1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:04,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class stuff Works 2 00:00:04,559 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: Vie Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. We've talked quite a 4 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: bit about women in combat in various ways on the 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,320 Speaker 1: podcast before. We've told stories about individual women who disguised 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:26,520 Speaker 1: themselves as men to go to war at a time 7 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: when women were not allowed to, like our Sarah Emma 8 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: Edmund's episode. We've also talked about efforts to recruit women 9 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 1: out of a specific and pretty dire need during wartime, 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:38,560 Speaker 1: like one of my very favorite episodes of ours, which 11 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: is the one on the Night, which is We've also 12 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,640 Speaker 1: talked about women who could be described as warrior queens, 13 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:47,600 Speaker 1: like Budica or in the time of past host on 14 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:51,159 Speaker 1: the podcast Queen and Zinga. But today's topic is a 15 00:00:51,159 --> 00:00:55,040 Speaker 1: little bit different. We are revisiting the Kingdom of home 16 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: A which is now in Benin, which we talked about 17 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: in our recent episode about its royal path Alice is. 18 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:05,319 Speaker 1: For most of its history, Dahomy employed women warriors, first 19 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:08,199 Speaker 1: as a palace guard and then as a combat fighting force. 20 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:12,479 Speaker 1: In this later form, these were probably the earliest full 21 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: time professional female fighting units in history, especially considering the 22 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: fact that they really were a combat force and not 23 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: like a ceremonial one who sort of accompanied men to 24 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,480 Speaker 1: the battlefield but didn't actually do any fighting. The idea 25 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: of an all female group of warriors who actually did 26 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: fight was rare enough that when Europeans encountered them for 27 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 1: the first time, they nicknamed them Amazons, after the figures 28 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: in Greek mythology. These women had a reputation for just 29 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,839 Speaker 1: being beyond fierce. Some of them were known as reapers, 30 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: and they fought with these three ft long razor blades. 31 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: After mock battles and other military displays, ones who were 32 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: particularly brave would be awarded with belts that were made 33 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: of braided acacia branches, and these had these two inch 34 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: long thorns all over them, and they would just put 35 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: those on in front of their audience as though it 36 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 1: was nothing. Even after most of these women had been 37 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: killed in battle, European military leaders that they had been 38 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:12,840 Speaker 1: fighting spoke of them with a whole lot of reverence 39 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: and respect. So let's who we're going to talk about today. 40 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:18,040 Speaker 1: But before we get into it, I need to give 41 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: a note on the terms we're going to use. Unfortunately, 42 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: we do not have a clear Dahomyan word to describe 43 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: these women. At the time, they were called ajosi, which 44 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: meant king's wives, but that same word was used to 45 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:32,519 Speaker 1: describe all of the women who were part of palace life, 46 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 1: regardless of whether they were fighters or not. The same 47 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: is true of the word mino, which meant our mothers, 48 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:40,080 Speaker 1: which was had the same basic connotation these were women 49 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: who live in the palace. French speaking people in Benin 50 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: today still use the French word for amazon's to talk 51 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: about these women. And so even though this is basically 52 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: a European word that was added into the language, it's 53 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:55,920 Speaker 1: the word we're going to go with because we just 54 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: don't really have a better alternative. Yeah, it kind of 55 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 1: sets the apart in a more distinctive way than any 56 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,679 Speaker 1: of the the native labels that would be applied there. 57 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: There are many many historical accounts of dahom as women warriors, 58 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,919 Speaker 1: but because the Kingdom of dahome A had no written 59 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:17,239 Speaker 1: language before the arrival of Europeans, most of them are 60 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: written from a distinctly European perspective. These written records are 61 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:24,640 Speaker 1: mostly also from the point of view of men. Many 62 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:29,120 Speaker 1: of them active and enthusiastic participants in the Transatlantic slave trade, 63 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 1: which is what funded the kingdom and its army. So overall, 64 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: the documentation that we have doesn't have a lot of 65 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,840 Speaker 1: insight into how these women came to be fighters, or 66 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:42,000 Speaker 1: how they were viewed by the rest of Dahoman society, 67 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: and even how they viewed themselves. Even though the University 68 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 1: Nacional du Benin later undertook significant oral history projects to 69 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: document the nation's history, those projects all started after the 70 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,400 Speaker 1: women who had been Amazons, and likely anyone else who 71 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: would have had firsthand contact with them, had eyed Consequently, 72 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: