An enslaved woman self-petitioned for freedom and won despite her enslaver’s appeal

Evidence

Once Beckett learned the truth, however, she returned to the district with her children in early May and self-petitioned for her certificate of freedom in late July. Testifying in support of her petition were several white people as well as Harriet Williams, who said, “I know this woman. These are her children. I was raised with them. They with me belonged to Mrs Bibb.” Her petition was quickly approved. Roughly two months later Bibb asked the commissioners to reverse their decision. Beckett must have been terrified that she would fall back into slavery’s hands when the commission agreed to reopen the case in mid-September. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 108