Born in Ghana, West Africa around 1713, Belinda Sutton was enslaved by the Royall Family at their estate, now the Royall House and Slave Quarters, in Medford, Massachusetts from 1737 to 1781. When the Royalls fled to Nova Scotia at the beginning of the American Revolution, she was abandoned and left to fend for herself.

The sixty-three-year-old Sutton asserted that she had the right to compensation for her years of service to the Royall Family and successfully petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for proceeds from their estate. Her award of an annual pension of fifteen pounds and twelve shillings is one of the earliest cases of reparations paid for slavery and the slave trade.