WEBVTT - Sideshow 2: The Long Way Home 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:04.240 This episode features some sensitive material about sexual coercion and 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:09.400 exploitation that may be uncomfortable for some listener. Discretion is advised. 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:22.480 She was tiny, she was captivating, and she was also very, 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.080 very old. When Johann Vernon plucked her from the Danube 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.960 River soil near the village of villen Dorf in Austria, 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.040 he knew that she was something special. Standing at four 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.400 and a half inches tall, he held her in the 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.199 palm of his hand. She had a ruddy tint to 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.879 her braided hair and a big belly. At tens of 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.680 thousands of years old, she became one of the oldest 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:49.559 known Paleolithic artifacts, and she's not alone. In fact, she's 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.960 one of dozens of similar figurines that archaeologists have found. 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:58.560 But who was she really Maybe she was modeled after 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.520 a living woman. Maybe she was a self portrait of 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.080 the artist. Some have even suggested that her wide hips 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.640 and large breasts suggest that she was a fertility fetish. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.520 It's hard to say. We can never really know. The 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:16.120 truth is. The archaeology is a discipline of best guesses. 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.679 It has long been the purview of dominating cultures, who 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:23.479 throughout history have taken their shovels, their dynamite and their 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.679 packing crates, and helped themselves to whatever they wanted. This 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.920 means that the interpretations of the objects and the stories 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:35.080 we tell about them are always filtered through a contemporary lens. 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.399 So when archaeologists looked at this pint sized woman, they 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.600 just couldn't help but project their ideas and beliefs about 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.039 sexuality and beauty onto her. They gave her a name, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.360 the Venus of Willendorff, and that name Venus is a 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.320 very specific choice. It was meant to evoke a particular image, 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.680 the goddess of beauty and the white marble bodies so 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:01.040 favored by the Greco, Roman, Elite and Renaissance painters. But 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:05.760 our Venus, tiny, red and round, stands in stark relief 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.440 to this more contemporary Western idea of beauty. They are 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.359 total opposites. We have to wonder what the archaeologists were 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:18.280 hinting at. Because names hold power. They change how we see, 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:24.239 They create our reality, and sometimes our name is something 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:29.880 we don't get to choose for ourselves. I'm Aaron Manky, 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:43.440 and welcome to this side show. Sarki Bartman looked back 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.959 towards table mountain and thought of home. She had lived 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.160 in Cape Town for a decade. By ten it had 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.040 become a booming city, situated at the meeting of two 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:57.799 different oceans, and for her two different lives. She never 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.840 had much time to herself. Her life as domestic servant 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.040 kept her busy, but her personal life was rich. She 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.720 spoke multiple languages, frequented taverns, laughed with friends, and fell 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.920 in love. Standing on the boat's deck, Sarky took a 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.400 moment to daydream. She touched the tortoise shell necklace around 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.920 her neck, and she closed her eyes. She thought of 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.800 the storms barreling in off the eastern coast, and of 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.600 her handsome father high on horseback. She pictured the faces 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.680 of her family, her friends, all of whose land had 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:33.000 been encroached upon, fought over, and stolen. The Dutch had 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:38.040 been greedy, they had wanted everything. She pictured the chaos 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:42.080 of the colonial frontier, the traders, the missionaries, the farmers, 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.760 the dissidents, the scientists, and the explorers. She thought about 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.600 the gun smoke that lingered over the valleys, and about 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.600 the bloody raids on her home. And then one day, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.720 amidst all of this, something happened that would forever change 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.680 the course of her life. She met a trader named 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:02.480 Peter Caesar's and he decided that she would join him. 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.920 Sarki was probably purchased from the Dutch landholders she worked for. 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.400 Slavery was common in the colonies, although it was against 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:12.920 the rules to enslave indigenous people. If Sarki was ever 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:17.000 compensated for her labor, though, that's an unanswered question. She 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.680 thought about the bleached human bones that she passed on 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.880 her five hundred mile trek with Peter toward the colonial capital. 