Jenny Slew

Jenny Slew, of Ipswich, was the first enslaved American to win her freedom through a jury trial. Facing tremendous odds, she sued her enslaver twice, losing her first suit in 1765 but winning her second suit in 1766. Born free, Slew’s ordeal with slavery reveals the perils that Black Americans faced in colonial America, including in Massachusetts, and the political and social risks they took to retain or regain their freedom.