EP 9 Biddy Mason - Midwife On A Mission I Women And Resistance 🌍

In this week's conversation, Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla explores the life of Biddy Mason, an enslaved woman who fought for her freedom and became a successful businesswoman and philanthropist in California. 

Through her journey, she highlights the struggles of enslaved people, the importance of community support, and the ongoing fight for equality and justice. 

Biddy Mason's legacy serves as an inspiration for resilience and empowerment, emphasising the need for action and solidarity in the face of adversity.

Takeaways

*Biddy Mason's early life was marked by enslavement and hardship.
*Her journey to freedom involved a significant legal battle.
*Mason became a successful businesswoman and philanthropist in California.
*She opened the first school for black children in Los Angeles.
*Mason's story emphasises the importance of community support and resilience.
*She believed in the power of education and helping others.
*Mason's legacy is honoured in Los Angeles with a memorial and a designated day.
*Her life illustrates the ongoing struggle for equality and justice.
*Mason's experiences reflect the broader history of African Americans in the U.S.
*She encouraged others to take action and fight for their rights.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to BD Mason's Story
00:37 Early Life and Enslavement
02:04 Journey to Utah and Life as a Slave
05:57 Transition to California and Legal Challenges
12:59 The Fight for Freedom in Court
20:15 Celebration of Freedom and New Beginnings
24:14 A Life-Saving Moment
24:29 Becoming a Midwife
25:40 The Power of Financial Independence
26:16 Building a Legacy
27:36 Philosophy of Generosity
28:11 Trailblazing Property Ownership
29:49 Community Support and Philanthropy
30:38 Education and Empowerment
31:17 Rediscovery and Recognition
32:45 Lessons from a Life of Resistance
36:45 The Role of Women in Resistance
44:58 A Call to Action

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:02.016)
Yes greetings greetings greetings and welcome to another episode of Women and Resistance. I am co-host Adesoji Iginla. With me as usual is my sister from another mother.

Adesoji Iginla (00:19.96)
Sister Ayayi Fubera in LESquare and today it's the turn of another exemplary woman and she's known for short as BD Mason and

My sister will take us through her life and times and we should indulge her with questions when the need arises. Sister, welcome.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00.182)
Yes, BD Mason.

We know that she was born in August.

of 1818? Wow. Could you tell us what her earlier years were like?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:33.047)
So.

We cleaning, we doing all the chores like Masa, Masa's wife want us to do. And Masa come in very excited and say, get dressed, put on your Sunday clothes, get ready, leave the chores. I look at Masa wife, I look at my mommy.

Say do what's, masa say.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:12.202)
Mia was happy to not have the chores for that time. I got dressed. Even Masa's wife came and was trying to fix me up somehow.

said they have a surprise for me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:32.556)
was passing the garden I saw this flower. I just put the flower on the side of my hair.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:43.818)
and then in the distance, there's these wagons coming.

Adesoji Iginla (02:49.102)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:59.2)
When the visitors reach the house, they say, come, come, come, come. And then also, I see my younger sister, Hannah. She too, they say, come, but me first.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:24.426)
And then Martha give me as a gift, a wedding gift.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:36.716)
to the son and daughter, that the daughter and daughter getting married.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:47.129)
before I can say goodbye to my people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:57.229)
told, just carry your things, a little bag, nothing, no nap sack, nothing, we didn't have much. And we're gone. Me and my sister and two other of us, because they called us slaves. We're not slaves. They're the slave masters, enslaved us, but we're called slaves. But that was my life.

Adesoji Iginla (04:21.56)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:29.162)
because this time that I was given as a gift, that make for me four masters.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:45.706)
My life is not my own. Wherever they say go, go, eat, sit, sleep, cook, clean. I learn a lot of things. I learn from the older women, the black women. I learn about the herbs, learn about the taking care of babies, learn about the animals.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:16.618)
My new master's name, Robert Smith.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:24.062)
and they get involved in this Mormon church. They get so involved in the church, they call them the Mississippi Saints. And when the leader of the Mormon church,

was killed.

Adesoji Iginla (05:49.294)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:51.127)
They said, okay, that place not safe anymore for them. And so a whole number of the families decide they're going. Brigham Young, some of you may know Brigham Young University. Brigham Young, the new leader said, everybody go to Utah.

they're going to set up their own place in Utah. Still today, Mormons everywhere own Utah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:27.414)
from where we was at that time to go to Utah.

