Belinda Sutton Petitions Massachusetts Legislature for Reparations — First Granted in American History

Belinda Sutton, enslaved for over fifty years by Isaac Royall Jr. of Medford, Massachusetts, petitioned the state legislature in 1783 for a pension from Royall's confiscated estate. Her petition described her capture in West Africa as a child and a lifetime of unpaid labor. The legislature granted her an annual pension of fifteen pounds and twelve shillings — the first reparations payment to a formerly enslaved person in American history. The pension was granted for only one year; Sutton had to