Biddy Mason

Common card · No. 248889

Bridget "Biddy" Mason (August 15, 1818 – January 15, 1891) was an American nurse, midwife, real estate entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Born into slavery, she successfully petitioned a California court for her freedom in 1856 and became one of the first African American women to own land in Los Angeles. Mason was a central figure in the early Black community there and was a founding member of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (First A.M.E.), the city's oldest African American church. Born in the American South, Mason was enslaved by Robert Smith, a convert to Mormonism who forced her and her three daughters west during the exodus of the Mormon pioneers. After living in the Utah Territory, the household moved to San Bernardino, California, in 1851. Although California was admitted to the Union as a free state, Smith attempted to hold Mason and her family in captivity and later planned to traffic them to the slave state of Texas. With the aid of the local Black community and legal...

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