11/20/2025
She walked 1,700 miles barefoot while enslaved, carrying her baby the entire way—then became one of Los Angeles' wealthiest women and greatest philanthropists.
Bridget "Biddy" Mason's life began in the cruelest circumstances imaginable. Born into slavery in Georgia in 1818, she knew only bo***ge for the first three decades of her existence. But in 1847, everything changed—not for the better, but toward something she couldn't yet see: freedom.
Her enslaver decided to move west, and Biddy was forced to walk behind his wagon train for over 1,700 miles, from Mississippi to California. She walked through deserts and mountains, through storms and scorching heat. In her arms, she carried her infant daughter. Behind her walked her two other young girls. For months, they trudged forward with bleeding feet and breaking hearts, yet Biddy never stopped protecting her children.
When they finally reached California in 1851, Biddy discovered something extraordinary: California was a free state. Slavery was illegal there. But her enslaver had no intention of honoring that law.
So in 1856, Biddy Mason did the unthinkable.
She walked into a Los Angeles courtroom—a Black woman who couldn't read or write, in an era when Black people had almost no legal rights—and argued for her own freedom. With courage that defied every odd stacked against her, she faced down the system that tried to own her.
The judge ruled in her favor.
Biddy and her three daughters walked out as free women.
But Biddy didn't just want freedom—she wanted to build something lasting. She worked as a nurse and midwife, one of the most skilled in Los Angeles, delivering hundreds of babies and caring for the sick regardless of their ability to pay. She saved every cent she earned, hiding coins in her apron.
Ten years after winning her freedom, in 1866, Biddy purchased land in downtown Los Angeles. She became one of the first Black women to own property in the city. That land would eventually become worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, making her one of the wealthiest women in Los Angeles.
But here's what made Biddy Mason truly extraordinary: she never closed her hand around that wealth.
She fed hungry families from her own kitchen. She opened her home to those who had nowhere to sleep. She visited prisoners that society had abandoned. She funded schools so Black children could learn. She created a daycare for working mothers. And in 1872, she helped establish First African Methodist Episcopal Church—the oldest Black church in Los Angeles, still standing strong today.
When Biddy Mason died in 1891 at age 73, she left behind more than property deeds or bank accounts. She left a blueprint for what one person can build when they refuse to accept the limitations the world places on them.
Today, Biddy Mason Memorial Park stands in downtown Los Angeles, honoring the land she purchased with hope and the legacy she built with an open heart.
From enslaved to free. From powerless to influential. From owned to owner—not just of property, but of her own extraordinary destiny.
Biddy Mason proved that the truest measure of success isn't what you accumulate, but what you give away.
