years as a paid domestic and healer. In 1803, she bought the property, an extraordinary achievement for a formerly enslaved Black woman in early America. Freeman lived here with her children and grandchildren, creating a space of independence and legacy. The house reflects not just her perseverance but her place in history as a free woman who shaped her own future.
- Related
- Although accounts passed down suggest that Freeman lived in the house with her children and grandchildren until her death, little detailed information about her life in the home has been documented.
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Elizabeth Freeman (1744-1829)
- Provenance
- The Picture of the House of Elizabeth Freeman, 2023, Bidwell House Museum, Monterey, Massachusetts.