Adesoji Iginla (06:31.438)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:37.292)
I didn't calculate myself what I heard. 1700 miles.

So think about this, it's wagons for the wives and the children and sometimes the mastards on horses.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:59.57)
the they mostly took slaves strong enough and most of us we walk behind the wagons with the goats and the sheep

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:17.324)
1700 miles.

Adesoji Iginla (07:25.677)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:26.758)
I had had a baby when we started on this trip. So I was carrying a baby with me and cooking wherever we stopped cooking for the master and his wife and children, cooking for all the slaves, the people that they took with them, taking care of all the animals.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:53.068)
1700 miles.

walking.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:02.176)
Then we get to Utah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:09.35)
while we on this trip.

Massa having his way with any of us. With his wife, with me, and with my sister Hannah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:28.948)
My sister Hannah end up before I tell that part of the story where we became three, my sister Hannah, eight children. We don't write name of who the father is. Some people say, Marcia is the father of all, especially if the child come out, you can tell if it's white and black, but.

There were also a lot of what you now call

Native Americans, we call them Indians. There's a lot of Indians too and we used to sometimes interact with the Indians.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:19.102)
And so we get to Utah and we set up shop and I have my second child, my second and my third child in Utah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:31.529)
and then Massa get it in his head again and after two years in Utah this same Mississippi Saints not everybody but some of them now decide they're gonna go to San Bernardino in California looking for more space, greener pastures, more ways to make money.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:03.018)
but the Mormon church leader told them though

California, free state.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:18.892)
I didn't go to school. I didn't read. So these things I find out later. Some things we hear, but we don't understand everything. So Utah, you can have slaves. Mississippi, Georgia have slaves. California, free state.

Adesoji Iginla (10:21.236)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (10:41.932)
Meaning?

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:44.36)
meaning you're not supposed to have slaves in California. But here the funny thing about America and American law.

Adesoji Iginla (10:48.062)
Aya Fubara Eneli (10:58.834)
In California, like everywhere else in the country, a black person, a slave, cannot go to the court and testify against a white person.

Adesoji Iginla (11:02.734)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (11:15.712)
even though your rights been

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:16.758)
So if you can't testify, even if the law says you are free.

Who's gonna talk for you in the court to tell your story that you're not free? So one hand say black people are free and many free black people in San Bernardino when we went, even as we're going from Utah to California, we're meeting black people who are free and they're saying you don't have to be a slave, but.

Adesoji Iginla (11:32.702)
Interesting.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:57.547)
All I know is to be a slave. Where do I go to be free? Where, who, how?

Adesoji Iginla (12:02.018)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:08.262)
So we went with Masa and his children. So Masa has six children with his wife. Mia have three. Hannah.

eight Hannah's daughter Anne one

Adesoji Iginla (12:25.838)
with whom.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:29.6)
The records don't say whom. So I can't answer that question. But my daughter Ellen had three daughters. My daughter Ellen.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:48.758)
She was fair skinned.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:56.972)
So while we are in Utah, now we're in California, now while we're in California, still doing all the work, bringing in money for the masa, taking care of the animals, taking care of any of masa's wife, the children, any of the slaves have children. I'm the midwife for everybody. Masa get paid for me to be midwife for other people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:29.202)
And, but we in California, we black people when we have free time, we're also going and having times with the free black people. So we're mixing, we're mixing as we do our chores, we're mixing as we go to the market, we're hearing from them. And my daughter, Ellen, she and

The Owens family boy, they become close. And the Owens boy wants to marry my daughter Ellen.

Adesoji Iginla (14:08.834)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:10.762)
and the Owens family, they are free black.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:18.056)
And so things was getting a little uncomfortable for Massa.

and not my master anymore, but that's what we call him at the time. And he get a notion.

to move from California.

and move to Texas. Why Texas? Because Texas is slave state.

Adesoji Iginla (14:46.402)
It's quasi-dragged.

