Sensei Aishitemasu | Hidden Figures: Biddy Mason #BlackHERstoryMonth 11/28 @SenseiAishitemasu | Uploaded February 2021 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
If you enjoy my work, please consider supporting! CashApp: $SerenSensei Patreon: patreon.com/seren_sensei
Biddy Mason (August 15, 1818 – January 15, 1891) was a Black American nurse, midwife, and Californian real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is the founder of the First A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles, California and was one of the first Black Americans to own land in Los Angeles. As a philanthropist, she cared for children, the poor, and the sick, including nursing many through a smallpox epidemic. Enslaved upon birth, she successfully petitioned a court for her freedom, one of the first enslaved Black Americans to do so.
Bridget "Biddy" Mason was born into slavery in 1818. During her teenage years, she learned domestic and agricultural skills, and developed expertise in herbal medicine and midwifery. Her knowledge proved extremely beneficial on the plantation, and Biddy was sold for a high price to Robert Smith in the 1840s. She was moved to the Smith plantation in Mississippi, where she became invaluable because of her knowledge of medicine, child care, and livestock care. While on the Smith plantation, Biddy had three children: Ellen, Ann, and Harriet.
Missionaries converted the Smiths to Mormonism in 1847. The Smiths decided to pilgrimage to Utah, with their enslaved forced to walk the 1,700 miles from Mississippi to Salt Lake Valley. After reaching Utah, the Smiths continued on to California, despite warnings from other Mormons that slavery was illegal there. In 1851, the Smiths and their enslaved arrived in California. They lived there for five years, with Biddy Mason and the other enslaved never being made aware of their free status in the state.
In 1856 Smith decided to move to the slave state of Texas. Fearful of being separated from her children, Biddy informed two Black men, Charles Owens and Manuel Pepper, of Smith’s plans to move them all, and the men gathered a band together, contacted the sheriff, and served Smith a court order for illegally keeping slaves in California. Upon learning of the laws in her state, Biddy Mason petitioned a Los Angeles court for her freedom and for the freedom of her extended family of thirteen. After Smith failed to appear in court on January 21, 1856, Biddy and her family members were freed.
Mason worked in L.A. as a nurse and midwife, and 10 years after getting her freedom, Mason had saved enough money to buy land in Los Angeles. As a businesswoman, she amassed a relatively large fortune of nearly $300,000, which she donated generously to charities for the poor and prisoners. She founded a traveler's aid center in Los Angeles along with a school and daycare for free Black children. The school served as the first elementary school for Black children in Los Angeles, and the daycare, which was open to children of all races who had nowhere else to go, the first child care center in LA. In 1872 Mason was a founding member of First African Methodist Episcopal (or First A.M.E.) Church of Los Angeles, the city's first Black church.
After her death in 1891, she was buried in an unmarked grave in Boyle Heights. On March 27, 1988 in a ceremony attended by the mayor of Los Angeles, the grave was marked with a tombstone. While the original building was demolished, her former church site is the location of Biddy Mason Park, a Los Angeles city park and site of an art installation describing her life. November 16 was declared Biddy Mason Day in Los Angeles in 1989.
#HiddenFigures #BiddyMason
******************
Merchandise! MAKE SURE U GETTA SHIRT!! teepublic.com/user/sssseren
shophouseof950.com/embroidery-tees/theblackamericans
shophouseof950.com/embroidery-tees/dacs?rq=d.a.c.s
Follow me on social media!
Instagram: @sensei_aishitemasu
Personal Tumblr: sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com
Tumblr for my work: sssseren.tumblr.com
GoFundMe: gofundme.com/tc5wh7q
******************
Did you know I wrote a book? ☺️ 'So, About That... A Year of Contemporary Essays on Race and Pop Culture'
Paperback: amazon.com/About-That-Contemporary-Essays-Culture-ebook/dp/B013V0CHK6
Kindle: amazon.com/dp/B013V0CHK6
Digital download (e-book): gumroad.com/l/IkUa
******************
Links:
Honoring the legacy and 200th birthday of slave-turned-entrepreneur Biddy Mason:
latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-biddy-mason-memorial-story-20180818-story.html
Biddy Mason Park:
https://dornsife.usc.edu/la-walking-tour/biddy-mason-park/
"Biddy Mason's Place: A Passage of Time:"
publicartinla.com/Downtown/Broadway/Biddy_Mason
From Slavery To Entrepreneur, Biddy Mason:
web.archive.org/web/20140506090944/aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/slavery-entrepreneur-biddy-mason
MASON V. SMITH (THE BRIDGET “BIDDY” MASON CASE):
blackpast.org/african-american-history/mason-v-smith-bridget-biddy-mason-case-1856
If you enjoy my work, please consider supporting! CashApp: $SerenSensei Patreon: patreon.com/seren_sensei
Biddy Mason (August 15, 1818 – January 15, 1891) was a Black American nurse, midwife, and Californian real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is the founder of the First A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles, California and was one of the first Black Americans to own land in Los Angeles. As a philanthropist, she cared for children, the poor, and the sick, including nursing many through a smallpox epidemic. Enslaved upon birth, she successfully petitioned a court for her freedom, one of the first enslaved Black Americans to do so.
