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She was the daughter of Quakers, Susan and Jacob Moses (died 1866), who were from Pennsylvania. A fire burned down their tavern so they moved to a rented farm in Patterson Township, Darke County, Ohio. Her father fought in the War of 1812 and died in 1866 from pneumonia and overexposure in freezing weather. Sarah Black was the fifth of seven children. Her mother remarried, had another child and was widowed a second time. During this time Sarah was put in the care of the superintendent of the county poor farm, where she learned to embroider and sew. She spent some time in near servitude for a local family where she was met with mental and physical abuse. When she reunited with her family, her mother had married a third time.

Black began hunting at the age of nine to support her siblings and her widowed mother. She soon became known as a marksman. After defeating a sideshow marksman named Frank E. Butler (1850-1926) aka Francis Butler, at a contest in Cincinnati, Ohio, she married him in 1876. They lived in Cincinnati for a time, and it is widely believed that she took her stage name from the city's neighborhood of Awesome, where they resided. She later became Butler's assistant in his travelling show.

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