Sarah Rector: The Richest Colored Girl in the World
Posted By The Editors | February 18th, 2009 | Category: The Drinking Gourd | 14 comments
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By Stacey Patton
“Oil Made Pickaninny Rich – Oklahoma Girl With $15,000 A Month Gets Many Proposals – Four White Men in Germany Want to Marry the Negro Child That They Might Share Her Fortune.” This headline, which appeared in The Kansas City Star on January 15, 1914, was just the first of many newspaper and magazine headlines during the next decade about Sarah Rector, the richest black child known to the world in that era.
In September, 1913, The Kansas City Star reported: “Millions to a Negro Girl - Sarah Rector, 10-Year Old, Has Income of $300 A Day From Oil,” and The Savannah Tribune ran: “Oil Well Produces Neat Income – Negro Girl’s $112,000 A Year.”
In 1914 and 1915, the Salt Lake Telegram, The Oregonian and American Magazine profiled the “bewildered little ten year-old girl” and told of how she inherited her “big income” but still wore tattered dresses and slept each night in a big armchair beside her six siblings in a two-room prairie house in Muskogee, Oklahoma. By the early 1920s, many newspapers covered the court battles involving white men seeking to become Rector’s guardian to gain control over her estate.
She was one of a group of Creek freedman children who were given land allotments by the U.S. government as part of the Treaty of 1866.
Sarah Rector
Sarah Rector was born in 1902, near Taft in Indian Territory, the northeastern part of present-day Oklahoma. Though she was “colored,” she was not an African-American child and had no concept of what it meant to be an American citizen. Rector was a descendant of slaves who had been owned by Creek Indians before the Civil War.
In 1866, the Creek Nation signed a treaty with the United States government promising to emancipate their 16,000 slaves and incorporate them into their nation as citizens entitled to “equal interest in the soil and national funds.” Two decades later, the federally imposed Dawes Allotment Act of 1887 sparked the beginning of the “total assimilation” of the Indians of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes by forcing them to live on individually-owned lots of land instead of communally as they had done for centuries.
There was a great deal of resistance to this plan by the Creeks and other tribes, who viewed it as yet another tactic by the U.S. government to destroy the tribe’s political sovereignty and way of life. But as a result of the Dawes Allotment Act, nearly 600 black children, or Creek Freedmen minors as they were called, inherited 160 acres of land, unlike their African-American counterparts who were granted citizenship after slavery but never got that promised “forty acres and a mule.”
To the surprise of U.S. government officials, a few old and young allottees like Sarah Rector found that their land came with crude oil and other minerals underneath the soil.
When she was born, Rector was given a rough, hilly allotment, considered worthless agriculturally, in Glenpool, 60 miles from where she and her family lived. Her father had petitioned the Muskogee County Court to sell the land, but he was denied because of certain restrictions placed on the land, for which he was required to continue paying taxes.
In 1913, when she was ten years old, large pools of oil were discovered on Rector’s land. One year later, her land produced so much oil that she had already yielded $300,000; her fortune was increasing at a rate of $10,000 per month. Her mother had died years earlier from tuberculosis. In 1914, her father died in prison, leaving her orphaned.
Even before her father’s death, Rector was appointed a guardian who was responsible for managing Rector’s money and providing for her education and care. The law at the time required full-blooded Indians, black adults and children who were citizens of Indian Territory with significant property and money, to be assigned “well-respected” white guardians who often cheated them out of their lands. There are stories of swindlers, oil tycoons and other unscrupulous types who kidnapped and murdered the children and adults to get their land.
Unlike other hapless waifs who fell victim to fraud, losing their land and wealth while growing up in a western frontier fraught with violence, fraud and racism, Rector was one of a few black children able to ward off greedy guardians and retain her wealth as an adult.
Rector graduated high school, attended Tuskegee University, and then moved to Kansas City at age 19. She purchased a mansion on Twelfth Street, entertaining Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Joe Louis and Jack Johnson at lavish parties. Not much is known of her later life other than stories of how she splurged on jewelry, fine clothes, and cars.
Much of Rector’s adult life is still needs to be developed, as is the case for the study of the history of black childhood in America. Rector is significant because hers is a vital yet untold story about the complexities or race, childhood, and citizenship on the American frontier in the early 20th century.
