Anyone know who Biddy Mason is? Ever heard of Prudence Crandall? You guessed it, kids—it is “Kelsey’s Empowered Women’s Story Time”!! Today, courtesy of Vicki Leon’s Uppity Women of the New World, we’re going to learn the stories of Biddy and Prudence (don’t worry, there won’t be a test).

Biddy (Bridget) Mason was a slave born in 1818 in Mississippi. When her owner became a Mormon and moved the family to California, Biddy learned that slavery was illegal there. She immediately petitioned the court for her freedom and won it, despite her owner’s attempts to suddenly relocate the family to Texas. Leaving the family, she made a great life for herself in the land where dreams come true, Los Angeles—she got a job as a nurse-midwife and eventually became one of the first black women to own her own land in LA. She later became quite wealthy and used most of her money on charity, founding the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in the area. In 1989, Los Angeles named November 16 “Biddy Mason Day” to honor her struggle and her hard work in building up the community.

Prudence Crandall was what we might today call an anti-racist ally. She was a white woman who started a young women’s academy in 1833, in Canterbury, Connecticut. When young Sarah Harris, a black woman, asked for admission to the academy in order to better educate the black community, Crandall admitted her. And when community members pulled out all the white children, she reopened her school as one for African-American girls. Yet, as Leon tells in the book, “Locals threw manure in her well and rotting carcasses on her property. The school was physically attacked by angry mobs, and Crandall had to move classes for safety’s sake” (84). Crandall’s actions led the state legislature to pass the Black Laws in 1834, which prohibited anyone from establishing schools for non-resident black students without local consent.

Eventually Crandall moved to Kansas, after residents of Canterbury had burned her school to the ground. Only in the 1880s, after the death of her husband, did the town of Canterbury repent of their actions and petition the legislature to give her a pension. She refused their offer, however, to return back home.

Well, kids, that’s all for today’s history lesson on awesome, empowering feminist role models and rabble rousers. I’ll be back tomorrow with more reports from the NNPCW front.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise God, my help and my God.” --Psalm 43:5

Kelsey