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.…