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Madam C. J. WalkerAround 1904-1905, St. Louis or Denver

Madam C. J. Walker's dream formula

America's first great Black businesswoman said the recipe for her hair grower came to her in a dream. The story helped sell it too.

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Der Traum

Nach den unten genannten Quellen in eigenen Worten nacherzählt, nicht zitiert.

Sarah Breedlove, later known as Madam C. J. Walker, was losing her hair, as many women did at the time because of scalp disease and harsh washing products. She said she prayed for a remedy.

In a dream, she said, a big Black man appeared and told her what to mix for her hair. Some of the ingredients came from Africa, so she sent for them, mixed the formula, tried it on her own scalp and found her hair growing back faster than it was falling out.

Woher die Geschichte stammt

Walker told this story publicly in the 1910s, when she had built one of the largest Black-owned businesses in America, selling hair products and training thousands of Black women as agents. Her great-great-granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles, tells it in her biography On Her Own Ground (2001).

Before starting her own company, Walker had worked as an agent for Annie Turnbo Malone, whose products had a similar name and also used sulfur. Malone accused her of copying, and the rivalry lasted for years.

Wie der Traum gedeutet wurde

Geschichte

Historians read the dream as both sincere and strategic. A formula revealed in a dream belonged to Walker alone, which answered the charge that she had borrowed it, and it gave her product a story that her customers, many of them churchgoing women, found moving.

Forschung

A person who has been anxiously searching for a solution often dreams about it, and some wake with an answer that combines things they already know. Walker had been experimenting with remedies and had sold another woman's products; a dream could plausibly have pulled those pieces together.

Fragen zu deinen eigenen Träumen

  1. Have you ever dreamed about your hair, or about losing something that is part of you?
  2. What problem have you prayed or wished about so hard that it followed you into sleep?
  3. Whose idea helped yours along, and how do you give them credit?

Symbole in diesem Traum

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Meinen Traum erzählen

Quellen

Jede Deutung auf dieser Seite stammt aus diesen Werken. Noch sind nicht alle Seitenangaben geprüft. Ausstehende Prüfungen sind gekennzeichnet.

  1. A'Lelia Bundles (2001). On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker. New York: Scribner.

    als Quelle angeführt, nicht vervielfältigt

    • Fundstelle: chapters on the Wonderful Hair Grower (Fundstelle noch nicht geprüft)
    • Fundstelle: chapters on the Malone rivalry and early marketing (Fundstelle noch nicht geprüft)

  2. Deirdre Barrett (2001). The Committee of Sleep. New York: Crown.

    als Quelle angeführt, nicht vervielfältigt

    • Fundstelle: chapters on problem solving in dreams (Fundstelle noch nicht geprüft)

    Harvard psychologist on dreams and creative problem solving, with historical examples.