it's a little bit unclear exactly when Dahoman kings started 73 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: having female guards. However, the use of women as a 74 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: king's guard stemmed directly from one aspect of Dahoman culture, 75 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: so it's probably really early in the establishment of the kingdom. Basically, 76 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:20,920 Speaker 1: other than the king, men were not allowed to be 77 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: in the palace walls when it was dark, so anybody 78 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: guarding the king overnight needed to be a woman. More 79 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: than likely the first women put to this task were 80 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:32,720 Speaker 1: some of the king's wives. They were trusted, they were 81 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:35,880 Speaker 1: connected directly to the king through social ties, and they 82 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:38,000 Speaker 1: were women so they could be in the palace at night. 83 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: Dahoman kings had multiple wives, and a sort of third 84 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,880 Speaker 1: tier wife was married to him but not considered attractive 85 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: enough to be physically intimate with him or bear his children, 86 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: and some of these women, in their celibate marriage to 87 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,760 Speaker 1: the king were armed and then trained to guard him. 88 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: Written accounts of these armed female guards go all the 89 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: way back to the seventh teen twenties. We talk about 90 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:06,600 Speaker 1: the annual customs in the in the Palaces of Albumy 91 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,479 Speaker 1: episode and European descriptions of that festival also feature armed 92 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: women as part of processionals and royal guards. The size 93 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:18,040 Speaker 1: of this guard was relatively small, about six hundred women total, 94 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:20,680 Speaker 1: and it seems to have been at this point back 95 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: in the eighteenth century, largely related to guard duties and 96 00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: ceremonial presence. In seventeen twenty nine, King Agaja reportedly armed 97 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:33,719 Speaker 1: women and placed them at the rear of his fighting 98 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:38,200 Speaker 1: formations to make his numbers appear larger. However, it seems 99 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,400 Speaker 1: as though their role was not actually to fight, but 100 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,840 Speaker 1: just to give the illusion of greater strength. So the 101 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: exact process by which the Amazon's morphed from a king's 102 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: guard made up of his least attractive wives into a 103 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: fighting force is a little bit muddled. There are several 104 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:56,720 Speaker 1: possible explanations for exactly what happened and when, and one 105 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: of them is very simple. The Bajaman kingdom was small 106 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: compared to some of its neighbors, and so it's possible 107 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,240 Speaker 1: that the Homemade just needed to recruit more soldiers to 108 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:06,920 Speaker 1: continue to expand its kingdom and defend itself, and since 109 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: there weren't enough men to do this, they started also 110 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: recruiting women. Another theory follows the same lines as we 111 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: talked about in our recent episode about the Palaces of Aboumae. 112 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:21,679 Speaker 1: Each king was expected to expand the kingdom during its reign, 113 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: and this meant that the Homemade was always at war. 114 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:27,800 Speaker 1: The consequent loss of life would mean that the kingdom 115 00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: really always needed more soldiers. Theory number three has to 116 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:34,920 Speaker 1: do with a royal coup. A Dan da Zan, who 117 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: reigned from sevent to eighteen eighteen, was overthrown by his 118 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 1: brother Guizo, and in the process nearly all of a 119 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: Dan da Zan's female guards were killed. But they were 120 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:49,200 Speaker 1: so fierce in the battle, and so devoted to protecting 121 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 1: the king that Guiso concluded they would be good as 122 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,640 Speaker 1: a real ongoing fighting force, not just as a palace guard. 123 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: And of course, there is a story that's almost certainly 124 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:01,760 Speaker 1: apocryph fold that's in the mix, and this is also 125 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: from the rain of Kinguizo to explain how this all started. 126 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:09,920 Speaker 1: Women hunters in Dahoma were known as beeto. In the 127 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: mid nineteenth century, a French naval surgeon reported that a 128 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: group of about twenty gbeto had attacked a herd of 129 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: forty elephants, although several of them were killed or wounded. 130 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,480 Speaker 1: Guizo praised their bravery in having attacked such a large 131 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: herd in the first place, and one of them replied 132 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 1: that they'd enjoy a man hunt better, and Guizo decided 133 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: to start recruiting women into his army. Regardless of exactly 134 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,680 Speaker 1: what prompted it all, the palace guard definitely did transform 135 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: into a fighting force and got a lot bigger during 136 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:42,960 Speaker 1: the reign of Kinguizo, so much though, that he took 137 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: credit for inventing the idea entirely, even though it seems 138 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: like he was more morphing an idea that already existed 139 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:53,640 Speaker 1: into a permanent part of the standing Dahoman army, which 140 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: would go on until Dahoma as a kingdom ended. Under Guizo, 141 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:01,880 Speaker 1: the Amazons grew from a force of about six hundred 142 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:06,280 Speaker 1: women to about six thousand. Guiso also started a tradition 143 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:09,920 Speaker 1: of wearing uniforms, which was a largely European convention that 144 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: didn't exist in the Dahoman military before this point. Beginning 145 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:17,119 Speaker 1: in his reign, both men and women wore knee length 146 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 1: pants and tunics, whereas previously there hadn't been one standard 147 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:23,840 Speaker 1: of dress and most of the women had fought bare chested. 