Adesoji Iginla (14:55.801)
OK.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:57.14)
Master is getting concerned because some people not happy about him having slaves. So when I tell my new friends, the Owens family, the Owens family, they had a business. They used to deliver things to like the army.

to the military, their delivery business, very successful. So when I tell them, we're gonna be leaving soon, they said, go to where? Said Texas, said no. No, you can't let yourself go to Texas.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:48.524)
Texas is a slave state so they explain it. You are free but how am I going to be free?

So Ellen too did not want to leave. And then one of Harriet's daughters, Hannah's daughter, one of Hannah's daughter, Harriet is my daughter too, but one of Hannah's daughter, she was also close now with one of the Mexicans that worked with the Owens family.

Adesoji Iginla (16:04.29)
We leave obviously because of the, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (16:27.235)
I'm late.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:28.032)
He too liked her. He too wanted to marry her. So everybody concerned about this. Yes. So.

Adesoji Iginla (16:35.682)
The proposal was moved.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:45.238)
We at first, we didn't know what to do. We can't walk into a court and where are going to run, who are we going to go to?

Adesoji Iginla (16:55.822)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:59.22)
And so the Owens family went and talked to the sheriff.

So Robert and Charles Owens, they went and talked to the sheriff and the sheriff comes with a group of armed people, armed men, they relay us, they stop us while we're at the Kajon Pass. We're already leaving San Bernardino, heading towards, but we're still in the area, yes. And they just come and intercept.

Adesoji Iginla (17:29.272)
California.

Adesoji Iginla (17:33.688)
California.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:40.177)
and what they did they arrest all of us the black people because that's how to protect us they arrest us and put us in the jail and issued they call it habeas corpus to robert smith basically you have you are imprisoning these people against their will you have to come to court to come and prove your case

So, Robert and Charles Owens used their money and hired a lawyer, a white lawyer. That's the only kind of lawyer at that time you can hire.

Adesoji Iginla (18:21.814)
Okay. Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:25.404)
and the judge for the case was Judge Hayes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:36.822)
But before we can now go to trial.

Robert Smith

Now, peace.

Adesoji Iginla (18:49.996)
You're loyal?

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:50.698)
white attorney, white lawyer, and he doesn't come to court.

Adesoji Iginla (19:01.326)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:02.194)
So if the white lawyer does not come and does not tell her story,

Adesoji Iginla (19:07.714)
He can't represent his selfs in court.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:11.872)
But then Robert Smith also did not come to court because in case there's a ruling against him. So he didn't come to court either.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:28.716)
So this Judge Hayes made a decision.

Adesoji Iginla (19:34.175)
Cheers.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:35.264)
He decided he gonna talk to us in his chamber, not in the court. He gonna listen to our story.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:53.024)
That is a thing that these judges did not do.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:02.956)
So.

The judge talked to us and we tell our story and we tell how Marsa Robert telling us we must go to Texas.

that we have no choice, but did not tell us that Texas is a slave state.

Adesoji Iginla (20:27.018)
is why he wanted to move there.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:33.1)
So after the judge listened to us, they put us back in the prison.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:42.092)
And the judge was thinking about the case, thinking about the case for three days.

and the governor of California says.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:58.08)
Don't be a fool.

Give the black people, give those slaves back to their master. Don't be a fool.

Adesoji Iginla (21:09.134)
despite the fact that the state was a free state?

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:12.254)
Well, because...

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:18.844)
even though black people were free, black people were not equal. Some people still want to see us only as slaves. And the governor and other people advising the judge said, if you free them, many white people are not going to like you. You make life very difficult for yourself.

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:48.183)
So Judge Hayes thought about it three days. Three days we are sitting. We are already in the prison for some time before. Yes. Now we're sitting waiting to find out.

Adesoji Iginla (22:00.686)
the case scheme.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:09.6)
we be free? Will we be slaves?

Ellen fretting because she's in love she wants to stay and marry the Owens boy.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:26.259)
Me, I was 38.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:32.158)
I was tired of someone else always having control over me. I used my eyes, my two eyes to see three black people.

Adesoji Iginla (22:49.56)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:52.234)
They come and go. They marry. They do how they want. They work. They save their own money. I too wanted that. But how to get that? When we find out that the money that the Owens family already paid for the lawyer, the lawyer gave back because

Robert Smith paid him more money not to come.

