Hidden Brookline enthusiastically encourages your attendance at this moving one-woman play of a true Massachusetts story, brought to you by the MLK Celebration Committee
Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 6 PM
Hunneman Hall, Brookline Village Library
The Declaration of Independence said that it is self-evident that all “are created equal” and have “certain inalienable rights.” In 1781, an enslaved Massachusetts woman stood up to claim the promise of that bold statement.
One Minute of Freedom: Meet Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman, a one-person play featuring Tammy Denease (founder/director of the Hartford-based Hidden Women Stage Company). Denease brings to life Mumbet, a courageous enslaved woman in a Sheffield, Massachusetts home. In 1781, she won her freedom in court, a landmark victory that effectively ended slavery in Massachusetts and made her the first black woman in the United States to be set free from enslavement. Followed by a Q & A session.
Presented by the Town of Brookline’s MLK Celebration Committee in conjunction with the town’s 250th Anniversary Celebration of the Declaration of Independence and is cosponsored by the Town of Brookline Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations and the Brookline Public Library, in association with the Indigenous Peoples Celebrations Committee.
ASL interpretation will be provided. If you need other reasonable accommodations/language access, please email ODEICR@BrooklineMA.gov.
This event is free, but registration is required here
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The Mumbet Case— Learn more about the case of Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman on the state’s historical site, Massachusetts Constitution and the Abolition of Slavery.