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.799 They belonged to her neighbors in Cape Town. She moved 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.240 from house to house, taking jobs in Peter's small network. 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.000 She was installed in the home of his brother Henrik, 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.440 his wife Anna Catherine, and their baby, all of whom 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.440 worked for a fellow by the name of Alexander Dunlop. 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.000 Alexander was a crusty fifty one year old surgeon at 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.200 a local hospital. He had once traveled the world, but 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.760 today he had a problem. You see, this was the 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.960 end of the line for him and he knew it. 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:56.240 Retirement was looming and with it imminent poverty. He was 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.080 on the lookout for another way to make money. Another 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.479 hustle if you will, and when he met Sarkee, his 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.599 gears turned as an idea took shape. In that moment, rich, 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:11.760 powerful countries were growing hungrier for foreign treasures they pillaged, plundered, 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.960 and hoarded, and the general public wanted to see the 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.400 fruits of their conquests and to visit museum's chock full 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:22.200 of exotic wonders. And sometimes those wonders came in the 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:26.720 form of people. England's newly acquired Cape Colony was an 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:31.600 object of much European fascination, and in Alexander's mind, Sarkee 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:35.159 morphed into a living, breathing artifact in Cape Town. The 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.760 tiny woman looked much like other members of her tribe, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.960 dubbed the hotten Tots, which was a Dutch slur that 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:45.080 meant to stammer. But in London she would be an anomaly. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.440 You see. By the end of the eighteenth century, European 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:53.080 scientists had become fascinated with her people Careless Linnaeus, famous 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.880 for his system of scientific classifications of genus and species, 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.920 had categorized Sarkee's clan as Homo say Beans monstrous. According 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.040 to him, her tribe, with their clicking language and striking 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.080 physical features might be closer to animals than humans, the 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:13.200 missing link, he suggested. Alexander wanted to take this idea 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.599 and run with it. He wanted to make Sarky a 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.320 star and make himself money, so he spun up a 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.080 deal with Henrik and sark They would go on tour 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.559 to England for six years and split the profits along 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:29.120 the way. Now we don't know if Sarkey had any 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.080 say in the matter, but we can hope that this 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.400 new endeavor felt promising to her, although certainly not without 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.359 a complicated power dynamic. She wasn't free, but she knew 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.960 that she was freer than some, and with that they 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.800 had a verbal agreement. The group would set sail in 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:49.480 April of eighteen ten. The cold salt spray shook her 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.680 from her day dream. The boat rocked beneath her, her 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:56.200 sea legs held on table mountain. Now a mere speck 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.800 in the distance was gone, dodging a tangle of sales 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.599 and ropes. We can imagine her stretching out over the 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.000 side of the ship and trying to catch a glimpse 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.479 of what may lie ahead. Just out of you. She 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.680 had left her home and poison arrived in Cape Town 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.280 as a hot and tot and was leaving Cape Town 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.560 as Sarkey. But soon she would be something else. Entirely, 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:35.320 she would become the venus. Sarky could hear the crowd 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:39.200 murmuring from her place behind the curtains. This, she told herself, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.320 is what she came for. A pipe clenched between her 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.280 teeth and her head held high. She pulled her shoulders 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.280 back and stepped onto stage, a platform in front of 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.880 a glass hut, and then she struck a pose. It 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.960 was September and the first day of the rest of 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.800 her life. She was illuminated by oil lamps and looked 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.440 like a golden goddess. She was draped in furs, beads, 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:07.000 and feathers, a pint sized show girl dressed to the nines. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.960 Looking down from her stage, she met the audience with 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.679 her firm stare. Some of them gocked, some of them winced. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.520 The crowd today had come to watch Sarkee pose, sing, 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.720 and play her guitar. The room was packed with men 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:25.000 in top hats and ladies with folded parasols. Human curiosities 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.880 had become all the rage, and at two shillings ahead, 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.520 the price to come see. Sarkey was well within the 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.000 means of many city dwellers, and after all, she was 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:38.720 the newest show in town. Piccadilly Circus was London's entertainment 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.440 district at the time. It was known for a cultural 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:46.000 slurry of science and showmanship. Entertainers doled out their latest acts, 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.600 while scientists and explorers enthusiastically shared their new discoveries. The 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.240 general public didn't really care or know how to differentiate. 