5. Madam C. J. Walker Had a Turbulent Early Life and Was Orphaned at 7 Years Old
Sarah Breedlove was born in 1867 on a cotton plantation. Her parents, Owen and Minerva (Anderson) Breedlove, were both former slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. She was the youngest of five children, and the only one born free after the Emancipation Proclamation. Her mother died, possibly of cholera, when she was only five. Her father re-married but died shortly after. After becoming orphaned, she moved to Mississippi and found employment as a domestic worker.
At only 14, Sarah married her first husband, Moses McWilliams. It is believed that she may have married young to escape the abuse of her brother-in-law. She had her only child, a daughter named Lelia McWilliams, in 1885. Moses died when Sarah was only 20 and her child a mere 2. She was forced into hard labor to support her daughter. She remarried in 1894 but left her second husband in the early 1900s.
It wasn’t until she moved to Denver, Colorado in 1905 that she found her calling in the hair care industry and met the man who would become her third and final husband and business partner, Charles Joseph Walker. However, this marriage ended in divorce as well with the couple separating in 1912 after six years of marriage. Her daughter, who continued her philanthropic legacy after her death, adopted Charles’ surname and became A’Lelia Walker.