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Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America
The incredible and little-known story of Sarah Rector, once the wealthiest Black woman in America, from Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner Tonya Bolden
Searching for Sarah Rector brings to light the intriguing mystery of Sarah Rector, who was born into an impoverished family in 1902 in Indian Territory and later was famously hailed by the Chicago Defender as “the wealthiest colored girl in the world.”
Author Tonya Bolden sets Rector’s rags-to-riches tale against the backdrop of American history, including the creation of Indian Territory; the making of Oklahoma, with its Black towns and boomtowns; and the wild behavior of many greedy and corrupt adults.
At the age of eleven, Sarah was a very rich young girl. Even so, she was powerless . . . helpless in the whirlwind of drama—and danger—that swirled around her. Then one day word came that she had disappeared.
This is her story, and the story of other children like her, filled with ups and downs, bizarre goings-on, and a heap of crimes.
Out of a trove of primary documents, including court and census records, as well as interviews with family members, Bolden painstakingly pieces together the events of Sarah’s life.
Searching for Sarah Rector brings to light the intriguing mystery of Sarah Rector, who was born into an impoverished family in 1902 in Indian Territory and later was famously hailed by the Chicago Defender as “the wealthiest colored girl in the world.”
Author Tonya Bolden sets Rector’s rags-to-riches tale against the backdrop of American history, including the creation of Indian Territory; the making of Oklahoma, with its Black towns and boomtowns; and the wild behavior of many greedy and corrupt adults.
At the age of eleven, Sarah was a very rich young girl. Even so, she was powerless . . . helpless in the whirlwind of drama—and danger—that swirled around her. Then one day word came that she had disappeared.
This is her story, and the story of other children like her, filled with ups and downs, bizarre goings-on, and a heap of crimes.
Out of a trove of primary documents, including court and census records, as well as interviews with family members, Bolden painstakingly pieces together the events of Sarah’s life.
80 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
17 people are currently reading
689 people want to read
About the author
Tonya Bolden
76 books181 followersAuthor and publisher Tonya Wilyce Bolden was born on March 1, 1959, in New York City to Georgia Bolden, a homemaker, and Willie Bolden, a garment center shipping manager. Bolden grew up in Harlem in a musical family and loved to read; she attended Public M.E.S. 146, an elementary school in Manhattan, and then graduated from the Chapin School, a private secondary school, in Manhattan in 1976. Bolden attended Princeton University in New Jersey, and, in 1981, obtained her B.A. degree in Slavic languages and literature with a Russian focus. Bolden was also a University Scholar and received the Nicholas Bachko, Jr. Scholarship Prize.
Upon graduating from Princeton University, Bolden began working as a salesperson for Charles Alan, Incorporated, a dress manufacturer, while working towards her M.A. degree at Columbia University. In 1985, Bolden earned her degree in Slavic languages and literature, as well as a Certificate for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union from the Harriman Institute; after this she began working as an office coordinator for Raoulfilm, Inc., assisting in the research and development of various film and literary products. Bolden worked as an English instructor at Malcolm-King College and New Rochelle School of New Resources while serving as newsletter editor of the HARKline, a homeless shelter newsletter.
In 1990, Bolden wrote her first book, The Family Heirloom Cookbook. In 1992, Bolden co-authored a children’s book entitled Mama, I Want To Sing along with Vy Higginsen, based on Higginsen’s musical. Bolden continued publishing throughout the 1990s, releasing Starting a Business from your Home, Mail-Order and Direct Response, The Book of African-American Women: 150 Crusaders, Creators, and Uplifters, And Not Afraid to Dare: The Stories of Ten African-American Women, American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm and The Champ. Bolden became editor of the Quarterly Black Review of Books in 1994, and served as an editor for 33 Things Every Girl Should Know, in 1998. Bolden’s writing career became even more prolific in the following decade; a partial list of her works include:, Our Souls: A Celebration of Black American Artists, Maritcha: A Nineteenth Century American Girl, MLK: Journey of a King, Take-Off: American All-Girl Bands During World War II, and George Washington Carver, a book she authored in conjunction with an exhibit about the famous African American inventor created by The Field Museum in Chicago.
(source; )
Upon graduating from Princeton University, Bolden began working as a salesperson for Charles Alan, Incorporated, a dress manufacturer, while working towards her M.A. degree at Columbia University. In 1985, Bolden earned her degree in Slavic languages and literature, as well as a Certificate for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union from the Harriman Institute; after this she began working as an office coordinator for Raoulfilm, Inc., assisting in the research and development of various film and literary products. Bolden worked as an English instructor at Malcolm-King College and New Rochelle School of New Resources while serving as newsletter editor of the HARKline, a homeless shelter newsletter.
In 1990, Bolden wrote her first book, The Family Heirloom Cookbook. In 1992, Bolden co-authored a children’s book entitled Mama, I Want To Sing along with Vy Higginsen, based on Higginsen’s musical. Bolden continued publishing throughout the 1990s, releasing Starting a Business from your Home, Mail-Order and Direct Response, The Book of African-American Women: 150 Crusaders, Creators, and Uplifters, And Not Afraid to Dare: The Stories of Ten African-American Women, American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm and The Champ. Bolden became editor of the Quarterly Black Review of Books in 1994, and served as an editor for 33 Things Every Girl Should Know, in 1998. Bolden’s writing career became even more prolific in the following decade; a partial list of her works include:, Our Souls: A Celebration of Black American Artists, Maritcha: A Nineteenth Century American Girl, MLK: Journey of a King, Take-Off: American All-Girl Bands During World War II, and George Washington Carver, a book she authored in conjunction with an exhibit about the famous African American inventor created by The Field Museum in Chicago.
