The announcement reached the Owens family and other free Black people in the Los Angeles area who were connected to Mason. Robert Owens went to the Los Angeles County Sheriff and reported that people were being held illegally — that Smith was attempting to remove people from California against their will, people who had a legal right to freedom under the state’s constitution.
What followed was not a spontaneous intervention. The free Black community in early Los Angeles was small but organized, and its members understood that the legal terrain had to be navigated carefully. A writ of habeas corpus was obtained from the court, requiring Smith and the people he claimed to own to appear before a judge. The writ was served on Smith when his wagon train was encamped at a site near what sources variously describe as a canyon or pass in the approach to leaving California — the NPS account places this at Cajon Pass.
Robert Owens assembled a posse that included his sons and workers from his ranch. They went to Smith’s camp and physically stopped the wagon train from proceeding. The enslaved people were placed under the protection of the sheriff. Hannah, who was one of the thirteen people involved and who had recently given birth, was not able to attend the subsequent proceedings. The others were taken to Los Angeles to appear before Judge Benjamin Hayes.
What happened next was shaped by a California law that severely limited the ability of Black people to participate in their own legal cases. The law barred African Americans and Native Americans from testifying against white people. In practical terms, this meant that Biddy Mason could not stand up in open court and tell Judge Hayes what had been done to her, what Smith had planned, and why she feared being taken to Texas. The case had to be made without her direct testimony in a formal proceeding.