In 1865 the Civil War in the United States ended, the government of Washington signed a treaty with the Cherokee nation: in gratitude for the services rendered during the conflict, they were granted nationality and 64 hectares of land. Every member of the Cherokee nation was entitled to this. Even the slaves… And it is that this tribe was the one with the most people in slavery. In 1809, they had about 600 enslaved Africans, but by 1860 the number had risen to 4,000. Sarah Rector was the daughter of one of these slaves, and as such, not only did she gain nationality, along with her five siblings. She also received a 64-hectare piece of land. Obviously the lands granted were not good agricultural lands, they were not well located either…they were rubbish that nobody wanted.
The parcel assigned to Sarah Rector was located in Glenpool, 97 km from where she and her family lived. There was nothing to tempt them to settle there. The family lived simply and, although they were not poor, the property tax that they had to pay each year for the plots was more than 30 dollars per year for each one (about 750 euros today). It was a considerable amount and Sarah’s father applied to the local court for a permit to sell the land, but the request was denied due to certain restrictions placed on the land, so he was required to continue paying the taxes… fortunately for the Sarah’s family
To help cover this expense, in February 1911, Joseph Rector, Sarah’s father, leased his daughter’s parcel to the Standard Oil Company. Two years later, a tentative exploration was carried out… and an oil jet was produced that allowed the extraction of 2,500 barrels of oil per day… ten times more than what all of Spain currently produces. From that moment Sarah began to receive a daily income of 300 dollars (more than 7,000 current euros).
Obviously this did not go unnoticed. The law at that time stated that if the member of one of the tribes recognized by the government or if an African American who had obtained nationality by living in Indian territory, had a significant amount of money, a white guardian would be given to ” educate them”. Sarah’s earnings, meanwhile, increased and in October 1913, she received profits of $11,567, almost 300,000 euros today. The amount of money that she accumulated every month caught the attention of many people and she began to receive requests for loans, gifts and marriage proposals, even though she was only 12 years old. But the strangest thing was that in 1913 and due to the amount of money she had accumulated, Oklahoma legislators requested that Sarah be declared white, which would allow her to take advantage of the benefits of her new position and, for example, travel first class. class on trains without breaking the law.
By the time she turned 18, Sarah had already surpassed a million euros in profits, currently 25 million euros, had shares, businesses and had bought more than 810 hectares of very valuable land. She got married, had three children, got divorced and died happily. And she very rich. Sarah Rector, the woman who was declared white…for money.