Theodore Sedgwick agreed to take the case. he obtained a writ of replevin--an action taken for the recovery of property, from the Berkshire County Court of Common Pleas, in behalf of Bett and another Ashley slave, a man named Brom . . . The property of which Bett and Brom had been deprived, according to the writ, was their own persons. Colonel Ashley refused to relinquish what he considered his valid title to his slaves, and the case went to court on August 21, 1781. The plaintiffs declared that they were being detained in illegal bondage; Colonel Ashley insisted that they were indeed his "servants for life." The jury found that Bett and Brom were not Ashley's servants; they ordered him to pay thirty shillings in damages to the plaintiffs and over five five pounds in court costs as well. . . .

After the trial Mum Bett renamed herself. The last name she chose, fittingly enough, was freeman. She rejected Colonel Ashley's request that she return to his household; instead she became a loving and much-loved nurse to Theodore Sedgwick's growing family. the widow of a Revolutionary War soldier, she never remarried; she had one daughter and,  eventually, a number of grandchildren.