(source; )
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
January 23, 2014
While this had the potential to be a really fascinating read, it was grossly underdeveloped and the angle that the author used to tell the story from fell flat. This is a part of history I knew nothing about so it was intriguing to learn about the events occurring. But the author builds this huge suspense about an individual for which there is virtually no known information about. It was really strange and disappointing. The last 1/4 of the book is credits...not even enough meat to fill a whole book! I am really surprised this was published!
February 21, 2017
This biography for young readers attempts to tell the story of Sarah Rector, the richest black girl in America in the early 1900s. The first part of the book is a little slow. The author tells the backstory of Sarah's ancestors, slaves of Creek Indians forced west from Georgia into Indian Territory by the U.S. Government in the 1820s. The backstory is necessary to find out how Sarah got so wealthy. The story is pretty impressive! It's a rags to riches kind of story and an unusual one at that. The hook to catch readers is to find out where Sarah was. After that the story gets bogged down again in too many details. The extra part about Sarah's guardian was also unnecessary in a book for readers of this age. This is a story that was new to me. I found Sarah as intriguing as the author did. I hope some ay someone uncovers her voice.
This is a good read for readers ages 10+ to learn about black history beyond slavery, Reconstruction and Civil Rights.
This is a good read for readers ages 10+ to learn about black history beyond slavery, Reconstruction and Civil Rights.
January 11, 2018
I was amazed at what I learned from this book. I thought I was going to learn about a little girl, but I learned so much more— about the history of Oklahoma and the beginning of the oil boom at the beginning of the 20th century there. Sarah was the daughter of a freed slave who had joined the Creek Indian tribe living in Indian Territory, which was Oklahoma before it became a territory and state of the U.S. Every tribal member, including children, was given an allotment of land, and on Sarah’s allotment oil was found by a “wildcatter” named Tom Slick. More and more wells were drilled on her land, and, as the owner, she was entitled to 12.5% of the profits. That’s how she became “the richest black girl in America.” Since blacks and Native Americans were not considered competent to handle their own money, guardians, usually white but sometimes Native American or black, were assigned to them. These guardians were not always honest, so all sorts of legal complications arose. Read this book to find out how Sarah fared and why everyone was searching for her. Thank you, Tonya Bolden, for bringing this little-known aspect of American history to light. Highly recommended for any month, not just Black History Month!
Read
March 20, 2014This book is rather misleading on multiple levels. For one, about half of the book is back matter, so it's way shorter a read (officially) than you'd think. That's not necessarily bad, but it's not what I was expecting. It's also not really much of a biography. That's completely understandable, given that the author had trouble finding out any information at all on Rector. What this book is really about is what happened to Native American-owned slaves after they were freed and how white men took advantage of Indian and black children who became very wealthy thanks to some interesting reparations and stuff. Framing it around one girl in particular makes perfect sense when you want to get someone to read the book, especially a kid (I was expecting YA-level nonfiction; this is definitely lower MG), but you should probably be prepared to learn more about an interesting pocket of history than a person.
That said, what is here is interesting and more or less well put together. Before I read it, I had a seventh grader tell me excitedly about the historical context behind Rector's becoming wealthy to begin with, and seeing how passionate she was in talking about an aspect of American history that she had never known about said to me that this book has what was probably its underlying purpose - to shine a light on people and contexts never really uncovered before, not so much to examine Sarah Rector herself. Rector's just a metaphor.
That said, what is here is interesting and more or less well put together. Before I read it, I had a seventh grader tell me excitedly about the historical context behind Rector's becoming wealthy to begin with, and seeing how passionate she was in talking about an aspect of American history that she had never known about said to me that this book has what was probably its underlying purpose - to shine a light on people and contexts never really uncovered before, not so much to examine Sarah Rector herself. Rector's just a metaphor.
November 19, 2018
Hooray for bringing under-told stories forward!
Sarah Rector was child during the 1900-1910s, and found herself the owner of property with a lot of oil on it, during the height of the oil-seeking obsession. This book explains many pieces of history that I was totally ignorant about. The history of Oklahoma. The Indian Territories. The significant population of black "freeman" within the tribal populations. Guardianship law of the early 1900s.
This book explains a lot of fascinating history. And told by a black author! I'm always looking for ownvoices books to share with my community.
Unfortunately, I've been looking forward to reading this book for several years. Which means my expectations of it were not entirely accurate. And the title is a bit of a mis-sell. To me, the title implies that this will be a kidnapping mystery. But the period in which Rector was "missing" is a relative blip in the pages. I was startled when I came to the epilogue - I only felt maybe halfway through the story (many of the pages are taken up with finding aides, appendices, and other matter).
It feels like a glossy research paper of the kind that I LOVED writing during my academic career. Everything is cited, there are lots of primary sources (photographs, maps, and etc.).
But I don't think they were quite successful in making this a book I can sell to a wide audience. It's a little too dry, Rector never becomes quite an individual (probably because there are no primary-source records of her other than a couple of photographs), and the core story that I felt promised is overwhelmed by the contextual information. That contextual information is fascinating to me, but I can't imagine very many middle schoolers choosing to pick it up outside of an assignment.
Sarah Rector was child during the 1900-1910s, and found herself the owner of property with a lot of oil on it, during the height of the oil-seeking obsession. This book explains many pieces of history that I was totally ignorant about. The history of Oklahoma. The Indian Territories. The significant population of black "freeman" within the tribal populations. Guardianship law of the early 1900s.