Adesoji Iginla (23:19.682)
And.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:24.776)
everything looks like.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:33.741)
I and my children would never be free.

and my sister now she have a grandbaby.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:46.952)
And still, we don't see how we can be free.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:55.545)
three days in 1856 in the Mason v. Smith case. State of California, County of Los Angeles before the Honorable Benjamin Hayes, Judge of the District Court of the First Judicial District, State of California.

County of Los Angeles before this man. They're making all this announcement in court and we just sitting and looking.

Adesoji Iginla (24:20.96)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:34.762)
sitting and praying.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:39.294)
and a lot of black people there, the free black people there, watching, praying, hoping.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:57.95)
and then they start to say in the matter of Hannah and her children Anne and Mary child of Anne, Lawrence, Nathaniel, Jane, Charles, Marlon, Martha, and an infant boy two weeks old, this man gonna have us on the road from California to Texas and Hannah just had a baby.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:26.54)
said, and of Biddy and her children, Ellen, Anne, and Harriet, on petition for Haber's Corpus. Now, on this 19th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1856, the said persons above named are brought before me in the custody of the Sheriff of Said County.

except said Hannah and infant boy two weeks old who are satisfactorily shown to be too infirm to be brought before me and except Lawrence who is necessarily occupied in waiting on his said mother Hannah.

And Charles, who is absent in San Bernardino County, but within said judicial district, and Robert Smith, claimant, also appears with his attorney, Alonzo Thomas Esquire. But Robert Smith didn't come, just his attorney. And the judge, he keeps talking, talking all of these things.

Adesoji Iginla (26:32.078)
turning.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:41.234)
naming all the ages of the children of all of us and then he says

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:54.636)
that all of us have resided with the said Robert Smith for more than four years, which is our time in California. And since some time in the year of our Lord, 1851 in the state of California, and it is there and it's further appearing that the said Robert Smith left.

and removed from the state of Mississippi more than eight years ago with the intention of not returning there too, but of establishing himself as a resident in Utah territory.

and more than four years ago left and removed from said Utah territory with the intention of residing and establishing himself in the state of California and has so resided in said last mentioned state since some time in the year of our Lord 1851. And we are just listening. We're listening. We're looking at the free black people who read.

who are literate and we're looking at their faces for us, for them to give a sign with all the words that are being used. We understand some, we don't understand all of the legal words. Are we free or are we not? And we're sitting there, heart beating, the little children holding themselves, we're holding them afraid. Can you imagine?

Adesoji Iginla (28:13.675)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:27.476)
as a mother, the hopes and dreams of my children. Ellen looking back at the Owens boy, the Owens boy praying, holding his eyes shut, praying.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:43.532)
And then the judge said.

and it further appearing by satisfactory proof to the judge here that all the said persons of color are entitled to their freedom and are free! Ho! Free! Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:04.662)
We caught ourselves.

We catch ourselves. We're waiting. The judge look at us. We're waiting. We better act good, because...

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:20.172)
holding the children.

body shaking shaking shaking shaking sitting shaking and he said

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:34.821)
all of the said persons of color are entitled to their freedom and are free and cannot be held in slavery or involuntary servitude. It is therefore argued that they are entitled to their freedom and are free forever.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:12.172)
Free forever. Free forever. And the black people, they're clapping.

I can't clap. I'm just...

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:25.974)
we go they take us back to three three three what they do mean they mean that three I never been free never been free

Adesoji Iginla (30:36.686)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:42.058)
And the judge weren't done talking.

He said, and it further appearing to the satisfaction of the judge here, that the said Robert Smith intended to and is about to remove from the state of California.

where slavery does not exist, to the state of Texas, where slavery of Negroes and persons of color does exist, and is established by the municipal laws and intends to remove the said before-mentioned persons of color, to his own use, without the free will and consent of all or any of the said persons of color, whereby their liberty will be greatly jeopardized.

and there is good reason to apprehend and believe that they may be sold into slavery or involuntary servitude. For masters.

Adesoji Iginla (31:40.977)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:44.202)
My children only one.

don't want to go another place and my children sold like the goats.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:01.684)
And he said.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:05.618)
it further appearing that none of the said persons of color can read and write and are almost entirely ignorant of the laws of the state of California as well as of the state of Texas and of their rights that the said Robert Smith from his past relations to them as members of his family. We want no family.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:35.094)
We were his slaves. Does possess and exercise over them an undue influence in respect to the matter of their said removal, in so far that they have been in duress and not in possession and exercise of their free will, so as to give a binding consent to any engagement or arrangement with them? And the judge set us free.