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:59.360 They just came to be entertained. Alexander had dubbed Sarkey 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.160 the Hot and Taught venus the moniker, of course, being 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.439 a reference to her figure. It denoted an explicit contradictory 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:11.000 mixture of the savage ironic and the civilized beauty. Sure 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.000 Londoners had seen Hot and Taught visitors before, but Alexander 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.000 and Henrick were selling dreams of a natural wonder, a 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.080 whole new species. They were playing to the imagination of 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:25.760 the lowest common denominator. The audience was teased and tantalized. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.679 What an impeccable specimen, they thought, What an extraordinary body, 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.440 and they whispered? Were the rumors about the size and 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.240 shape of Hot and Taught Genitalia true. Her slick body 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.840 stocking and strategically placed for pelts insinuated that it might be, 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.480 and their plan worked. London descended into a fever pitch. 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.240 The city loved her, and soon she went from being 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:54.760 an unprotected, undocumented immigrant to a society darling seemingly overnight, 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.480 the city was plastered with posters, cartoons of her, appeared 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:03.360 in print papers, and published poetry about her. On briskfall 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.920 Sunday afternoons, she began taking long carriage rides around the 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.320 city to see and be seen. And two things happened 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.560 that set a cascade of events in motion. First, a 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:20.040 few weeks in, Sarky got the flu, and second, someone laughed. Now, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.880 I can only speak for myself, but I hate working 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.080 when I'm sick, and I don't have to see anyone 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.360 for Sarkee. On the other hand, the show had to 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.960 go on. According to the story, she was in the 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.680 middle of a performance, filling, worn out and feverish when 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.600 someone in the audience heckled her. She swung at him 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.960 with her guitar and can you blame her? But here's 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.120 where it takes a turn. Henrick, who had modeled himself 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.320 as her, agent in all of this seized the moment, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.520 declaring her to be wild as a beast. In fact, 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.920 he reveled in her displeasure. After that, the audiences began 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.720 watching more closely. She began to protest more, pushing back 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.800 against Henrick and against irritating audience members as well. And 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.240 then a few weeks into the show, a man by 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.320 the name of Zachary Macauley showed up, adding a new 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.520 level of conflict to her situation. Why because he was 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.240 an abolitionist with a bone to pick. You see, he 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.280 had grown up a slaver in Jamaica, but somewhere along 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.360 the way he had a change of heart. Now he 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.079 ran with a very small, very wealthy group of people 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.240 who were trying to do away with slavery in the 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.800 British colonies. As you might imagine, what he saw before 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.920 him on that London stage looked very much like slavery. 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.520 Zachary was furious. He fired off a letter to the press, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:44.200 wanting to prove that Sarky was enslaved. Alexander fired one back, 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.080 though he wanted to know didn't she have as much 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.560 right to show herself as an Irish giant or a dwarf. 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.640 The ebolitionist Zachary questioned whether she could even consent to 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.040 showing herself. He said that slavery was a matter of kind, 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.720 not degree. So Alexander and Henrick quickly hired a lawyer 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.160 to draft a written contract for Sarkey, and of course 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.480 had it backdated to their departure from Cape Town months earlier. 