She Was Born In Chains. She Died A Millionaire.

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]She was born on a cotton plantation in Louisiana in 1867.

[00:00:05]Her parents were enslaved people who had just been freed two years before her birth. By the time she was seven, both of them were dead. By the time she was 20, she was a widow with a daughter and no money. By 1919, she was the wealthiest self-made woman in the United States. Not the wealthiest black woman, the wealthiest self-made woman, period.

[00:00:29]And in the century since her death, her name has appeared in fewer than 4% of American history textbooks. This is the file on Sarah Breedlove, the woman the world knew as Madam C.J. Walker. Delta, Louisiana, 1867.