The Former Slave Who Salted Los Angeles

In 1856, Biddy Mason walked out of a Los Angeles courtroom a free woman. She had been enslaved for thirty-two years, carried across the country on foot behind her owner's wagon train, and had every reason to disappear into quiet anonymity. Instead, she became one of the most generous souls the young city had ever known.

Mason worked as a midwife and nurse, delivering babies for families of every color and class across Los Angeles. She saved carefully, invested in real estate, and within two decades had accumulated a small fortune. But wealth never became her identity. She opened her home on Spring Street to anyone in need — feeding the hungry, sheltering flood victims, paying grocery bills for struggling families regardless of race. In 1872, she helped found First African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest Black congregation in Los Angeles, gathering the first members in her living room.

What made Biddy Mason remarkable was not simply her charity but her presence. She moved through a city riddled with racial hostility and economic greed as someone utterly uncontaminated by bitterness. Her goodness had flavor. Her life had visible, unmistakable warmth.

Jesus told His followers that salt which loses its savor is good for nothing. Biddy Mason had been ground down by decades of injustice, yet she never lost her distinctive character. She let her light shine before others, and they saw her good works and glorified her Father in heaven. The city tasted the difference.