Sarah Bickford Revisited

Historians have long told the story of Sarah Gammon Bickford. From slave to Virginia City businesswoman, her life was remarkable.  She was born in North Carolina, and when Sarah was young, her parents were sold and she never saw them again. After the Civil War, she traveled to Virginia City in 1871 as governess to the children of the John L. Murphy family. She soon married John Brown, a white miner, and they had three children. As the story goes, by 1881 two young sons and her...