This book explains a lot of fascinating history. And told by a black author! I'm always looking for ownvoices books to share with my community.
Unfortunately, I've been looking forward to reading this book for several years. Which means my expectations of it were not entirely accurate. And the title is a bit of a mis-sell. To me, the title implies that this will be a kidnapping mystery. But the period in which Rector was "missing" is a relative blip in the pages. I was startled when I came to the epilogue - I only felt maybe halfway through the story (many of the pages are taken up with finding aides, appendices, and other matter).
It feels like a glossy research paper of the kind that I LOVED writing during my academic career. Everything is cited, there are lots of primary sources (photographs, maps, and etc.).
But I don't think they were quite successful in making this a book I can sell to a wide audience. It's a little too dry, Rector never becomes quite an individual (probably because there are no primary-source records of her other than a couple of photographs), and the core story that I felt promised is overwhelmed by the contextual information. That contextual information is fascinating to me, but I can't imagine very many middle schoolers choosing to pick it up outside of an assignment.
March 4, 2018
Wanted to inspire this Women’s History Month so I chose to read about the richest black girl in America, little Sarah Rector born as a Creek freedman whose family lived as free blacks among the Native American tribe in the 1900s.
Through a combination of bribery and brute force the U.S. Government removed almost all members of the Five Tribes of the Southeast or the Five Civilized Tribes (The Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole nations) so that whites could have their rich land and resources. (Pg.1)
This story sets the stage by telling of the tragic Trail of Tears where tens of thousands of women, men and child Indians and blacks lost their lives due to hunger, disease and other causes once they were forcibly removed from their homes to cross the Mississippi River. The forced migration of these tribes left them in a huge plot of unorganized territories in the North and the South now designated Indian Country on the border of Canada and North America in some areas and that these five tribes were considered civilized because of the way they had incorporated and adapted European ways. Surprisingly I also learned that these Five Tribes also supported the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War and after the war these tribes were pressured to allow the blacks that lived near them to become citizens of their nation.
By 1890 the U.S. Government had decided to takeover all that remained of Indian Territory and allotted each citizen in the Creek Tribe where Sarah’s great grandparents were apart of 160 acres for each citizen born before March 4, 1906; and when Oklahoma became the forty-sixth state in 1907 what was Indian Territory was no more. Sarah was born in 1902 in a new black formed town called Twine where freed blacks established their own businesses and a newspaper. Interesting and amazing fact I also learned was about the fifty or so other towns formed by free blacks in and around Indian Territories even one named Bookertee after Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute’s founder the incomparable Booker T. Washington (really dope history facts). Sarah received her forty acres though it was broken up and valued at a measly $556.50 with taxes of about thirty dollars due a year. Sarah’s father took control over the land for her and her siblings and ended up leasing the land for oil drilling and her land had oil on it! Sarah’s land produced about 2,500 barrels of oil a day which equaled more than $300 a day for Sarah which she could not touch until she turned eighteen and as her oil gushed her legal guardian shifted to a white man named T.J. Porter.
“Sarah Rector’s riches bred a resentment bordering on rage; vexation over the good fortune of a girl whose forbears had suffered slavery and who herself lived in a state and in a nation where, by law and custom, so many blacks were routinely treated like second-class citizens.” (Pg. 27)
So much was written about her, her guardian and her parents though what Sarah though is unknown. Her family does spend some of the money on a new house and even a car though other prominent blacks such as W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP did not agree with how she was being treated..With so much scrutiny on her life Sarah went off to school and a large portion of her money was spent on real estate—Sarah was a mystery until March 3, 1920 when she would turn eighteen and be worth an estimated $1 million or $11 million in today’s rate. Her house would become the Rector Mansion in Kansas City, Missouri and she went on to get married and have three boys, divorced and remarried before her death in 1967. Though she never fully managed her own money until she was older and her money in property lived on and the book ends with an interview from her son in 1990.
A really engaging nonfiction read that teaches and tells you about a girl that lived to inspire and educate everyone on this shy and mysterious rich black girl..enlightening read.
Through a combination of bribery and brute force the U.S. Government removed almost all members of the Five Tribes of the Southeast or the Five Civilized Tribes (The Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole nations) so that whites could have their rich land and resources. (Pg.1)
This story sets the stage by telling of the tragic Trail of Tears where tens of thousands of women, men and child Indians and blacks lost their lives due to hunger, disease and other causes once they were forcibly removed from their homes to cross the Mississippi River. The forced migration of these tribes left them in a huge plot of unorganized territories in the North and the South now designated Indian Country on the border of Canada and North America in some areas and that these five tribes were considered civilized because of the way they had incorporated and adapted European ways. Surprisingly I also learned that these Five Tribes also supported the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War and after the war these tribes were pressured to allow the blacks that lived near them to become citizens of their nation.
By 1890 the U.S. Government had decided to takeover all that remained of Indian Territory and allotted each citizen in the Creek Tribe where Sarah’s great grandparents were apart of 160 acres for each citizen born before March 4, 1906; and when Oklahoma became the forty-sixth state in 1907 what was Indian Territory was no more. Sarah was born in 1902 in a new black formed town called Twine where freed blacks established their own businesses and a newspaper. Interesting and amazing fact I also learned was about the fifty or so other towns formed by free blacks in and around Indian Territories even one named Bookertee after Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute’s founder the incomparable Booker T. Washington (really dope history facts). Sarah received her forty acres though it was broken up and valued at a measly $556.50 with taxes of about thirty dollars due a year. Sarah’s father took control over the land for her and her siblings and ended up leasing the land for oil drilling and her land had oil on it! Sarah’s land produced about 2,500 barrels of oil a day which equaled more than $300 a day for Sarah which she could not touch until she turned eighteen and as her oil gushed her legal guardian shifted to a white man named T.J. Porter.