Adesoji Iginla (32:58.83)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:04.466)
said he wanted to see Hannah and the child brought to him when they get stronger. And he said it is further ordered and adjudged that all costs accrued in the case can up to the present date and in executing the present order of the judge.

here as to the production of said Hannah and her said infant two weeks old and all of the aforesaid shall be paid by the said Robert Smith given under my hand as judge of the first judicial district court of the state of California on the 19th day of January AD 1856 at the city of Los Angeles Benjamin Hayes district judge

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:00.832)
Can you imagine the merriment?

Adesoji Iginla (34:03.456)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:06.258)
and the Owens family, they say, you come and stay with us.

We were not homeless for one day. They said, you come and stay. All of us. How many people I count? Me, my three children, my sister, eight children, plus her grandchild, the child of Anne. All of us, they said, come and stay with us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:41.874)
And we had a big feast. The Owens family and other three black people. Happy for us. And the black people that they can read, they can write, they acting it out. They acting like the judge. They acting it out. And we play back free forever. Free forever. Free forever.

Adesoji Iginla (35:17.518)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:23.604)
And I gather up my cloth and everything and I said, to live free.

Time to work.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:36.734)
and one day.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:41.449)
on the road where the buggy passed the buggy is going with the wagon the wagon dude and a baby fall out little boy the the horse almost going to crush him and i just ran and grabbed the baby

Adesoji Iginla (35:57.166)
Shampoo, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:07.53)
the wagon stop and they open and the mother and I give the baby to the mother and there's a man inside the wagon

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:21.546)
The man is George Benjamin Hayes.

Adesoji Iginla (36:25.984)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:33.288)
Shout was chuncy haze.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:41.706)
And I tell them I am a midwife, I know how to take care of children and sick things, and I helped with their child. But the judge had a brother-in-law named Dr. Griffith. So the doctor comes and sees what I was already doing for the child. He asked me about what I know.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:13.598)
And George Hayes is sitting quiet and he's thinking, he wrote it in a letter. He's thinking.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:28.594)
allowed fear to cause me not to free this woman.

Would my child still be alive today?

Adesoji Iginla (37:40.599)
Be alive, yes. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:46.495)
And his brother-in-law, Dr. Griffin, when he saw my skills, he hired me as a midwife to work with him and paid me $2.50 a week.

Adesoji Iginla (38:04.045)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:06.377)
now.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:10.196)
You people are talking about women and resistance.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:18.72)
You can resist when you are poor, but if you find a way to get some money, it helps you to resist even more and help other people. So the Owens family, they had something, a little something, allowed them to fight for my freedom and the freedom of my children and my sister and her children.

allowed us to sleep well at night with food in our bellies until we made our own way. And Ellen and the Owens boy, they got married.

Adesoji Iginla (38:57.87)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:05.292)
And I did not take my $2.50 and say, I'm free. Now let me buy everything and do this and do that. Even now, some people see my picture and they say,

Adesoji Iginla (39:12.312)
Thank you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:25.162)
I could have worn something better or I could look different if you ever see the picture. This is a picture.

Adesoji Iginla (39:38.104)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:42.358)
but I was focused.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:47.734)
after 10 years.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:53.677)
You hear what I say, after 10 years, some of you working 20, 30, more your whole life don't own anything.

Adesoji Iginla (39:55.822)
10 years, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (40:08.558)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:10.62)
After 10 years, I bought a prop.

that I rented out.

and saved until I bought the property for my homestead.

Adesoji Iginla (40:29.261)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:33.808)
And I helped many people when the smallpox epidemic broke out. I used my knowledge of traditional herbs and I helped many people, prevented many people from getting smallpox, helped many people who got it to heal. But there were still a lot of deaths and one of my daughters died very young.

Adesoji Iginla (41:02.99)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:05.714)
about 14 or 15 and then was just Ellen and Harriet left. I did not have any more children.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:19.038)
And I started to buy property and the place that I bought my property today is known as downtown Los Angeles in the heart of the city. That is where I had my property. But you know, I had a philosophy about myself and my philosophy is this. If a hand is closed,

Nothing good can get into it.

