Biddy Mason

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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 went on to become 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 authorities, Mason petitioned for her liberty. In a landmark 1856 ruling, Judge Benjamin Ignatius Hayes granted freedom to Mason and her extended family, declaring that they could not be held in bondage in a free state. Following her emancipation, Mason settled in Los Angeles, where she worked as a nurse and midwife, gaining renown for her herbal medical knowledge and service to the poor. Through frugal saving, she purchased property on Spring Street, becoming one of the first Black women in Los Angeles to own real estate. As the city grew, her property value ballooned, allowing her to amass sizable wealth. Mason used her fortune to establish a daycare center, a school for Black children, and the First A.M.E. Church, originally organized in her living room in 1872. Widely...