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ELIZABETH KEY-A mixed-race slave living in 17th-century Virginia, Key sued for her freedom using a complex legal argument — and won. In 1655, after the death of her master, Key argued that she and her infant son should be classified not as slaves but as an indentured servant with a freeborn child. Though some have criticized Key for underplaying her blackness, hers is one of the earliest freedom suits in the English colonies filed by a person of African ancestry.
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