How did Elizabeth Key, an enslaved woman in seventeenth century Virginia, secure her freedom via the judiciary?
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Elizabeth Key was the first woman of African ancestry in the American colonies to sue for her freedom from slavery and win. Elizabeth Key won her freedom and that of her infant son on July 21, 1656 in the colony of Virginia, in one of the earliest freedom suits in the colonies. She sued based on the fact that her father was an Englishman and that she was a baptized Christian. In this inquiry, students will examine the logic used in the case to understand her success.