” OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : BRIDGET “BIDDY” MASON

It’s really mind blowing thinking about how even though Negroes had their wives “raped” by their slaveowners, had their children “sold” out from under them, and were constantly “whipped and beaten” by their slaveowners, they still found a way to be highly successful. Bridget “Biddy” Mason was able to achieve so much, inspite of the fact that she was born into slavery. She was born on August 15, 1818 in Hancock County Georgia. When Bridget was a young child she was sold to a White man, and was eventually given or sold to a White couple( Robert and Rebecca Smith, sometime in the 1840s ). She had three girls, who were said to have been fathered by her new slaveowner[ Robert Smith ]. During her teenage years, Bridget learn skills as a mid-wife, domestic and agricultural, and even herbal medicine. A big turning point in her life came in 1847, when her slaveowners took up the Mormon Religion and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. The reason it was a big turning point was because while staying in Utah, the slaveowner met a church leader . The church leader convinced the slaveowner to move to California; a state which just happened to be declared a “FREE STATE”{ so, you see, some slaves were already FREE in some states, before the American Civil War & Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation }. Sometime after Robert Smith moved Bridget and his family to San Bernardino California, and before January 21, 1856, the county Sheriff and a few other White men served Robert Smith with a court order( about freeing Bridget and her 3 children ). A Los Angeles court heard the habeas corpus action regarding her freedom. Since Bridget was a Negro, according to law, she was not allowed to testify in court against her White owner! After Bridget’s owner failed to appear in court on January 21, 1856, the judge presiding over the case, Ben I Hayes freed Bridget and her girls[ in 1860, she recieved a certified copy of the document that guaranteed their freedom ]. After winning her freedom, Bridget took up work as a mid-wife/ nurse delivering babies{ her herbal medicines were of great help during the “Smallpox Epidemic” of the 1860s, in Los Angeles, California, which all but eliminated the Indian population! of Los Angeles }. Bridget was one of the first Negroes in Los Angeles, California to actually own her own land! In 1866, she purchased a nearly one-acre site between present-day Broadway (then Fort Street) and Spring Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets. On this, the present day location of “The Biddy Mason Memorial Park,” she built her homestead. Through her real-estate holdings alone, she amassed a huge fortune! In Addition to being a wealthy businesswoman, Bridget was instrumental in founding a “traveler’s aid Center,” and a school and day care center for Negro children. In 1872, along with her White son-in-law Charles Owens and other Black residents of Los Angeles, Bridget was a founding member of “The First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles”[ it was the city's first Black church, and she even donated the land on which the church was built ]. On top of that, Bridget also helped to establish the first elementary school for Black children in Los Angeles! She use to say,”If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in. The open hand is blessed, for it gives in abundance, even as it receives." On January 15, 1891, Bridget “Biddy” Mason died and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery{ in the neighborhood of Boyle Heights }. Furthermore, near the site of Mason's home lies a 82-foot-long installation in her honor( the concrete wall contains embedded objects that tell the story of her life ). In 1989, the local city officials named a city park located on the site of her former home in Los Angeles, California in her honor[ it is named “The Biddy Mason Memorial Park.”].