Arizona’s Mail Order Brides

Many know the stories of how young, white woman from the East Coast traveled West to marry men who paid their train tickets—looking for a new life and hopefully, a good man. What's little known is that in Arizona, this is how many young black women came to the territory. Arizona mining camps were filled with young black men and older black widowers—but they weren't the one who came up with the mail order bride idea. That came from the married African-American women already in the territory.