Great Barrington unveils Elizabeth Freeman informational kiosk in front of Town Hall
GREAT BARRINGTON - In a ceremony hosted by the Du Bois Freedom Center, the town unveiled an informational kiosk on the life of Elizabeth Freeman at Town Hall on Saturday, August 22.
Born into slavery in Claverack-Red Mills, N.Y., around 1744, Freeman sued for her freedom and won it in 1781, more than 80 years before the Emancipation Proclamation became law in January 1863. She died in Stockbridge in 1829.
In August 2022, Sheffield unveiled an eight-foot-tall bronze statueand a plaque on the town’s Village Green paying homage to Freeman.
In October 2023, Great Barrington held a dedication ceremony for Elizabeth Freeman Way, co-naming Castle Street—which runs alongside Town Hall.
Smith, 33, is the deputy director of the Du Bois Freedom Center, a nonprofit transforming the A.M.E. Zion Church into an interactive museum of Du Bois and other prominent Black individuals in the Berkshires.
The courthouse in which Freeman sued for her freedom once stood where Town Hall is located now.
Co-designed with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and their W.E.B. Du Bois Center, the informational kiosk features original art of Freeman created by students from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and its Center for Art and Community Partnerships.“For all of [Du Bois’] intelligence, his creativity, his moral vision, it's important for us to understand the ways in which that was shared by the community he invested himself in,” Smith said.
“This day has been a long time coming,” Du Bois Freedom Center Interim Executive Director John Lloyd said at the event. “[Freeman] brought a case for freedom before a court that once stood right here where we are gathered, and she asked the Massachusetts Constitution to mean what it said: that all people are born free and equal. Her case set Massachusetts on the path to ending slavery in 1783, eight decades before the rest of the nation.”
Lloyd said that, while W.E.B. Du Bois’ and Freeman’s lives did not overlap, they both fought in the same struggle for freedom. “One used the courtroom, while the other used the classroom and a pen,” Lloyd said. “Both understood something in common: It’s that freedom isn’t inherited; it’s built generation after generation by people willing to insist that the promise be kept. This is exactly why the Du Bois Freedom Center exists—not as an institution you visit once and leave behind, but as a living memorial, a space for reflection, education, and the kind of exchange that connects this small Berkshire town to a much larger conversation about democracy, equity, and freedom, and that is exactly what this kiosk is.”
“Today is really more than just an unveiling of a beautiful piece of public history; it is about recognizing who we are as a community and the stories we choose to tell,” Town Manager Liz Hartsgrove said in her speech. “Nearly 245 years ago, on this very site, Elizabeth Freeman stood before the courts and challenged the institution of slavery, armed not with wealth or political influence, but with courage and an unwavering belief that the promise of the Constitution applied to her as well. She helped change the course of history.”
In her speech, State Rep. Leigh Davis (D – 3rd Berkshire District) spoke about her father Lloyd Davis, who worked at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1980 as its executive vice president and chief operating officer. He would later serve as the executive director of the federal King Holiday Commission, helping to implement Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a federal holiday. “When we recognize great people such as Elizabeth Freeman and Du Bois, this makes our community stronger because we are recognizing the power before us,” Davis said. “Their lives tell us the story that our voice matters, our courage matters, and one person can change the course of history. To have this history in Great Barrington and what they have done for our community is so amazing. To have a community that uplifts our history is just unbelievably strong.”
Davis added that she is working on legislation to commemorate August 22 as Elizabeth Freeman Day across Massachusetts.
In his speech, State Sen. Paul Mark (D – Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire District) stressed the importance of knowing and understanding history. “As we sit here in this 250th year of the independence of the United States and approach the 250th year of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the oldest functioning democratic constitution in the world, it is important to consider an important part of the fabric of our shared American history: the oppression of slavery and the fight to overcome and destroy that oppression,” State Sen. Mark said. “That is what we’ve done in the 150 years since the end of the Civil War. The 13th Amendment made sure that this type of oppression is rooted out and destroyed in every corner of this state, of this country, and ideally throughout this world. Elizabeth Freeman said to us that she would rather die than spend one minute in slavery, and she would rather die preventing anybody else from being oppressed like that. I hope that is a message that people around this state and around this country will remember, because it is easy to forget the lessons of slavery, the lessons of oppression, the lessons of Jim Crow and segregation.”
