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Courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Americana Collection
Courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Americana Collection
Sambo Freeman
Courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Americana Collection

Sambo Freeman

American, 1719 - 1797
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Place WorkedHolliston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Sambo Freeman (c. 1719–1797) was a Massachusetts master carpenter who co-organized the first collective legislative movement for abolition in American history. After purchasing his freedom in 1754, he joined a committee of Black activists in revolutionary Boston to dismantle institutional slavery. On April 20, 1773, Freeman co-signed a landmark freedom petition alongside Peter Bestes, Felix Holbrook, and Chester Joie. The document masterfully leveraged Patriot rhetoric to expose the hypocrisy of white colonists protesting British political oppression while maintaining actual chattel slavery.