Adesoji Iginla (41:51.534)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:54.121)
In the open hand, the open hand is blessed for it gets an inheritance and it gives out abundance as it receives. So if you want to have, you must have a generous and open heart and hand.

Adesoji Iginla (42:08.238)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (42:15.31)
to give.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:19.934)
And so in my time coming from not knowing freedom to having freedom, some say I'm the first black woman to own property in California. Black men own property, but black woman by herself.

Adesoji Iginla (42:42.572)
Women, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:46.354)
Don't matter if I'm the first, the second, or the third. What matters is I'm not the last.

Adesoji Iginla (42:53.676)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:56.672)
but that what I did can give other people an idea of what they can do too. I never went to school. I still never learned to read and write. On all my contract for buying property, everything I did, I signed my name with an X. I depended on the Owens boy who now married to my daughter.

Adesoji Iginla (43:15.982)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:27.264)
who knew how to read and write to make sure that what they told me was on there is what was on there because that's also how they would cheat us.

Adesoji Iginla (43:37.838)
true.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:41.739)
When there was a flood in Los Angeles, I opened up a place and then I told the other shopkeepers, said, I'm putting this much credit, I'm buying, putting this much credit on your books. If anybody comes in and they need to get food and they don't have the money, charge it to my account. I did not care whether they were black.

Adesoji Iginla (43:54.072)
for.

Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (44:02.264)
Make it available.

Adesoji Iginla (44:07.394)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:10.686)
Mexican today people say Hispanic white anybody who was in need i said charge it to my account

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:26.87)
Then I bought this other plot of land and I gave the plot of land for the establishment of the first African Methodist Episcopalian Church in Los Angeles. That church congregation, the church still exists not on the same place because that building burnt down. But I gave the church the land.

And then for the first year, I paid the salary of the pastor so the pastor could concentrate on the work of leading the flock.

I was not even a member of that church. I was a member of another church, many white people in that church. And I gave and supported that church too.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:15.998)
Now with the smallpox epidemics, many children lost their parents. I opened an orphanage. I paid for it, not the government.

Adesoji Iginla (45:21.582)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:28.66)
And then I opened the first school for black children because I knew the importance of getting an education.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:42.036)
We need our own lawyers, our own judges, our own doctors, our own people to read and know and be free in every way.

Adesoji Iginla (45:54.926)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:59.295)
And eventually I had bought so much land in what is now called the downtown Los Angeles that based on the land records, the property records, they estimate that when I finally died.

Adesoji Iginla (46:06.828)
Los Angeles.

Adesoji Iginla (46:14.722)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:21.686)
that I was worth $300,000.

Adesoji Iginla (46:26.413)
Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:30.028)
$300,000 I died in on January 15, 1891.

Adesoji Iginla (46:41.899)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:42.486)
Some people called me Aunt Biddy. Some people called me Grandma Biddy.

that everybody knew that I was someone who was so grateful for my life and my freedom. I wanted everybody to be free and to live with some dignity.

Adesoji Iginla (47:13.55)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:15.54)
And so I opened doors not just for me and my family, but to help as many people and as many black people, my black community as much as I could.

But something happened that is also a cautionary tale.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:43.671)
Some say that the reason why when I was buried with all the property and money I had, the reason I did not have a headstone was because my family was now fighting over my property.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:09.788)
Eventually, my grandson, also known as Robert, was able to consolidate and he became the wealthiest black person in Los Angeles.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:27.936)
but then when the Great Depression hit.

Adesoji Iginla (48:32.268)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:36.17)
my family lost all that I had built up.

Adesoji Iginla (48:43.266)
Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:46.888)
and for a very long time.

Nobody talked about me. In fact, 97 years, it took 97 years before I was in their words, rediscovered.

Adesoji Iginla (49:06.864)
of it.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:13.36)
And as they were doing some work, they found where my house used to be and some of my, some of what they call artifacts from my home.

And in 1988, 97 years after I was buried, the richest woman in California, black woman in California, maybe in the whole country, without a headstone in what they called an unmarked grave.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:55.309)
In 1988, finally, my grave was given a headstone and marked in a public ceremony attended by hundreds who were then introduced to me and what I was able to do. And I only have four descendants today.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:25.428)
I have my great, great, great, great, great, like the sixth generation, Cheryl Cox and...