Bridget "Biddy" Mason was born into slavery in 1818. During her teenage years, she learned domestic and agricultural skills, and developed expertise in herbal medicine and midwifery. Her knowledge proved extremely beneficial on the plantation, and Biddy was sold for a high price to Robert Smith in the 1840s. She was moved to the Smith plantation in Mississippi, where she became invaluable because of her knowledge of medicine, child care, and livestock care. While on the Smith plantation, Biddy had three children: Ellen, Ann, and Harriet.
Missionaries converted the Smiths to Mormonism in 1847. The Smiths decided to pilgrimage to Utah, with their enslaved forced to walk the 1,700 miles from Mississippi to Salt Lake Valley. After reaching Utah, the Smiths continued on to California, despite warnings from other Mormons that slavery was illegal there. In 1851, the Smiths and their enslaved arrived in California. They lived there for five years, with Biddy Mason and the other enslaved never being made aware of their free status in the state.
In 1856 Smith decided to move to the slave state of Texas. Fearful of being separated from her children, Biddy informed two Black men, Charles Owens and Manuel Pepper, of Smith’s plans to move them all, and the men gathered a band together, contacted the sheriff, and served Smith a court order for illegally keeping slaves in California. Upon learning of the laws in her state, Biddy Mason petitioned a Los Angeles court for her freedom and for the freedom of her extended family of thirteen. After Smith failed to appear in court on January 21, 1856, Biddy and her family members were freed.
Mason worked in L.A. as a nurse and midwife, and 10 years after getting her freedom, Mason had saved enough money to buy land in Los Angeles. As a businesswoman, she amassed a relatively large fortune of nearly $300,000, which she donated generously to charities for the poor and prisoners. She founded a traveler's aid center in Los Angeles along with a school and daycare for free Black children. The school served as the first elementary school for Black children in Los Angeles, and the daycare, which was open to children of all races who had nowhere else to go, the first child care center in LA. In 1872 Mason was a founding member of First African Methodist Episcopal (or First A.M.E.) Church of Los Angeles, the city's first Black church.
After her death in 1891, she was buried in an unmarked grave in Boyle Heights. On March 27, 1988 in a ceremony attended by the mayor of Los Angeles, the grave was marked with a tombstone. While the original building was demolished, her former church site is the location of Biddy Mason Park, a Los Angeles city park and site of an art installation describing her life. November 16 was declared Biddy Mason Day in Los Angeles in 1989.
#HiddenFigures #BiddyMason
******************
Merchandise! MAKE SURE U GETTA SHIRT!! teepublic.com/user/sssseren
shophouseof950.com/embroidery-tees/theblackamericans
shophouseof950.com/embroidery-tees/dacs?rq=d.a.c.s
Follow me on social media!
Instagram: @sensei_aishitemasu
Personal Tumblr: sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com
Tumblr for my work: sssseren.tumblr.com
GoFundMe: gofundme.com/tc5wh7q
******************
Did you know I wrote a book? ☺️ 'So, About That... A Year of Contemporary Essays on Race and Pop Culture'
Paperback: amazon.com/About-That-Contemporary-Essays-Culture-ebook/dp/B013V0CHK6
Kindle: amazon.com/dp/B013V0CHK6
Digital download (e-book): gumroad.com/l/IkUa
******************
Links:
Honoring the legacy and 200th birthday of slave-turned-entrepreneur Biddy Mason:
latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-biddy-mason-memorial-story-20180818-story.html
Biddy Mason Park:
https://dornsife.usc.edu/la-walking-tour/biddy-mason-park/
"Biddy Mason's Place: A Passage of Time:"
publicartinla.com/Downtown/Broadway/Biddy_Mason
From Slavery To Entrepreneur, Biddy Mason:
web.archive.org/web/20140506090944/aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/slavery-entrepreneur-biddy-mason
MASON V. SMITH (THE BRIDGET “BIDDY” MASON CASE):
blackpast.org/african-american-history/mason-v-smith-bridget-biddy-mason-case-1856