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.280 But in all of this, if you can believe it, 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:15.360 no one asked Sarky about the matter. That was until 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:22.080 the case went to trial on November ten. Picture this cold, drafty, 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:27.520 dimly lit halls, pale skin, white wigs, and equally white men, 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.199 all fighting over this woman, who, should they ask her, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.240 might actually have an opinion on the matter. Zachary had 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.840 assumed that Sarki wanted to go home. He had also 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:41.160 very incorrectly assumed that no one else around could speak 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:43.679 enough of her language to ask her. But then, of 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.280 course he figured he'd try. Right there in the courtroom, 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:51.480 Sarki was read a translation of the contract twice. Then 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.040 the prosecutors asked her if she'd preferred to stay in 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:58.680 England or to return home. We can't know her body language, 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:00.840 we don't know what sort of x sppression she wore, 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.959 but the records do tell us what she said. She 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:09.040 simply replied, stay here. Sarki later gave an interview to 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.000 the court. She spoke of life in South Africa, of 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.280 her childhood, and of her situation in London, and it 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.080 is one of the only places that history has committed 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.240 her words to the record. But the interview was conducted 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:25.360 in her language, then translated to Dutch and finally to English, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.200 so we can only imagine how with each step in 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.640 the process more and more of the true meaning was lost. 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.560 And we're also left with some questions how openly and 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.000 honestly could she actually speak? Did she live in fear 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.440 of Alexander and Henrick or was she actually annoyed by 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:46.840 the court for crimping her style during her shine Because remember, 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.200 had she gone back to South Africa, she would have 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.480 been classified as an imbecile, hot and taught by the government. 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.360 There in London, she had the ability to earn money, 0:13:55.600 --> 0:14:00.400 fame and adoration. Clearly, freedom looked a lot different, pending 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.920 on where she lived. By the end of that October, 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.880 sark and her crew had won their right to keep exhibiting. 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.440 Months later, in May of eighteen eleven, they closed their 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.400 show and hit the road, and then suddenly and quietly, 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.680 Alexander passed away in July of eighteen twelve. With him gone, 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.400 Sark's contract was null and void. Any assurance that she 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.080 would be able to return home to South Africa was gone, 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.400 and it's here that history lost track of her and Henrik. 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.040 When they finally resurfaced a while later in Paris, all 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:37.720 was not well. Because Sarki was headed towards imminent danger. 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.200 George Cuvier had a problem. He may have been a 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:55.000 brilliant thinker, but he was also deeply flawed, deeply insecure, 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.960 and deeply paranoid. His field was comparative biology, and while 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.400 he may have helped Paris become the world center for 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.920 the study of natural history, he wasn't resting on his laurels. 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.200 He was competitive, and rather than seeing his colleagues as collaborators, 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:14.320 he often saw them as frenemies. He was always looking 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.000 for the next best thing. So when a poster of 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.400 the Hot and Taught Venus arrived in his mailbox, along 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.800 with an invitation to meet Sarkey in person, well it 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.720 was a surprise that he declined. Sarki and a man 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.000 going by the name Henry Taylor, believed by some historians 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.280 to beat Henrik Caesar's under a false name, shrugged off 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.360 the rejection. Despite the setback, Sarky and Henry went about 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.720 setting up shop. Her appearance was announced in the Spectacles 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.960 section of the newspaper, and in Paris, Sarki was exuberant. 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.880 She initially took on the city with vigor and got 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.640 to work, performing for up to ten hours a day. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.920 It was a busy schedule too. She performed in the theater, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:16:00.280 but also appeared in debaucherous late night salon's, elegant balls, 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:05.440 and buzzing cafes and restaurants. But this energy wouldn't last 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.640 for long. Sarki was burning out and she was sick 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:12.800 again with another bout of flu plus pneumonia. Nothing could 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.480 help her sleep, and no amount of brandy could help 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.320 her exhaustion. By the end of eighteen fourteen, Sarki was 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.239 confined to bed. She was too ill to keep performing, 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.040 and Henry was too cheap to get her medical care 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.200 that she clearly needed. He realized that despite all her 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:32.440 hard work and hustle, his wallet was growing thin. She 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.200 was becoming a liability, and after all this time, Henry 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:40.280 realized that he was beholden to no one without Sark's knowledge. 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:42.600 He sold his rights to the show, and then he 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.360 slipped away, and just like that, her business partner and 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.560 companion had vanished the sark It must have felt like 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:54.120 a fever dream, a sickness induced hallucination, but it wasn't. 