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:43.444)
I also have...

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:49.708)
I also have, one of them also has two children. So just four, four left from my lineage.

Adesoji Iginla (50:54.914)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (51:03.544)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:05.068)
Today, they have established, my descendants, have established the Biddy Mason Memorial Park near where my former property was. And now the city of Los Angeles has declared November 16th, the Biddy Mason Day. My full name was actually Bridgette and then Biddy Mason. And the Mason.

When I was freed, I didn't have a last name. So the Mason came from a name of someone that I had heard of when I was in Utah. And that is where I added Mason to my name so that I would have a last name like other people as well.

Adesoji Iginla (51:50.434)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (51:57.39)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:59.381)
I donated food and shelter to poor people.

I

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:09.6)
founded and supported a daycare, a nursery. I worked with, like I said, those abandoned children. And I created a travelers aid center to help those in need or those who might need shelter or some assistance because I remembered if the Owens family had not taken my family in.

Adesoji Iginla (52:25.237)
Adesoji Iginla (52:36.28)
You would have been homeless.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:37.202)
even when we were given freedom, then how do we live free?

My foundation today continues my work through education, housing, and mentoring activities. And my legacy is honored in murals, public art installations, there are different historical exhibitions. If you go down to downtown Los Angeles, there is a whole block about 80 feet of a wall where they tell the story of my life.

and what I was able to accomplish.

Adesoji Iginla (53:17.006)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:19.692)
So it's Cox and then Robin Cox and then Robin's children, Daniel and Dakota.

And Cheryl is the one who is the president of my foundation. And Robin is a professor at University of Southern California.

Adesoji Iginla (53:38.563)
Mission.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:51.41)
As we talk about resistance, don't know if you have any particular question for me. What I would tell...

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:01.842)
All of you is.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:07.882)
You must learn to be useful to yourself and others.

The skills I acquired even under the brutality of slavery paved the way for me to become somebody of stature and means when I finally attained my freedom.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:35.518)
So whatever you can learn to do, whatever skill you can acquire.

slave or free, no one can take that skill away from you. And your skills and your discipline to be the best with what you have might open doors for you that you don't even know exist. It was those skills and even the hardship, the physical exertion

Adesoji Iginla (54:50.456)
Good.

Adesoji Iginla (55:12.332)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:13.128)
of walking 1700 miles while tending all of this that gave me the ability to quickly see that child in trouble and reach and get that child before there was an issue. But that act of kindness now got me to the attention of the great Dr. Robert Griffin.

Adesoji Iginla (55:27.17)
Let me show you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:44.683)
And because I got to work with him and he now started to pay me, that also opened the way for me to set up my family in a very different way. And this is one of the murals that they have up. And the woman right here, that is me, working with Dr. Griffin. And that man, which is...

Adesoji Iginla (55:51.822)
and

Adesoji Iginla (56:03.822)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:13.164)
It's not something to be proud of just because it was a white man who said it, but because of the times. He considered me a medical peer because there were things I knew and understood about medicine and healing that he did not learn in his books.

Adesoji Iginla (56:37.902)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:38.898)
So I learned from him, but he learned from me and he had respect for me.

The other thing I would say is you cannot be free by yourself.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:54.706)
If you are living well and you decide to just put your nose in the air and not care about other people, you cannot be free by yourself. And you don't know when situations will turn.

Adesoji Iginla (57:08.726)
that you would need somebody else.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:11.348)
And so I used to go and visit people in the prisons and take food to them. Because I know what it is to be locked up for whatever reason. We were locked up for our protection. But I always gave. I always believed that the hand that gives is open to receive abundance.

Adesoji Iginla (57:36.238)
We'll see if we have,

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:40.972)
We'll stop there.

Adesoji Iginla (57:42.836)
Yeah, quick question. I mean, in light of the fact that you said in your case in Mason v Smith that the black person could not testify against a white man. In light of what is happening in the United States right now and predominantly all over the world, but specifically speaking to the United States, the fact that

black women are constantly at the forefront of resistance. What would you say to them in regards to the use of their voice, position and community?

in that resistance in specific times like this.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:43.808)
We are the mothers.

