Jenny Slew (at Ebsco Mural)

Jenny Slew was born about 1719 to one white parent and one black parent. She lived as a free woman for most of her life until 1762 when she was kidnapped and enslaved for 3 years by John Whipple Jr. of Ipswich. Slew took Whipple to court to sue for her freedom, claiming that he had no authority to hold her against her will. The court ruled in favor of Whipple, but Slew appealed the decision. This time, the jury ruled in her favor. Slew was granted her freedom and 4 pounds in damages from Whipple (21 pounds less than she initially asked for). John Adams attended the trial that was held in Salem and noted that it was the first of its kind that he had ever known. It was among the first successful suits for freedom that would lead to the abolition of slavery in the state of Massachusetts in the 1780s. The mural by Alan Pearsall at the Esbco building reimagines the moment when Slew receives payment of damages from Whipple.

Sources:

Jenny Slew and Elizabeth Freeman http://onehistory.org/jenny.htm

Legal Papers of John Adams, Vol. 2
http://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/LJA02dg7

Waters, Thomas Franklin, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, v. 2. Ipswich Historical Society, Salem, MA (1917), p. 217.