Judge Benjamin Hayes knew the eyes of Los Angeles were on him. In January 1856, the hard-living judge presided over a hearing that would rock Los Angeles, a dusty, dangerous pueblo of approximately 4,000 souls. Out of the hearing would emerge Biddy Mason, a formerly enslaved woman who would become one of the most important — and one of the wealthiest — landowners, midwives and philanthropists in early-American Los Angeles. Mason was so beloved that people in need would line up in front of her house on First Street, eager for "Aunt Biddy's" assistance, which she always gave until she grew too old and infirm. "She showed people what could happen when they were free and could set their own destiny," says Jackie Broxton, executive director of the Biddy Mason Charitable Foundation.