Random Musings by beYOUteous (Spring 2024)

RANDOM MUSINGS

A MAGAZINE BY BEYOUTEOUS

IELIZABETH FREEMAN

First Enslaved African American Freed Under the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780

t’s believed that Elizabeth Freeman (Baumfree), was born between 1742-1744, to enslaved African American parents in Claverack, New York. At 6 months old, she and her sister Lizzie were sold to Colonel John Ashley on a straw covered bed carried by a sleigh.

Mumbet, as she was called, and Lizzie worked in the Ashley House.

One day, after hearing a harsh sound growing louder, she opened the pantry door and saw her sister crouched on the floor with Colonel Ashley’s wife towering above her wielding a heavy iron shovel glowing red with heat from the fireplace. Mumbet lunged forward to ward off the blow and felt the metal edge hit her arm before the shovel fell on the hearthstone.

She knew that the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. Despite, she was neither free nor treated as equal. She decided that if all people were born free and equal, then the laws must apply to her, too.

Mumbet went to meet with Theodore Sedgwick, a lawyer, with her daughter, Little Bet, in her arms. Sedgewick agreed to take her case, which was joined by her husband, another of Ashley’s slaves, a man

called Brom (James Baumfree).

Brom & Bett v. Ashley was argued before a county court in August 1871. Ruled in their favor, Mumbet and Brom became the first enslaved African Americans to be freed under the Massachusetts constitution of 1780.

Colonel Ashley was ordered to pay the sum of “thirty shillings lawful silver money damages, and the cost of this suit taxed at six pounds fourteen shillings and pour pence like money.”

Mumbet died December 28, 1829. The Sedgwick family thought she was 85 years old. Like many other slaves, she never learned to read or write.

Her will reveals a daughter named Elizabeth, known as Little Bet, who would grow up to be Sojourner Truth; a granddaughter named Marianne Dean, greatgrandchildren Mary Elizabeth Dean, Wealthy Ann Dean, Lydia Maria Ann Van Schaack, and Amos Josiah Van Schaack.

Mumbet married young, at which point she changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman, but everyone called her Bet. Her husband died in the revolutionary war soon after and she remained a widow.

She was buried in the in Sedgwick cemetery lot in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Named after his grandfather who was shot dead by Native Americans in 1786 while planting a field of corn, Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in a cabin with one window, one door, and a chimney three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky.

His father Thomas Lincoln was born in Rockingham County, Virginia on January 6, 1778. Not much is known about the background of his mother, Nancy Hanks. It’s believed that she was born out of wedlock to Lucy Hanks (n. February 5, 1784), who later married Henry Sparrow.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: ISSUING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

His father Thomas Lincoln was born in Rockingham County, Virginia on January 6, 1778. Not much is known about the background of his mother, Nancy Hanks. It’s believed that she was born out of wedlock to Lucy Hanks (n. February 5, 1784), who later married Henry Sparrow.

As a child, Abraham was saved from drowning in a creek by a neighbor. He grew up running errands on the farm, chopping wood, carrying water, weeding the garden, picking grapes and wild berries, and planting seeds.

He educated himself by borrowing books and newspapers to read. While there weren’t many, some included Weem’s Life of Washington, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, Grimshaw’s History of the United States, the Kentucky Preceptor, The Arabian Nights, Lessons in Elocution, and he came to develop a love of poetry (Shakespeare, Robert Burns).

Physical labor on the farm had given him a tough lean body with muscular arms. By the time he was 16-years old, Abraham Lincoln was 6-feet-tall.

At the age of 19, he contracted with a local merchant named James Gentry to take a cargo to New Orleans. There he would see black men, women and children driven along in chains and auctioned off.

At the at of 23, Lincoln ran for Illinois state legislature. He would self-study for three years before passing his exams and being admitted to practice law.

Lincoln married Mary Ann Todd, whom he affectionately called Mother, on November 5, 1842 and they would have three sons; Eddie in 1846, Willie in 1850, and Thomas (Tad) in 1853. He’s said to have been absent-minded, perpetually late for meals, moody and cared little for social niceties that were important to his wife.

Abraham Lincoln took office in Congress in 1847 in Washington, D.C.—a town of 34,000 people. From the windows of the Capitol, he could see crowded slave markets where manacled African Americans waited to be shipped south.

Lincoln was elected President November 6, 1860, in an election that upset many Southerners. He believed that slavery was wrong yet during his campaign, promised not to end it in the south where slavery was made even more profitable with Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793. In the early 1790s, Southern plantations produced about 3,000 bales of cotton every year. By the 1860s, that amount had risen to 4 million bales a year.

During his term, Lincoln received threatening letters almost every day which were filed in an envelope marked “assassination.”

“I long ago made up my mind that if anyone wants to kill me, he will do it,” he told a newspaper reporter.

Despite Lincoln’s promise to the southern states, even before being sworn into office, 11 branched off forming a new nation called the Confederate States of America. On April 12, 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, beginning the Civil War.

On July 4, 1861, Lincoln addressed the U.S. Congress stating that the Civil War was about human liberty… that its outcome would decide whether the democratic system of government established after the American Revolution (1775-1783) could be preserved.

An early version of the Declaration of Independence contained an antislavery passage which was taken out of the final version since not all states would’ve signed if the declaration did not allow slavery.

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863 as the United States approached the third year of the Civil War. As he put pen to paper, he wrote out his full name.

“If my name ever goes into history,” he said, “it will be for this act.” He was denounced by many, including northern democrats who had no interest in freeing slaves.

“You say you will not fight to free Negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you… Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing or them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept.”

When asked to change his emancipation policy, he replied: “I am a slow walker, but I never walk backward.”