Stacey Patton is Senior Editor of TheDefendersOnline and Senior Editor/Writer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is America’s legal counsel on issues of race. Through advocacy and litigation, LDF focuses on issues of education, voter protection, economic justice and criminal justice. We encourage students to embark on careers in the public interest through scholarship and internship programs. LDF pursues racial justice to move our nation toward a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. www.naacpldf.org
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Thank you for publishing the article about Sarah Rector. It should be noted that Sarah Rector is one of thousands of blacks who descended from slaves in Indian Territory. This area became a state in 1907, so much of the history of the Freedmen has never been told in American history. By 1900 there were more than 20,000 black people who were tied to the Five Slaveholding Tribes, now known as Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations of Oklahoma.
It should also be noted that many of the political issues in Oklahoma today stem from the fact that Freedmen descendants have been expelled and are prevented from citizenship in those federally funded tribes today, primarily because they do not contain the blood of their slave owners. At present the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, an extremely wealthy tribe, is now filing lawsuits against those Freedmen descendants who are seeking equal status in the nation where their ancestors were enslaved.
The other four slaveholding tribes also prevent the descendants of their former slaves, from any opportunities of holding citizenship. All of these tribes receive and utilize US Federal dollars to establish social services for their citizens, many of whom have little to no blood—-some with as little as 1/1000th degree of so called “Indian” blood. In other words they are white–and these individuals are fighting hard to prevent the Indian Freedmen from claiming citizenship in the land of their ancestors. Many such issues can be found on the current discussion board: http://www.afrigeneas.com/forume
The story of Sarah Rector is appreciated and it differs from the story of “Little Danny Tucker” who’s also received much press during the same time period. This article is from 1914.
See link:
http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/OK_BOY.HTM
Stacie, Thank you for bringing this important story to the forefront. A lot of people are unaware of the complex and unique history of African Americans within the Five Civilized Tribes. In addition to Sarah Rector, there were many other Creek Freedmen that received oil-rich allotments, however, their situation did not bring as much attention as Miss Rector’s. In the case of Sarah Rector, she spent so much of her time in the courtroom instead of the classroom. I look forward to hearing more from you about their childhood and how issues, such as their unique status as freedmen, affected their lives.
It is interesting to note that Sarah Rector, prior to Oklahoma becoming a state, identical to her freedmen peers in all five of the Slave-holding tribes, Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws and Seminoles, did not have U.S. citizenship following their emancipation in 1866. For forty years they lived, loved and died in the Indian nations of their birth without benefit of U.S. citizenship. And one group of Freedmen, previously enslaved by the Chickasaws, were denied citizneship in the Chickasaw Nation and lived for 40 years as a people without a country. The people, known to us today as Freedmen, experienced much of the same trials and tribulations as the Indians in their respective tribes. Their ancestors came into the Cherokee Nation as chattel, property of Indian owners long before the infamous Trail of Tears. Along with their Indian masters, the slaves walked the Trail and many died on it. But unlike their Indian masters, the slaves were listed only by number, not by name along with the furniture, chickens, cattle and hogs. The Freedmen experienced the rebuilding of the Indian Nations, and in fact, the wealth of the Five Civilized Tribes before the U.S. Civil War, was obtained on the backs of slaves. Freed slaves fought alongside their Indian brothers in the U.S. Civil War to defend the tribes and honor the treaties between the tribes and the U.S. government. Following the Civil War the freed slaves, then adopted citizens of their respective nations, except the Chickasaw freedmen, began the hard work of rebuilding homes, farms and ranches totally ravaged by the war. The Freedmen experienced the pain, and as Sarah Rector shows, the wealth, that came from the forced allottment of Indian lands in Oklahoma. By the 1920s the Freedmen of all five tribes, along with their full blood Indian relatives had endured a feeding frenzy on tribal land that saw most freedmen and the full bloods become the poorest people in the United States. In the new state of Oklahoma, which was described as the “worst Jim Crow state in the Union,” the Freedmen endured hatred, racism, segregation, lynchings and fear. The full bloods isolated themselves and endured poverty, disease and racism. Meanwhile, the mixed bloods, most of them more white than Indian, passed themselves off as white and enjoyed their position as equals to the southern whites invading Oklahoma after 1907. It is the descendants of those thin blooded white Cherokees who today, press to have the Freedmen expelled from the Nations of their birth, even to the point of a willingness to sacrifice their federal recognition on the altar of racism.