“Sarah Rector’s riches bred a resentment bordering on rage; vexation over the good fortune of a girl whose forbears had suffered slavery and who herself lived in a state and in a nation where, by law and custom, so many blacks were routinely treated like second-class citizens.” (Pg. 27)
So much was written about her, her guardian and her parents though what Sarah though is unknown. Her family does spend some of the money on a new house and even a car though other prominent blacks such as W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP did not agree with how she was being treated..With so much scrutiny on her life Sarah went off to school and a large portion of her money was spent on real estate—Sarah was a mystery until March 3, 1920 when she would turn eighteen and be worth an estimated $1 million or $11 million in today’s rate. Her house would become the Rector Mansion in Kansas City, Missouri and she went on to get married and have three boys, divorced and remarried before her death in 1967. Though she never fully managed her own money until she was older and her money in property lived on and the book ends with an interview from her son in 1990.
A really engaging nonfiction read that teaches and tells you about a girl that lived to inspire and educate everyone on this shy and mysterious rich black girl..enlightening read.
March 16, 2014
Really under-developed. If it had been presented as a story about how one poor black girl in Oklahoma became wealthy, I might have been more forgiving. However, the title and blurb on the back suggest this is would be the fascinating story of a wealthy black girl gone missing. It was not. She was never missing.
Half the book consists of source notes and information about the Native Americans (and their slaves) being relocated to Indian Territory from the South. The rest, about 35 pages, tells the story of how the Rector family came to own land and how Sarah got wealthy off hers. There is almost no personal information at all. The information all comes from land records, court transcripts and second-hand stories (mostly false and speculative) in the newspapers at the time. There simply was not enough information available to tell Sarah's story properly. The author should have, instead, researched and presented the stories of several different people who were in similar situations.
Half the book consists of source notes and information about the Native Americans (and their slaves) being relocated to Indian Territory from the South. The rest, about 35 pages, tells the story of how the Rector family came to own land and how Sarah got wealthy off hers. There is almost no personal information at all. The information all comes from land records, court transcripts and second-hand stories (mostly false and speculative) in the newspapers at the time. There simply was not enough information available to tell Sarah's story properly. The author should have, instead, researched and presented the stories of several different people who were in similar situations.
Read
March 8, 2014I found the lack of much about Sarah herself made this a challenging read for me. I realize it was what I wanted versus what the book is so I will eventually go back and reread it with a more open stance. I do appreciate Bolden's taking on this interesting situation and found many of the primary sources fascinating.
April 4, 2016
Aimed at schoolchildren, but a good summary of the facts and the history that it is set in. Does not swallow the sensationalized press stories whole. Tons of period pictures.
November 21, 2013
Richie's Picks: SEARCHING FOR SARAH RECTOR: THE RICHEST BLACK GIRL IN AMERICA by Tonya Bolden, Abrams, January 2014, 80p., ISBN: 978-1-4197-0846-6
"They couldn't pick a better time to start in life--
It ain't too early and it ain't too late!
Starting as a farmer with a brand new wife--
Soon be livin' in a brand new state!
Brand new state -- gonna treat you great!
Gonna give you barley, carrots and pertaters,
Pasture for the cattle, spinach and termaters,
Flowers on the prairie where the June bugs zoom,
Plen'y of air and plen'y of room,
Plen'y of room to swing a rope!
Plen'y of heart and plen'y of hope."
-- from the 1955 film of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma"
"In late March [1912], another oil lease deal for Sarah's land came along. This one was with a man named Frank Barnes. But this time, the signing bonus was half as much as in the Devonian deal: only eighty dollars, or fifty cents an acre.
"Clearly word hadn't reached Sarah's father, on the outskirts of Taft, that around daybreak on March 17, wildcatter Tom Slick had struck black gold about five miles south of that horseshoe bend in the Cimarron River. The site of Tom Slick's 'Eureka!' was on the land of a white stonemason, Frank Wheeler, and was leased by one of Slick's partners: banker and real estate man B. B. Jones of Bristow, Creek County.
"After oil gushed up on Wheeler's land, Tom Slick did his level best to keep his discovery secret -- like cutting Wheeler's telephone wire. The wily wildcatter knew that once word got out, a passel of oilmen would make a mad dash to the area to get drilling rights on nearby land.
"In about a week, Slick and his partners snapped up leases to much of the land several miles around Wheeler's farm. It was B. B. Jones who wound up with the right to drill on Sarah's acres, because within days of getting the lease on her land, Frank Barnes had handed it off to Jones for a dollar. (Barnes was a landman, doing the leasing legwork for Jones.)
"To drill on Sarah's land, Jones had to shell out the money for everything his crew had to do, from readying the rig and erecting the derrick to spudding in, then drilling deeper and deeper -- hundreds of feet down into the earth. The whole shebang could take one month, two months -- maybe more, depending on the technical difficulties the crew ran into.
"After all that, if Jones's crew struck very little or no oil -- a 'dry hole' or a 'duster' -- he could be out several thousand dollars. But if they struck a 'gusher' -- oil jetting up fast and furious -- B. B. Jones would make big bucks when he sold the crude oil to a refinery, where it would be turned into gasoline, kerosene, and other by-products in high demand.
"Sarah would be in the money, too. Her royalty (or share) was the standard 12.5 percent of the oil produced."