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.200 We don't know much about the man who stepped in, 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.840 but history remembers him as row, part dandy, part animal trainer, 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.560 and part time animal resurrectionist. He was familiar with the 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:10.000 underground body economy. Roe was well connected to the scientific world, 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.320 and he wanted to make good on something Henry has 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.159 suggested to him. Perhaps he should cut a deal with 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:19.560 the Natural History Museum and attempt another audience with George Cuvier. 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.160 The scientist and his cronies might be interested in Sarke. 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.920 So Rowe approached him with his pitch, and this time 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.680 George was all ears. We don't know what had changed 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:31.719 since the first time, but it's clear that he had 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.679 begun to see the possibilities that Sarki offered to the 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.639 science of comparative anatomy, and so George made a visit 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.240 to the newest iteration of her show. On stage, Sarky 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.639 was caged. She appeared to be a held captive and 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:50.480 was displayed alongside a baby rhino sitting standing lying down 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.880 on command row. It seems had positioned himself as her trainer, 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.199 and clearly he was in charge now that spring, Sarky 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.840 strolled into the Chardon Duplants, passed its maze of gardens, 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:07.040 squawking flamingos and desert cacti. Roe had signed her up 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.800 to pose for George and his team of scientists, a 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.879 still life made of flesh. They were more accustomed to 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.440 painting plants and animals, but to be honest, Sarki wasn't 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.000 that much different to them. Sarki, accustomed to the eyes 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.080 of men, stood tall. They looked at her, and she 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.920 looked back, but this time their eyes roamed in a 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.240 way that suggested something a bit more sinister. The room 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.560 glowed in that familiar lamplight, and the scratching of their 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.960 charcoal captured her figure. And then they finally asked would 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.400 she take off her clothes? Sarky felt the heat rise 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.600 in her chest. How dare they? She had never once 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.600 posed nude, and she wasn't about to start now. For 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.800 all those years, her body Stocking merely gave the illusion 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.600 of nudity, but that was all it was. But what 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:57.159 these men were asking for was something completely different. For 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.440 over two hundred fifty years, colonial travelers had old tales 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.320 about female hot and taught bodies think locker room talk 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.280 for sailors. But suddenly scientists wanted to know if they 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.280 could use this lore in search of fact. They wondered 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:12.639 if her body held the key to finally proving that 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.639 South Africa's indigenous people were a distinctly different species than 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.879 white Europeans. George's mind stirred as Sarky posed for him. 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.960 He became obsessed with her, and he wanted to possess 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:27.960 her body and all the secrets that had held Sarky resisted, though, 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.400 and for three days she stood there still. They kept 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.880 hounding her, hoping to wear her down. It didn't help 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:37.680 that she was sick again. We can imagine the pressure 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.560 cooker of her situation, the coercion, the fatigue, and the 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.080 obviously disgusting behavior on the part of the men. And 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.960 while I can't speak for women, I have to imagine 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.840 the pressure of just wanting to stop was horrific and sadly, 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.640 Sarky did what most women who feel pressure do. She relented, 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.240 deciding it might be easier to just give the ugly, 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.480 hungry men what they want. She agreed to disrobe, but 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.639 still retained her modesty by using a handkerchief as her 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.560 fig leaf. We don't know if Sarki knew this while 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.639 standing there, but the truth was she was dying. She 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.760 had never recovered from her illnesses that passed winter, and 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.680 she was too worn down. She slipped from life in 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:21.040 the early days of eighteen fifteen, the exact date unknown 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.639 and the cause still debated by scholars. Like many of 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.840 her stories, she took this one with her too. But 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:31.640 then something really interesting happened, because although Sarki was gone, 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.600 the venus lived on. You see what happened next was 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.920 nothing short of ghastly. It turns out that Roe and 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.600 Cuvier had cut a deal, so when Sarki died, Roe 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.280 quickly wrapped up her body, put her in a cart, 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.840 and brought her back to the lab, and at his workstation, 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.840 Cuvier and his team got to work. They pressed knives 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.440 into her skin, lopping off the top of her skull 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.479 and excavating her brain, they stripped flesh from muscle. They 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.760 carved out her chest and belly, removing her internal organs. 