Review: Longform essay: "Sarah's Riches" by Tonya Bolden

Sarah's Riches by Tonya Bolden
Published October 2025 via Amazon Original Stories

Sarah Rector was an unlikely oil magnate—a young Black child born to a poor family in Oklahoma in 1902, there was probably no expectation that she would have options other than to get a basic education, maybe marry young, maybe someday have a slightly easier life than her parents did. But her Muscogee Creek background entitled her to land under the Treaty of 1866, and though that land at first seemed worthless, it eventually paid out in unexpected dividends and then some, in the form of a gush of oil money.

This is a book partly about Sarah Rector, of course, but just as much it's about early 1900s racism, legal and otherwise. As a minor child, Rector was appointed guardians for her money; as a Black minor child, her parents were not allowed to serve as those guardians (decisions would almost certainly have been different for a White child who came into unexpected money). Bolden is quick to note the ways in which Rector's unexpected wealth made a tremendous difference in her life her family's lives, but just as quick to note the ways in which it didn't make a difference—money didn't change one's rights in the face of Jim Crow laws, and it exposed Rector to all sorts of threats that the average person didn't (and doesn't) face. I'd never heard of Rector before reading this essay, and without knowing her fate I found myself anxious to see what would happen next, whether enough people with Rector's best interests in mind would be, and stay, involved to keep her safe from predators. (No spoilers, but it is kind of telling just how much relied on the good intentions and knowhow of a very few people.)

Sarah's Riches is a little unusual as far as these Amazon Original Stories go, but I'd love to see more in this vein—it's a little slice of history that I might never have come across otherwise.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.