The first twenty pages of SEARCHING FOR SARAH RECTOR contain an amazing and somewhat complicated mini-lesson in America's westward expansion; the intricacies of alliances during the Civil War when it came to the Native Americans who had earlier been booted westward out of what became the Old South; and how Andy Jackson's famous promise ("...as long as the grass grows or the water runs...") eventually went out the window.
Sarah Rector's black family had lived in Indian Territory as part of the Creek Nation and when Indian Territory was broken up and Oklahoma became a state, preschool-aged Sarah became owner of a 160-acre allotment of land, the same as with each of her family members who were born before the legal cutoff date. And so Sarah Rector, who was born into a generations-long tradition of black folks being screwed by white folks, got lucky and hit the jackpot.
As we are told up front,
"The scuttlebutt was that Sarah had an income of $15,000 a month -- the equivalent of more than $300,000 today."
"The more money we come across, the more problems we see"
-- The Notorious B.I.G, Puff Daddy, Ma$e, Stevie J. Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers
And you know that where there is a lot of money, there are also a lot of truly evil people looking to separate it from its rightful owners. Author Tonya Bolden keeps building the suspense about what becomes of Sarah Rector and all of that money by sharing some truly disgusting tales about guardianships gone awry. (Stealing money from children is bad enough, but acting in a fiduciary capacity by stealing little kids' money AND dumping them in orphanages to boot? Freaking amazing.)
Beyond all of the amazing American history that is sewn into SEARCHING FOR SARAH RECTOR, it is fascinating to consider all the facets of this same history -- as the author explicitly notes -- that remain a mystery. It is so cool to live in today's world of children's publishing where the omniscient tone of history writings of the past has been replaced by an author providing details to his or her researching and writing process and saying, essentially, "Here is what I have mined and made sense of." This latter point of view offers young readers a lot of space for imagining the possibility of picking up a virtual pick and shovel and probing one of the veins that the author left unearthed. Or tracking down mysteries about the past in their own families or their own part of the country.
The book is filled with photographs and historic maps, and the back matter includes detailed source notes.
And I really liked reading about Kate Barnard, the first American woman ever elected to a state post.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator
"They couldn't pick a better time to start in life--
It ain't too early and it ain't too late!
Starting as a farmer with a brand new wife--
Soon be livin' in a brand new state!
Brand new state -- gonna treat you great!
Gonna give you barley, carrots and pertaters,
Pasture for the cattle, spinach and termaters,
Flowers on the prairie where the June bugs zoom,
Plen'y of air and plen'y of room,
Plen'y of room to swing a rope!
Plen'y of heart and plen'y of hope."
-- from the 1955 film of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma"
"In late March [1912], another oil lease deal for Sarah's land came along. This one was with a man named Frank Barnes. But this time, the signing bonus was half as much as in the Devonian deal: only eighty dollars, or fifty cents an acre.
"Clearly word hadn't reached Sarah's father, on the outskirts of Taft, that around daybreak on March 17, wildcatter Tom Slick had struck black gold about five miles south of that horseshoe bend in the Cimarron River. The site of Tom Slick's 'Eureka!' was on the land of a white stonemason, Frank Wheeler, and was leased by one of Slick's partners: banker and real estate man B. B. Jones of Bristow, Creek County.
"After oil gushed up on Wheeler's land, Tom Slick did his level best to keep his discovery secret -- like cutting Wheeler's telephone wire. The wily wildcatter knew that once word got out, a passel of oilmen would make a mad dash to the area to get drilling rights on nearby land.
"In about a week, Slick and his partners snapped up leases to much of the land several miles around Wheeler's farm. It was B. B. Jones who wound up with the right to drill on Sarah's acres, because within days of getting the lease on her land, Frank Barnes had handed it off to Jones for a dollar. (Barnes was a landman, doing the leasing legwork for Jones.)
"To drill on Sarah's land, Jones had to shell out the money for everything his crew had to do, from readying the rig and erecting the derrick to spudding in, then drilling deeper and deeper -- hundreds of feet down into the earth. The whole shebang could take one month, two months -- maybe more, depending on the technical difficulties the crew ran into.
"After all that, if Jones's crew struck very little or no oil -- a 'dry hole' or a 'duster' -- he could be out several thousand dollars. But if they struck a 'gusher' -- oil jetting up fast and furious -- B. B. Jones would make big bucks when he sold the crude oil to a refinery, where it would be turned into gasoline, kerosene, and other by-products in high demand.
"Sarah would be in the money, too. Her royalty (or share) was the standard 12.5 percent of the oil produced."
The first twenty pages of SEARCHING FOR SARAH RECTOR contain an amazing and somewhat complicated mini-lesson in America's westward expansion; the intricacies of alliances during the Civil War when it came to the Native Americans who had earlier been booted westward out of what became the Old South; and how Andy Jackson's famous promise ("...as long as the grass grows or the water runs...") eventually went out the window.
Sarah Rector's black family had lived in Indian Territory as part of the Creek Nation and when Indian Territory was broken up and Oklahoma became a state, preschool-aged Sarah became owner of a 160-acre allotment of land, the same as with each of her family members who were born before the legal cutoff date. And so Sarah Rector, who was born into a generations-long tradition of black folks being screwed by white folks, got lucky and hit the jackpot.
As we are told up front,
"The scuttlebutt was that Sarah had an income of $15,000 a month -- the equivalent of more than $300,000 today."
"The more money we come across, the more problems we see"
-- The Notorious B.I.G, Puff Daddy, Ma$e, Stevie J. Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers
And you know that where there is a lot of money, there are also a lot of truly evil people looking to separate it from its rightful owners. Author Tonya Bolden keeps building the suspense about what becomes of Sarah Rector and all of that money by sharing some truly disgusting tales about guardianships gone awry. (Stealing money from children is bad enough, but acting in a fiduciary capacity by stealing little kids' money AND dumping them in orphanages to boot? Freaking amazing.)