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:06.160 And after that, the moment Cuvier had been waiting for arrived. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.640 He cut out Sark's genitalia. I'll spare you the most 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.440 intimate details of this horrific violation, but when he was finished, 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.720 he pickled her organs in a bell jar. He would 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.960 take these pieces of her body, along with her reassembled skeleton, 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.320 for his own possession. In fact, they would be displayed 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.720 outside the door of his room until he died. Shortly 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.200 after the dissection, he announced to the world that from 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.920 his study of her body, he was able to conclude 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.800 that the hot and toots were indeed closer relatives to 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.440 primates than people. It was simple. He had concocted a 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:45.040 confirmation to fit his hypothesis. It was all very convenient, 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.720 and with this her body had become the example upon 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.520 which the foundation for scientific racism was built, a theory 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:56.359 from which eugenics appeared, a principle that fractured a great nation, 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.760 and a rationalization from which the Nazis devised their final 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.920 Lucian a school of thought that the world has never 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:20.760 recovered from the soul of Sarkee was gone, and there 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:23.000 are parts of her story that she took with her. 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:25.920 To sit here in the age of information and still 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:30.639 have questions about the basics. Well, it feels unfathomable, but 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:33.479 it does make sense. After all, we have to remember 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:37.119 who throughout history has largely controlled how the details were 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.680 written down. We may never know her childhood name, or 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.760 her birthday, or for who or what she may have grieved. 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.960 Scholars have spent years trying to put together the missing 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:50.600 pieces which have been spread across continents and across time, 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.280 but the truth is those things might be gone forever, 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.159 and for a long time after her death, Sarki was 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:01.359 not allowed to rest. She had many visitors, of course, 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.880 perhaps even more in death than in life. But even 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:08.200 though the mortal Sarkee Bartman died, the specter of the 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:12.400 hot and taught Venus lived on. Between eighteen twenty two 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:16.600 and the nineteen fifties, her skeleton, body, cast brain and 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:19.840 genitals were all on display at the Parisian Museum of 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.000 Natural History. She went in and out of storage at 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:27.000 various points after that, but in nineteen two, museum officials 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:32.120 finally removed her from public viewing. Suddenly her display seemed wrong. 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:37.840 In nineteen four, South African President Nelson Mandela began his 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:41.920 efforts to have her repatriated. At first, France was hesitant. 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.800 After all, if they sent Sarkee home, wouldn't it create 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:48.680 a cascade of more and more repatriation requests. Would their 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.640 museums even have artifacts left after it was all said 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:54.760 and done. After a drawn out legal battle, the French 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:58.320 Senate voted in two thousand to finally agree to Mandela's request. 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:01.920 Her remains were careful, The packed transported back to the 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:04.959 African continent and handed over to the people who had 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:09.040 waited nearly one nine years for her return, the descendants 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:12.000 of her family, her neighbors, and the friends she had 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:29.840 known in life. Sark had finally come home. Returning home 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:32.880 is a wonderful thing, and I'm so glad that even 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:37.520 after all that time, Sarki was welcome back with open arms. Sadly, 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:40.560 stories like hers aren't as rare as we'd like. And 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:43.240 if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, my 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:46.879 co producer Robin Minatur will share one more tale of 0:24:47.000 --> 0:25:07.200 bitter sweet homecoming. You can't please everyone, right, but this, well, 0:25:08.160 --> 0:25:12.040 this wasn't exactly the welcome that she had expected. It 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:16.480 was Vienna, And as the ostrich pulling her carriage rounded 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:20.119 the street corner, Josephine Baker knew this was going to 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:24.800 be one tough audience. The faces waiting for her were 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:29.720 twisted up and grimaces and sneers. They spatted her. The 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:34.080