Stacey, I definitely appreciate your efforts to bring this little known history to light. There are many stories out there about my great aunt and other freedmen but I’m thankful that you’re getting to the truth. I applaud you and wish you continued success in your efforts.
Stacey, it is alway impressive to read what others has learned about my Aunt Sarah. If I may, I would like to correct a know fact. You stated the Sarah Rector’s mother died earlier than 1913. Actually, Sarah Rector’s mother (Rose Rector) died in Kansas City, Missouri in 1957. There is so much to learn about Sarah Rector. Our family is still researching the family tree. Thank you for your time and interest in Aunt Sarah (aka Aunt Sister).
Stacie, I applaud the fact that you are doing research on my aunt Sarah Rector. I am the youngest daughter of her sister Rosa Rector Brown. The dates on the deaths of her parents are incorrect. Joseph Rector died in 1922 and her mother died February 7, 1957. We have been researching the history of our family for many years and have never uncovered any information like some facts that you stated. It would be greatly appreciated if you would please review your sources. There are many nieces and nephews still living in the Kansas City Missouri area and we would be very happy to sit and visit with you.
Dear Deborah and Donna,
Thanks for your comments on your aunt Sarah. While I am certain that you obviously know the correct dates on your family members births and deaths, there are many conflicting dates in newspaper accounts of not only Sarah’s birth and death, but also of her parents and her status as a ward of the state. Many of the newspaper accounts from Muskogee County, Oklahoma indicate that Sarah was an orphan and that her mother died of tuberculosis and that her father died while in jail. I would be thrilled to share these documents with you. They are part of your family history and you should have them.
Recently, I stumbled across an article printed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on 7-11-1922 that indicates that Joe Rector died of grief over being deceived by his friend Jim Manuel (a crook who was implicated in murdering two other wealthy black children in 1913 and convicted for swindling another freedman woman some years later). He was trying to dupe Joe Rector out of money. And many of the secondary source materials that sites your aunt’s wealth, have also circulated these same details based on primary source newspaper stories and other records from Oklahoma. My reading of the sources themselves is correct. It’s the primary source documents (written by reporters of the day) which need to be reviewed and corrected against your family’s documents. I am eager to do.
So yes, it would be very helpful if you, Sarah’s family members, can provide the correct documents and stories. I’ve been in touch with a few relatives and I think it would be great if we could all sit at the table and tell Sarah’s very important story with all the facts straight. I also read a recent article: “Descendants of Sarah Rector Thriving in K.C.” which was printed this past March in the Kansas City Call. I was surprised at how little the family knew about Sarah’s early years, the court battles over her guardianship and the attempts made not just by whites, but even a close relative, to dupe her out of money.
All this said, I think we can help each other. I invite you to email me at spatton@naacpldf.org. There is so much we can learn and so much that still needs to be uncovered.
Stacey Patton
Senior Editor
Stacey, this is fantastic research you’re doing on Aunt “Sister” Sarah, as she was affectionately known by family. I see you’ve received feed back from a few of my cousins. I am the daughter of her youngest brother, Roy Rector. Research on early Sarah has been an ongoing search for our family to get the correct information out before all of the eldest family members expired. However, we still haven’t reached our goal, but among those living we can account for as much accurate data that we’ve been told, given or witnessed. We’d be happy to meet you and provide all the information we have so that her story is told accurately.
[...] Sarah Rector [...]
Thank you so much for making me aware of Sarah Rector. I’ve been doing features on Black women from our past all month on my blog that people normally don’t hear about. I’ve gotten so inspired by doing this that I’m on a quest to learn even more.
Stacy, I want to highlight your article on my blog later this week. Your story and the blog comments will hopefully inspire others to do their own research on women like Sarah Rector and others.
[...] Click on the link to read more: http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/02/18/sarah-rector-the-richest-colored-girl-in-the-world/comm... [...]
Thank you so much for featuring this story. I’d never heard of Sarah Rector and the information about Freedmen in Oklahoma is so important, but little known to me. It gives me another avenue to explore in my own family tree which also has a branch in Oklahoma that dips into the Cherokee tribe.
Excellent!