User:Pamelagrin

Elizabeth Key Grinstead- The first freed woman of African ancestry who fought and won her freedom. She was born in Warwick County Virginia in 1630. An illegitimate daughter of an enslaved black mother and a free white settler father, member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

Her lawsuit is one of the earliest freedom suits in the English colonies ever filed by a person with African ancestry.

Elizabeth won her freedom and that of her young son John Grinstead on July 21, 1656. Based on the premise that she should be freed because she could not enslaved since her father was of white English ancestry and that she was a baptized Christian. Based on these two interlinking factors she argued she could not be enslaved for life.

Elizabeth’s story Elizabeth Key or Kaye was born in 1630 to an unnamed black slave mother and Thomas Key, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Key represented pre-Revolutionary Warwick County (today's Newport News), but his wife lived across the James River in Isle of Wight County, where she owned considerable property.

The Keys were English-born and likely considered "ancient planters," pioneers, who had come to Virginia before 1616, remained for three years, paid their own passage and survived the Indian massacre of 1622.

At first, Thomas Key tried to deny that he had fathered Elizabeth, blaming instead an unidentified "Turk." Paternity became an issue years later when Elizabeth needed to prove in court that her father was a free man.

A man who knew the family, Nicholas Jurnew, 53, testified in 1655 that he had "heard a flying report at Yorke that Elizabeth a Negro Servant to the Estate of Col. John Mottrom (deceased) was the Childe of Mr. Kaye but ...Mr. Kaye said that a Turke of Capt. Mathewes was Father to the Girle." However, paternity was established.

Elizabeth Newman, 80, testified that "it was a common Fame in Virginia that Elizabeth a Molletto, now (e) servant to the Estate of Col. John Mottrom, deceased, was the Daughter of Mr. Kaye; and the said Kaye was brought to Blunt-Point Court and there fined for getting his Negro woman with Childe, which said Negroe was the Mother of the said Molletto, and the said fine was for getting the Negro with Childe which Childe was the said Elizabeth."

The court documents are pretty dramatic--and sometimes graphic--reading.

"The deposition of Alice Larrett aged 38 yeares or thereabouts Sworne and Examined Sayth that Elizabeth ...twenty five yeares of age or thereabouts and that I saw her mother goe to bed to her Master many times and that I heard her mother Say that shee was Mr. Keyes daughter."

Once paternity was established, Key didn't try to duck his duty again. Elizabeth, who was referred to as "Black Besse" in various legal documents of the period, was baptized in the Church of England. Sometime before his death in 1636, Key put Elizabeth in the custody of her godfather, Humphrey Higginson. Higginson was required to care for her as his own child and set her free in nine years when she was 15 years old.

During this period in early Virginia both black and white servants were likely to be indentured for a period of years and it was common for them to get their freedom. They lived, worked, ate, played together as true equals.

Elizabeth's case, her father did not intend for her to be kept as a slave, but for Higginson to be her guardian until she was of age.

It's not clear what happened, but Higginson did not keep his promise. He was obligated not only to care for her, but to take her with him if he were to return to England. And he did return to England, but left Elizabeth behind and in the ownership of a Col. John Mottram, Northumberland County's first settler.

Elizabeth, at age 10 in about 1640, was one of the first non-native settlers in the wilderness of Northumberland County. Her future changed dramatically as Mottram took her 90 miles away from her birthplace to be a servant. She may have never seen her mother again. She was without a contract and, conceivably, could be a slave forever.

There is no record of Elizabeth's life for about the next 15 years, but beginning in 1650 events unfolded that would change Elizabeth's life forever and make her a figure in American history.

That year, Mottram brought a group of 20 men, white indentured servants from England, to Coan Hall, his estate in Northumberland County. For every sponsored servant, a Virginian would receive 50 acres of land. Each indenture would serve for six years.

Among those indentures was 16-year-old William Grinstead, a young lawyer. Although Grinstead's parents aren't known, it's likely that he was a younger son of an attorney who learned his father's trade. Under English common law, only the eldest son could inherit the father's property, and many younger sons sought their fortunes across the Atlantic.

Mottram soon recognized Grinstead's value and had him represent him in legal matters. And it was at Coan Hall that Grinstead met Elizabeth Key. They fell in love and had two sons, John and William, but indentures could not be married. And Elizabeth's future was uncertain without freedom.

When Mottram died in 1655, Grinstead went to work. He sued the estate for Elizabeth's freedom. She had been a servant for 19 years--15 for Mottram.

The court granted her freedom, but the decision was appealed to a higher court, which overturned the decision and ruled that Elizabeth was a slave.

Grinstead took the case to the Virginia General Assembly, which appointed a committee to investigate and decided to send the case back to the courts for retrial.

Elizabeth finally won her freedom on three counts. By English common law, the status of the father determined the status of the child. As Elizabeth's father was free, she was also set free...

She not only gained her freedom, but the court ordered Mottram's estate to compensate her with corn and clothes for her lost years.

When William won the court battle for Elizabeth's freedom, they were not free to marry, as he was still a servant himself. They had to wait until he completed his indenture in 1656.

Elizabeth and William had two sons, John and William. William unfortunately died an early death in 1661. Elizabeth remarried a widower John Parse, and upon his death, she and her two sons inherited 500 acres guaranteeing their future.

In a bitter turn of history and no doubt a side effect of the Elizabeth Key Grinstead freedom suit, Virginia colonial law passed in December 1662 by Virginia House of Burgesses ordered Negro women’s children to serve according to the condition of the mother. The statute was a dramatic departure from the English tradition in which a child received his or her status from his or her father. This law set into motion the enslavement of all blacks in the United States for another 204 years until 1865 when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution outlaws slavery.