Bridget “Biddy” Mason an Exceptional Black Woman of the Old West

By Makheru Bradley

Bridget “Biddy” Mason was born into Chattel Slavery on August 15, 1818. Some historical accounts say that she was born in Hancock County, Georgia while others say that she was born in Mississippi. After being sold several times, Mason, in 1836, became the property of a Mormon couple, Mississippi plantation owners Robert and Rebecca Smith.

The Smith’s followed a Mormon call to move west in 1847. They forced Biddy Mason and 13 other enslaved Afrikans to move with them. Mason, then age 32, walked 1,700 miles from Mississippi to Utah tending cattle behind her master’s 300-wagon caravan.

After four years in Utah, Robert Smith decided to move his family and his enslaved Afrikans to California, despite being warned that California had entered the Union as a free state, meaning Chattel Slavery was illegal there. Biddy Mason learned that she was being illegally enslaved through free Black people she met in California.

In 1855, Robert Smith out of fear that he would lose his property attempted to flee to Texas with Mason and his other slaves. Two friends of Mason alerted the sheriff who apprehended Smith before he could escape.

Per the Los Angeles Times: Mason and the other slaves were put in jail under protective custody. She was eventually taken to see Judge Benjamin Hayes in his private chambers where she told him about their travels to California and Smith’s refusal to set them free. In January 1856, Smith testified that Mason and the other slaves were only traveling companions. The day after Smith testified, Hayes granted Mason her freedom.

Free at last, Biddy Mason and her three daughters (possibly fathered by Robert Smith) moved to Los Angeles where Biddy worked as a nurse and midwife. She saved her money and bought a home at 311 Spring Street, becoming one of the first Black women to own land in Los Angeles From her Spring Street home, Mason began holding church meetings and organizing what would become First AME Church. Founded in 1872, First AME Church is the oldest Afrikan American church in Los Angeles, and it was built on property Biddy Mason owned.

Some of Biddy’s clients gave her land as payment for delivering their children. She also purchased large tracts of land in what is now downtown Los Angeles, eventually selling most of it for commercial development. Mason built a commercial building with rental spaces on some of her remaining property. By today’s standards, Biddy Mason, a formerly enslaved Afrikan accumulated wealth that was estimated to be worth as much as $3 million. Mason’s grandson, Robert Curry Owens, a real estate developer and politician, was the wealthiest Afrikan American in Los Angeles at one time.

Never forgetting where she came from, Mason became a philanthropist. Per Women In History, she “generously donated money to charities, delivered gifts to prison inmates, and provided food and shelter to the poor of all races. Needy people often lined up in front of 331 South Spring Street. One source says she also ran an orphanage in her house.”

Biddy Mason died on January 15, 1891, at the age of 73. In 1988, Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley led a ceremony with 3,000 First AME members to erect a tombstone marking Biddy Mason’s gravesite. On August 18, 2018, a celebration was held at Biddy Mason Memorial Park, on the site of her former home in Los Angeles, to honor the legacy of Biddy Mason on her 200th birthday. That event was organized by the Biddy Mason Charitable Foundation and Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation of Los Angeles. The park includes an 81-foot long concrete wall with a timeline detailing Mason’s history in Los Angeles, and a collage reminiscent of Mason’s original wood-frame home. This was a fitting tribute to a truly extraordinary person, Bridget Biddy Mason.

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