Page 4
February 14, 2001
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Black Women Who Braved the Old West
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“Go W est, young man, go
W est.” Horace Greeley popu
larized this John B. L. Soule
phrase in 1851, and Greeley
also insisted that the W estern
lands should be “reserved for
the benefit o f the white Cau
casian race.” But at the time
he was calling for white men to
go west, the W est contained a
sizable population o f men who
w ere black, and a grow ing
population o f black women.
History inform ation, how
ever, followed the sentim ents
expressed by Greeley and for
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Celebrates
Black History Month
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over a century, the m ystique o f
carving out a niche in the m as
sive w estern landscapes was
restricted to w hite m ales. It
has only been in the last 30
years that blacks have begun
to appear in w estern history.
B lack w om en have been
credited for their part in the
settling o f the W est. At first
only white waifs, wives and
bawdy girls w ere m entioned,
but recent presentations have
begun exploring the broader
aspects o f w om en’s role in the
westward expansion. The in
form ation about wom en now
includes wom en o f color.
W here did this black com
m unity come from ?
O ver
2,000 black freem en had hur
ried to Old C alifornia to take
part in the Gold Rush, and some
sent for their fam ilies. C alifor
nia, like Texas, had a small
population o f form er Spanish
slaves and m ixed-blood blacks
from before th e arriv al o f
Am ericans. And w hites who
came west brought their slaves.
„ M any o f those servants took
advantage o f territorial laws
and sought their freedom.
One such person was Biddy
M ason who, as a slave, had
Clara Brown purchased her freedom to become a cook to prospectors
in Colorado. She started a laundry business that made her wealthy.
With the money, she bought 34 relatives out o f slavery. She also paid
fo r the cost o f a covered wagon train to bring them and other blacks
West on a steamboat.
herd ed h er m a ste r’s cattle
W est. H er three daughters
were with her, and when their
owner wanted to return to Vir-
ginia in 1856 (presum ably to
sell his slaves), M ason and her
Ceres Behavioral
Healthcare Systems
pays tribute to
Black History M onth
Phone 224-2214
Fax 219-6892
Bridget "Biddy ” Mason was a nurse-midwife and
philanthropist. In 1989, a memorial depicting Mason 's
achievements was erected in Los Angeles. The city also
celebrates Biddy Mason Day.