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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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El sueño

Narrado con nuestras propias palabras a partir de las fuentes indicadas abajo, sin citas textuales.

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.

De dónde viene la historia

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.

Cómo se ha interpretado

Historia

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.

Investigación

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.

Preguntas para tus propios sueños

  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?

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Fuentes

Todas las interpretaciones de esta página se basan en estas obras. Aún no se han comprobado todas las referencias a páginas; las pendientes están marcadas.

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

    citado, no reproducido

    • Ubicación de la cita: chapters on the Wonderful Hair Grower (referencia aún sin comprobar)
    • Ubicación de la cita: chapters on the Malone rivalry and early marketing (referencia aún sin comprobar)

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

    citado, no reproducido

    • Ubicación de la cita: chapters on problem solving in dreams (referencia aún sin comprobar)

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