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