The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” This granted freedom to slaves living in states at war with the Union. Since slave owners in the Confederate states did not feel that they were part of the United States,

they did not feel they had to obey.

It also stated that African Americans could serve in the military as soldiers—previously only as cooks and labors. Many enlisted in the Union Army with hopes that a Union victory in the war would end slavery.

By the end of the war, almost 200,000 African Americans had joined to fight for the Union. About 135,000 were former slaves. White privates were paid $13 per month while African Americans received $7 per month.

On April 9, 1865, the Confederate Army surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia.

President Lincoln would be assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth while watching a play at Ford’s Theater on April 14.

Booth then jumped from the box to the stage 12-feet below, breaking the shinbone of his left leg. The bullet had entered Lincoln’s skull above his left ear, through his brain, and lodged behind his right eye. He died 7:22am on April 15 at the age of 56.

When Tad Lincoln heard of the assassination, he cried, “They killed my pa! They killed my pa!”

On June 19, 1865, Union troops entered Galveston where Major General Gordon Grander called all the slaves together and read them a shortened version of the Emancipation Proclamation.

After that day, Texas African Americans began celebrating June 19—now a federal holiday—as Juneteeth Day, a kind of Independence Day for African Americans.

The Emancipation Proclamation brought about three new constitutional amendments from 1865 and 1870:

• The 13th Amendment which made slavery permanently illegal in the United States.

• The 14th Amendment which states that anyone born in the United States was automatically a U.S. citizen.

• The 15th Amendment which gave all male citizens the right to vote.

“Those dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom—and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

ACROSS

5) Arc

8) Its two sides are the same

9) Number unit

11) Quarter of a circle

12) Pythagorean, for example

16) Amount

17) Power symbol

18) Nothing at all

19) Part of a sum

ACROSS DOWN

5) Arc

8) Its two sides are the same

9) Number unit

11) Quarter of a circle

12) Pythagorean, for example

16) Amount

17) Power symbol

18) Nothing at all

19) Part of a sum

1) 3 or 5, to 15

2) Triangle corner

FreeCrosswordPuzzle,Compliments

3) It's the denominator

4) Dime, to a dollar

6) Rough calculation

7) Plane class

10) X or Y, in an equation

11) Division result

13) Repeated

14) Part of whole number

15) Chart

FreeCrosswordPuzzle,Complimentsof©Memory-Improvement-Tips.com

ACROSS DOWN

5) Arc

8) Its two sides are the same

9) Number unit

11) Quarter of a circle

12) Pythagorean, for example

16) Amount

17) Power symbol

18) Nothing at all

19) Part of a sum

FreeCrosswordPuzzle,Complimentsof©

DARK AND STORMY COCKTAIL

INGREDIENTS

• 2 ounces rum

• ½ ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed

• Ginger beer, to top (about 5 ounces)

• Garnish: lime wheel

DIRECTIONS

1. Add rum and lime juice to a tall glass filled with ice.

2. Top with the ginger beer.

3. Garnish with a lime wheel.

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GYOZ A (JAPANESE DUMPLINGS)

INGREDIENTS FOR THE GYOZA SKINS

• 10 ½ oz strong white flour, plus extra for rolling

• ½ tsp fine salt

• 7 fl oz boiling water

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHICKEN OR PORK FILLING

• 1 lb 2oz pork or chicken mince

• 1 head pak choi, very finely shredded

• ¾ in piece fresh root ginger, peeled, grated

• 3 garlic cloves, peeled, grated

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

• 1 tbsp chopped spring onion (green part only)

• ½ tsp ground chilli flakes

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

• pinch sugar

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE

• splash soy sauce

• splash lime juice

• splash chilli oil

DIRECTIONS

1. For the gyoza skins, sift the flour into a large bowl and mix in the salt.

2. Stir in the boiling water using a knife or a pair of chopsticks until the mixture comes together as a dough. (You many not need to use all of the water.)

3. Roll the dough into a ball, cover with cling film and set aside to rest for one hour.

4. Meanwhile, for the chicken or pork filling, mix all of the chicken or pork filling ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until well combined. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Chill in the fridge until needed.

5. For the gyoza skin, turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for five minutes until smooth and elastic.

6. Cut the dough into three equally sized pieces and roll each into a ball. Roll out one of the balls onto a lightly floured work surface, stretching and turning the dough as you go, until the gyoza dough is as thin as possible.

7. Using a 4 in cookie cutter, cut discs from the gyoza dough and stack them on top of each other, dusting the top of each with a little flour before adding the next one. Repeat the rolling and cutting process until all of the dough has been used.

8. To assemble the dumplings, hold a gyoza skin in the palm of your hand and add one teaspoon of the filling mixture. Wet the edges with a little water using your fingertip and seal the dumpling, pinching along the edges to create a pleated fan effect. Repeat the process until all of the filling mixture and gyoza skins have been used up, setting each dumpling aside on a plate dusted with flour.

9. To cook the dumplings, heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan with a lid over a high heat. Arrange the gyoza in the pan, in batches if necessary, leaving space between each one, and fry for 2-3 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden-brown. Take care as they will burn quickly.

10. Add 3 ½ fl oz of water to the pan, cover with the lid and steam the dumplings for a further two minutes.

11. Give the pan a shake to release the gyoza from the bottom of the pan and continue to cook for a further two minutes with the lid off, until the filling is completely cooked through.

12. Meanwhile, for the dipping sauce, mix all of the dipping sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, to taste. Set aside.

13. When the gyoza are cooked through, drizzle the sesame oil around the edges of the frying pan and shake the pan.

14. Serve the gyoza immediately with the dipping sauce.