We are the ones who feel the stirrings of that being growing in us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:02.528)
We are the ones whose internal organs have to be pushed out of the way and rearranged for the child to have room to grow. We are the ones who by what we imbibe provide nurture to that child to grow. And if we are sickly or infirm, that child

might be too weak to be born or might be sickly and infirm when they born.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:44.822)
So.

If we do all of this and feel all of these experiences, for the 40 weeks it takes for a child to become of the age where they can now live outside of the mother's body.

Is it possible that we stop feeling their heartbeats?

Is it possible that having been connected via the umbilical cord for all that long that because they are now not within the womb we feel nothing?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:30.662)
So when our community is under attack.

I would expect nothing less than for the women to be fighting side by side and when need be on their own as we have sometimes had to fight.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:57.334)
for our children, our future, for our community. When a pregnant woman is carrying a child, when she's carrying child and a woman is pregnant, you see she walks without even thinking about it. She's putting her hand under her stomach as if to support.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:12.814)
Something like that.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:17.388)
your whole body changes to prepare for this child. Is it possible then because the child is walking on the face of the earth that your cells completely forget that you are a protector?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:37.096)
So I fully expect that in these times, and black people since we came to the shores of this country as enslaved people because we were here before but since we came as enslaved people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:58.957)
How many years have not been turbulent times?

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:02.926)
Question.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:05.878)
count it. many, how many, let's, let's tell your people to write and answer. How many years from if you use the 1619 to 1865?

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:24.674)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:27.4)
If you give some notion of freedom from 65 to 77, which is not true because we still had no land, nothing, we were destitute, but less just for the sake of argument, but we're still under siege in those 12 years. Then from

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:31.758)
freedom.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:46.104)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:49.996)
1877 to 1965.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:52.494)
65, yeah. Civil Rights Act.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:56.682)
Jim Crow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:01.234)
Then we're still fighting for schools to be desegregated for equality of education until the 1990s in the state of Texas. Go and watch that movie. That young girl, Kiki Palmer, did a movie that's on Netflix. People call it Netflix. Called Alice.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:05.71)
.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:26.802)
a black woman and her family who were still enslaved in the 1970s in the United States of America. They were still working as slaves.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:40.302)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:42.409)
When did sharecropping end? When did convict leasing end? By 1980, Reagan says no more affirmative action. Schools start to change the... So I say all of that to say, when have we not been under attack? When has it not been turbulent times?

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:49.142)
Still ongoing, is it?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:04:11.782)
We got lulled to sleep and mostly those who got a little bit and then closed their fists and forgot to keep working hand in hand with those who were still being persecuted at a different level. So we bought houses in fancy places and forgot the projects. But when they come for us,

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:29.326)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:04:41.056)
They don't care what is in your bank account. We must work together. So yes, women, black women, there's no other option than to resist. That's what we've always done. Our very existence, my life, staying alive through all those slave masters, staying alive through all the heartbreak.

staying alive knowing I had no control over my body. That was an act of resistance. We were not only born to resist,

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:10.574)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:21.162)
We are born to win. And on this earth, I went from an enslaved woman, they called me a slave, ignorant. But ignorant only based on what they says is intelligence because my intelligence was saving their lives, right?

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:41.736)
Yep.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:45.535)
Ignorant of their ways maybe and even then not so much. just could not read and write their own things but from there I became a winner in every way but the most important way was that I was a servant to my own people not a servant against my will

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:07.63)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:13.656)
Yes, yes. On that very positive note, that is we are born to win and win we shall. We've come to the end of another episode of Women and Resistance. But before we do go, next week will be the turn of Umbuya Nehanda. The name again is Umbuya Nehanda.

Yes, do be prepared for another exciting and informative episode of Women and Resistance. But tonight, we thank Bidi Mason for stopping by. And any final thoughts?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07:08.329)
in my life.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07:13.022)
I took more action than just talking.

So what I will ask your people listening is, what action are you going to take?

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:31.15)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07:33.704)
What action are you going to take? And I thank you for telling my story because many people still don't know my story. But if I could accomplish what I did under the circumstances of my life, there is nothing any of you cannot do today. Nothing.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:33.72)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:02.238)
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing. yes, on that inspiring note, I would say good night and God bless. So next week, it's Nehanda Umbuya.

Until next week, again, it's good night and God bless. Good night.