Beyond all of the amazing American history that is sewn into SEARCHING FOR SARAH RECTOR, it is fascinating to consider all the facets of this same history -- as the author explicitly notes -- that remain a mystery. It is so cool to live in today's world of children's publishing where the omniscient tone of history writings of the past has been replaced by an author providing details to his or her researching and writing process and saying, essentially, "Here is what I have mined and made sense of." This latter point of view offers young readers a lot of space for imagining the possibility of picking up a virtual pick and shovel and probing one of the veins that the author left unearthed. Or tracking down mysteries about the past in their own families or their own part of the country.
The book is filled with photographs and historic maps, and the back matter includes detailed source notes.
And I really liked reading about Kate Barnard, the first American woman ever elected to a state post.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator
December 28, 2021
Filing this one under "Who Knew?" I enjoyed this book on a Black historical figure I had never heard of. Even after reading, so much of Sarah's life was still a mystery but the book did it's job in sparking my curiosity about a group of people I intend to research further.
The book is filled with primary source documents that enrich Sarah's tale. I would definitely recommend this book to budding history buffs and readers interested in the some of the little known nuances of the relationship between African American history and wealth in this country.
The book is filled with primary source documents that enrich Sarah's tale. I would definitely recommend this book to budding history buffs and readers interested in the some of the little known nuances of the relationship between African American history and wealth in this country.
April 30, 2018
This would have been so much better as a historical fiction novel. While I appreciate Bolden's research attempts, the sources just aren't there. It made the book choppy. I also didn't get the hook the author tried to use. There were multiple times that the author hinted that Sarah might be missing or kidnapped only to say she was at home with her parents. I was disappointed in this one.
April 14, 2014
In 1914, 12-year-old Sarah Rector earned $15,000 per month (the equivalent of $300,000 today), making her the "richest black girl in America." Bolden weaves together Sarah's rise from rags to riches against a rich backdrop of American history that illuminates racial injustice, crime, corruption, guardianship laws, the creation of Indian Territory, and the birth of Oklahoma. Plentiful photos, maps, and sidebars bring Sarah's story to life, and the in-depth back matter--which includes a glossary, notes, references, a bibliography of additional resources, and an index--make this well-researched book well-suited for classroom use.
While I found the premise of this book intriguing, the organization of the material didn't quite pull me in the way I had hoped. Bolden includes a lot of really interesting background information, but sometimes I lost track of Sarah's story while trying to wade through these details. That said, I don't really fault the author for this; as Bolden writes, "Sarah Rector was 'a very private person'" (p. 50) and "I never found an account of Sarah's life in her own words" (p. 51). Despite Bolden's efforts, it seems to me that Sarah Rector remains a bit of a mystery--so while I longed to know more about Sarah herself, I appreciate Bolden's efforts to use research to round out the little information that is available by developing an insightful context for Sarah's story. In light of that, however, I find myself thinking of this book as less of a biography and more of a narrative nonfiction text that outlines key developments in American history through the framework of one girl's experiences.
While I found the premise of this book intriguing, the organization of the material didn't quite pull me in the way I had hoped. Bolden includes a lot of really interesting background information, but sometimes I lost track of Sarah's story while trying to wade through these details. That said, I don't really fault the author for this; as Bolden writes, "Sarah Rector was 'a very private person'" (p. 50) and "I never found an account of Sarah's life in her own words" (p. 51). Despite Bolden's efforts, it seems to me that Sarah Rector remains a bit of a mystery--so while I longed to know more about Sarah herself, I appreciate Bolden's efforts to use research to round out the little information that is available by developing an insightful context for Sarah's story. In light of that, however, I find myself thinking of this book as less of a biography and more of a narrative nonfiction text that outlines key developments in American history through the framework of one girl's experiences.
March 26, 2014
Great research oddly presented. There's a lot in this book, including excellent primary-source based research into some usually neglected topics. The presentation, however, is off putting and detrimental--in trying to contextualize Sarah's story, the author winds up presenting two books in one, one on the Native peoples' forced relocation and one about the individual circumstances surrounding Sarah Rector's fortune and its management. While it's certainly a reasonable tactic to tell a larger story through the lens of the individual, in this case it doesn't work that well. This may be a result of a good thing, the author's refusal to speculate too much about Rector just to serve the narrative. The documentary evidence, while fascinating, gives us more of a picture of the local court systems, while Sarah herself, and nearly all other non white, female people mentioned in the story, are left (realistically) and uncomfortably voiceless, at least in public record. This is hardly Bolden's fault, and she's very aware of the issue--quoting as many available local sources and black newspapers as possible, but I think that the issue could have been more skillfully addressed in the telling and wrap up. Bolden does have some interesting things to say about newspaper hype, primary source research, and the complexities of American local history--something about the title and the angle are off for me, but the book is worth reading for all that because it's deeply thought provoking, and interesting even in the places it falls down.
March 12, 2014
This book provides a fascinating look into how a poor black girl became a millionaire. Sarah Rector was born in 1902 in Indian Territory where she and her family were black members of a nation of Creek Indians. They were call "Creek freedmen". When the Indian Territory became the state Oklahoma, members of the Creek Nation were given land allotments of 160 acres. When Sarah was five years old she received her allotment and within a few years it proved to be a very profitable producer of oil. Bolden goes into detail about Sarah being appointed a guardian to watch over her money and how the Negro newspapers of that time were concerned that Sarah was being taken advantage of.
