FREEBORN - Elizabeth Tootle's Proper Place
Elizabeth's life progressed from bad to worse by the start of the Revolutionary War, for around the time of her coming of age, her owner passed away after he bequeathed her to his son-in-law. Within a year of becoming the new owner’s slave, Elizabeth gave birth to her first of three children, all likely fathered by him. Elizabeth was his property to do with as he wished. While she struggled daily within the restrictions of slavery, she learned of her (free born) history from a local townswoman familiar with the circumstances surrounding Elizabeth’s birth. Those revelations set Elizabeth on a long path to reclaim the freedom with which she was born.
Amidst the rising tension, Elizabeth secured a lawyer who filed a “Petition for Freedom” lawsuit on her behalf. The filing established the setting for a jury trial with the expressed purpose of settling the question of Elizabeth’s freedom.
Winning the case would prove to be an uphill battle. The national movement to eradicate slavery was losing momentum, and North Carolina required all its jurors to be slaveholding citizens. Any common man on the street would likely have said that it was insane for a Black woman to file a lawsuit against a white man in North Carolina, but this is the path that Elizabeth took.