The first documented petition for reparations paid to a black American recorded in U.S. history.

Belinda Sutton, also known as Belinda Royall, was a lady born in Ghana who was held as a slave by the Royall family at the Isaac Royall House in Medford, Massachusetts, in the United States of America. Belinda Sutton was born in West Africa in the year 1713. Isaac Royall Jr. left her behind when he fled to Nova Scotia at the beginning of the American Revolution. He had no intention of returning for her. [1]

Sutton submitted a petition to the Massachusetts General Court in February 1783, demanding that she be awarded a pension from the money that was left over from the estate of her enslaver. She was granted an annual pension of fifteen pounds and twelve shillings as a direct result of the petition that was submitted on her behalf. It has been said that this annuity was one of the first instances of restitution for the practice of slavery and the traffic in slaves. [1][2]

The subsequent petitions that were sent to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts reveal that the pension payments did not come through after the initial two installments had been made. She continued to apply for the back payments until she submitted the petition for the last time in 1793.