I was anxious to read about Sarah Rector and a slice of history that I was not familiar with. The book itself is very attractive and contains historical photos and side-bars with additional information to supplement the story, as well as a glossary and prologue. While the subject matter itself is intriguing, I wanted more. Admittedly, there was very little the author had to go on, but still I craved to learn more. Sarah's voice is missing in this narrative and as a result, this one fell flat.
Those few criticisms aside, I would still recommend this book to kids and adults.
I was anxious to read about Sarah Rector and a slice of history that I was not familiar with. The book itself is very attractive and contains historical photos and side-bars with additional information to supplement the story, as well as a glossary and prologue. While the subject matter itself is intriguing, I wanted more. Admittedly, there was very little the author had to go on, but still I craved to learn more. Sarah's voice is missing in this narrative and as a result, this one fell flat.
Those few criticisms aside, I would still recommend this book to kids and adults.
March 12, 2014
While the promotional materials imply this book is about the disappearance of Sarah Rector, her short disappearance is barely mentioned. This book describes the plight of Sarah Rector and other wealthy minors who owned oil-rich land allotments. These children were often abused and raised in poor conditions while their court-appointed guardians plundered the children's earnings and estates.
An interesting topic that is little covered in history courses, I think this book provides a great resources for launching further inquiry or adding to our understanding of American culture and history during the early 20th Century. Tonya Bolden offers numerous primary sources and extensive source notes and references in the back.
An interesting topic that is little covered in history courses, I think this book provides a great resources for launching further inquiry or adding to our understanding of American culture and history during the early 20th Century. Tonya Bolden offers numerous primary sources and extensive source notes and references in the back.
May 26, 2014
An interesting start, but there just wasn't enough there to make a full book, so it felt like Bolden was stretching for a story. Sarah Rector was apparently one of many children in this situation (poor black children earning money off of oil-rich land), and I think if Bolden had focused on this group of children and had used Sarah Rector as one of a multitude of characters/storylines, the book would have been much stronger. I do think Bolden did her research, but she seemed to be grasping at straws that weren't there. That isn't her fault, but I think that at some point you have to give up on the original plan (a semi-biography of this girl and what happened to her) and switch to a more complete topic (a history of these children and this place/time period in history).
March 3, 2014
An interesting if incomplete and oddly titled slice of history. I didn't know anything about the convoluted relationship between the oilmen and the native and black populations in Oklahoma. That part was fascinating. What felt lacking is that there wasn't a whole lot of Sarah Rector, lost or otherwise. She was more the center point of the story than an actual part of it. Bolden mentions that in her research she was unable to find anything written by Sarah herself. Perhaps if the process of the research had be more a part of the narrative, why and how we were searching for Sarah would have been more clear.
June 4, 2014
What's here is good, but it feels very fragmentary. Several times over the course of the book the reader is told "We don't have the rest of the story about this." Even the names of key characters are speculative, and it takes the entire length of the book for the author to get around to telling us that one of the supposed villains of the story was actually a good guy. That was just strange.
After a while, the semi-informative text becomes incredibly frustrating, especially since the evidence the author has uncovered is so intriguing.
The photographs and historical context of the story are the reason why I have given it a third star, even with the half-a-story feel to it.
After a while, the semi-informative text becomes incredibly frustrating, especially since the evidence the author has uncovered is so intriguing.
The photographs and historical context of the story are the reason why I have given it a third star, even with the half-a-story feel to it.
July 5, 2014
This is a book full of information, photos, sidebars, and notes. There is everything you wanted to know about the Oklahoma oil boom, the African-Americans who lived in Indian Territory during the early 1900's, and good people and bad people, of both races. I thought this would read more like the other informational books for middle school students that I love, but unfortunately, this book left me with more questions than answers. The narrative does not flow like a story, in fact, it reads more like a dry history text. It seems as if there was just not enough actual data on Sarah Rector, and nothing in her own words, and so, it left me disappointed.
January 30, 2014
A catchy title but the rest of the book did not grab me. The sentence level writing in the first chapter was confusing to me, especially the pronouns. I felt like I needed to be back in fifth grade diagramming sentences to understand who did what. The time period maps are good time period photographs but were hard for me to understand, let alone a child. Otherwise and interesting story that did not live up to the catchy title. I felt like the "search" did not develop enough suspense or otherwise interest grabbing attention.
February 20, 2014
Not good. The narrative was wandering, such that it barely kept my interest. Again, I feel like Bolden has taken an impossibly specific event that is under documented and tried to create a fluff narrative out of wispy strands of facts.
The book didn't live up to the mystery of the title - spoiler alert - Sarah was never even missing! She had plenty of money for a while, but wasn't even well-off when she died.
Major let down. Do not recommend - unless you like to be tantalized with sensational titles and then totally let down by the weak story.
The book didn't live up to the mystery of the title - spoiler alert - Sarah was never even missing! She had plenty of money for a while, but wasn't even well-off when she died.
Major let down. Do not recommend - unless you like to be tantalized with sensational titles and then totally let down by the weak story.
July 30, 2014
This beginning of this book, which set the scene about the Indian Territories, was a little tough for me to read. I wasn't understanding everything clearly.
I was disappointed in this book. It seemed like it was going to be this big historical mystery but it just turned out to be a story about a reporter who wrote a story that had incorrect facts in it.
The positives for this book: talked about an area of Black History that isn't really known about by most people
I was disappointed in this book. It seemed like it was going to be this big historical mystery but it just turned out to be a story about a reporter who wrote a story that had incorrect facts in it.
