Historian Kevin Waite returns to the show to discuss his new biography, The Boundless Biddy Mason: An Odyssey from Slavery to Freedom Across the American West. It’s the story of a woman who was forced across the continent in bondage, won her freedom in an 1856 Los Angeles courtroom, and became one of the founding figures of Black Los Angeles.
With almost nothing in Mason’s own hand, Waite assembled what he calls a “biographical mosaic” from court records, censuses, city directories, and the memories of those who knew her. Jordan and Kevin discuss writing through historical silence; why California was “made free” by people like Mason rather than by its 1849 constitution; slavery in Mormon San Bernardino, where wheat and dairy replaced cotton; how Mason’s freedom suit set off a wave of self-emancipation; Los Angeles in the 1850s, when it was the unofficial murder capital of America; Mason’s work as a nurse through flood, drought, and smallpox; Reconstruction in Los Angeles; and whether her Spring Street real estate fortune was an act of resistance or of participation.
Books mentioned: Stacey L. Smith, Freedom’s Frontier; Elliott West, Continental Reckoning; Alice Baumgartner, South to Freedom; John Mack Faragher, Eternity Street; Benjamin Park, American Zion; Benjamin Madley, An American Genocide; Rachel Cusk, the Outline trilogy.
New in November: The show is relaunching November 1st with video episodes, more frequent releases, and the chance to send questions for future guests. Subscribe free to the podcast’s Substack for show notes, reading lists, and new essays on California history: link here
Chapters
00:00 Returning guest: why Biddy Mason
01:30 Writing from the silences: the “biographical mosaic”
05:30 Biography vs. general history
07:30 Mary Ellen Pleasant, a tragic foil
08:30 California wasn’t born free; it was made free
11:00 Slavery beyond cotton: San Bernardino
14:30 Avoiding hagiography
16:30 Mormonism, Methodism, and the Spring Street vision
20:30 The 1856 freedom suit and self-emancipation
23:30 Los Angeles in the 1850s
25:30 Flood, drought, smallpox, and the Zakheim mural
27:30 Reconstruction in Los Angeles
30:30 Biddy Mason’s fortune
33:30 The future of Black Western history
35:00 Biddy Mason and the California myth
38:30 Book recommendations
40:00 What’s next: a new history of the American West
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