There are lesser known stories of enslaved men and women who fought for their freedom in court. Elizabeth Key was at the center of one of the most important colonial court cases involving slavery. Henrietta Wood made history when she sued the man who kidnapped and enslaved her.

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Episode Sources

Elizabeth Key. Women in History. Accessed January 10,2023

Elizabeth Key. Library of Virginia. Accessed January 13, 2023

The Case of Elizabeth Key, 1655/1656 Northumberland County Record Books, 1652-1658, fols. 66-67, 85; 1658-1660, fol. 28; Northumberland County Order Book, 1652-1665, fols. 40, 46, 49. University of Chicago

Taunya Lovell Banks, "Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit - Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia", 41 Akron Law Review 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland. 

Sweet Taste of Liberty Open Source Notebook. Caleb McDaniel. Accessed January 14, 2023

In 1870, Henrietta Wood Sued for Reparations—and Won. Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed February 1, 2023

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