The positives for this book: talked about an area of Black History that isn't really known about by most people
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2014
Interesting part of history--had not realized that free blacks living with Native American tribes were often enslaved and that after the Civil War they received land allotments.
November 9, 2022
I would rate the book a 10/10 because it tells the story of a person so young who had a lot of fights i. her to try to make this right in the world. In the book, Searching for Sarah Rector. The author Tonya Bolden did a great job telling the story of Sarah Rector. Sarah was born on March 3, 1902, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She lived with her parents and 5 siblings, to understand Sarah's story we have to look at her ancestors who declared freedom. Growing up Sarah and her family were very poor and had to find different ways just to survive. The book is about how Sarah was famously announced as "the richest black girl in America." Sarah's story helps the creation of Indian Territory, the making of Oklahoma, and the foundation of black towns and oil-rich boomtowns. Sarah became famous and fortunate at the young age of eleven, but before she could get to that point she had to go through a lot of ups and down and crimes carried out by greedy adults. I would use this book in my classroom for diversity purposes and greed. I would want my students to know that they can do anything they put their minds to but to not let greed or money get in the way of their dreams. An idea I would have to use this book as an activity is to have the students come up with ways to help the community.
February 27, 2023
After seeing the post circulating on Facebook about Sarah, I wanted to find out if it was real.
The post, and the promotion of the book on the back cover, perpetuate the idea that Sarah was at some time actually missing, perhaps kidnapped. This was never true as the author does illustrate.
The problem is that Sarah left no voice - no diary, letters, or interviews. Therefore the story of her life is very impersonal.
There is a great deal of background information on the treatment of the Creeks and the Creek freedmen. I was a middle-school librarian for 30 years and feel that many of the "sidebars" to explain other material were a distraction from the main story. I think some children would have lost the thread of the main text because of those sidebars - I almost lost it a couple of times.
It is certainly well-sourced for a young adult book but I doubt many students would just pick it up if they didn't need to.
For an adult account of the attempts to swindle Native Americans out of their oil leases, I recommend "Killers of the Flower Moon". I believe the incident of the woman and her children being blown up is explored more in that book.
The post, and the promotion of the book on the back cover, perpetuate the idea that Sarah was at some time actually missing, perhaps kidnapped. This was never true as the author does illustrate.
The problem is that Sarah left no voice - no diary, letters, or interviews. Therefore the story of her life is very impersonal.
There is a great deal of background information on the treatment of the Creeks and the Creek freedmen. I was a middle-school librarian for 30 years and feel that many of the "sidebars" to explain other material were a distraction from the main story. I think some children would have lost the thread of the main text because of those sidebars - I almost lost it a couple of times.
It is certainly well-sourced for a young adult book but I doubt many students would just pick it up if they didn't need to.
For an adult account of the attempts to swindle Native Americans out of their oil leases, I recommend "Killers of the Flower Moon". I believe the incident of the woman and her children being blown up is explored more in that book.
July 15, 2018
I started off this book so excited...and then it just didn't deliver. There's so much interesting historical context here about ways that white Americans forced American Indians off their land, and the ways in which enslaved and formerly enslaved African Americans ended up moving west with American Indians as part of the Trail of Tears and other forced migration efforts.
But when it comes to information about Sarah Rector herself, this book offers very little (perhaps because there isn't much available?). I was expecting a fascinating story of striking it rich on oil fields, how that affected the family, and then the spectacle around her supposed kidnapping and other reported events in Sarah's life. But no, there isn't really much there (even the kidnapping isn't more than a few sentences about how some newspapers said she was kidnapped but that didn't actually seem to happen). Oh well.
But when it comes to information about Sarah Rector herself, this book offers very little (perhaps because there isn't much available?). I was expecting a fascinating story of striking it rich on oil fields, how that affected the family, and then the spectacle around her supposed kidnapping and other reported events in Sarah's life. But no, there isn't really much there (even the kidnapping isn't more than a few sentences about how some newspapers said she was kidnapped but that didn't actually seem to happen). Oh well.
March 17, 2018
Sarah was born in 1902 to two "Creek freedman" in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Any Creek born before March 4, 1906, received an allotment of 160 acres, more or less. Young Sarah's just happened to have oil. In the boom days before 1920, she made a lot of money. An adult guardian was supposed to be in place for minors. He father was listed as her guardian for awhile, then her parents chose a local judge, know for his honesty.
This is an excellent example of a nonfiction book.
This calls to mind a recent adult book, Killers of the Flower Moon about the Osage tribe's oil-rich land and the possible murders by their guardians.
This is an excellent example of a nonfiction book.
This calls to mind a recent adult book, Killers of the Flower Moon about the Osage tribe's oil-rich land and the possible murders by their guardians.
January 20, 2017
Sarah Rector was hailed as a the Richest Black Girl in America. She acquired her fortune at age 11. People viewed her as naïve and dumb because of her age. However those people who thought that way were also trying to take advantage of her wealth. With the help of interviews and documents her story comes to life against the backdrop of American history encompassing Indian territory, oil rich boomtowns and more.
This book is great for grades 3 to 8
Great for black history month and for a display
This book is great for grades 3 to 8
Great for black history month and for a display
April 5, 2023
The title of this book caught my eye and I had to read it. I found it very interesting both for what was in it and what wasn't. I can only imagine the amount of time it took this author to research all this information because even with all that research it was hard to understand why so much was missing and confusing. I should restate that. It was sad and frustrating to realize that the information about these circumstances were missing and so blatantly ignored at the time. Just another example of so much sad inequality in our country.
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