148 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:28,760 Speaker 1: Post Guizo, the Amazon's also had two sets of uniforms, 149 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: one that was fighting where and the other as a 150 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:35,040 Speaker 1: sort of parade dress. We'll talk about how these women 151 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:37,280 Speaker 1: were selected and trained once they were part of the 152 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:39,920 Speaker 1: standing army. After a brief word from one of the 153 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:43,360 Speaker 1: great sponsors who keep the show on the air, to 154 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:47,800 Speaker 1: return to the women who fought in Dahoman's army. Many 155 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:51,679 Speaker 1: of Dahomey's first Amazons were slaves from neighboring kingdoms who 156 00:08:51,679 --> 00:08:55,400 Speaker 1: had been taken as prisoners of war. It was believed 157 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:58,079 Speaker 1: that they would have no ties to anyone into home 158 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:00,400 Speaker 1: who might want to overthrow the king, and so they 159 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:05,319 Speaker 1: were safer to have around as part of his his guards. Later, 160 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: Dahomie and women were recruited or conscripted as well, some 161 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 1: of them reportedly because they were of high enough status 162 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,080 Speaker 1: to be favored by the king, but not beautiful enough 163 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: to actually be one of his wives. Regardless of how 164 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,560 Speaker 1: they came to be part of the army, the women 165 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: were also expected to be celibate. They all effectively married 166 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 1: the king and took a how of chastity. Infidelity was 167 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 1: punishable by death, including for women who had been married 168 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:36,800 Speaker 1: or had children before they were conscripted. There were two 169 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,960 Speaker 1: reasons for this, first, so that the women's loyalty to 170 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,160 Speaker 1: the king would not be divided, and seconds so military 171 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:47,280 Speaker 1: service would not be interrupted by pregnancies and births. A 172 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:50,200 Speaker 1: lot of European writing about these women and their relationships, 173 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: including whether they had physical relationships with each other or 174 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:56,520 Speaker 1: whether they broke their vows of chastity, is really based 175 00:09:56,520 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: on conjecture, and they are also varying accounts of how 176 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:04,840 Speaker 1: they and others viewed their own gender. Some accounts described 177 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:07,880 Speaker 1: the amazon's being viewed as male after they had killed 178 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:12,440 Speaker 1: someone in battle. Others described the Amazon's viewing themselves as 179 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,040 Speaker 1: male once they had been recruited, but all of this 180 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,679 Speaker 1: is kind of hazy. As part of the army, Amazons 181 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:23,319 Speaker 1: were definitely given preferential treatment over the typical non royal 182 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:26,840 Speaker 1: women of dahome A, whose lives revolved around growing crops, 183 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,600 Speaker 1: tending to household tasks, and raising their children. The Amazons 184 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:35,520 Speaker 1: were given slaves, possibly as many as fifty for each Amazon, 185 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:39,480 Speaker 1: although that number is based on Sir Richard Richard Burton's account, 186 00:10:39,559 --> 00:10:41,800 Speaker 1: so there's just a maybe there. We don't know about 187 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: the veracity of that statement. When outside the palace, a 188 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 1: slave girl ringing a bell walked ahead of the Amazon's, 189 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:50,600 Speaker 1: warning men in the area to both get out of 190 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: the way and to avert their eyes. As a fighting force, 191 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:58,160 Speaker 1: the Amazons followed the same basic pattern as Dahomey's male army, 192 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,560 Speaker 1: which was divided into left, center, and right wings with 193 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 1: a rear guard. The king commanded the center wing until 194 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:08,000 Speaker 1: the king stopped personally taking the field in battle, and 195 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:10,200 Speaker 1: then the left and right wings were commanded by two 196 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:13,559 Speaker 1: of his highest ranking chiefs. In terms of the Amazon's 197 00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:16,080 Speaker 1: the center was the king's personal guard and the left 198 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:18,840 Speaker 1: and right wings were fighting forces who fell under commands 199 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:22,200 Speaker 1: of the other chiefs. When going into battle, the Amazon 200 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: units would fall in with their corresponding mail units. Amazons 201 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: were armed with muskets, short swords, knives, and clubs. Most 202 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 1: of the muskets were obtained through the slave trade, and 203 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:38,280 Speaker 1: some of them were intentionally faulty. However, the people of 204 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: Dahoma became quite adept at repairing them, and those that 205 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: weren't reparable were still carried so that the army could 206 00:11:44,679 --> 00:11:48,679 Speaker 1: maintain this appearance of being incredibly well armed. Some also 207 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,760 Speaker 1: fought with bows and poisoned arrows. We talk a lot 208 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,320 Speaker 1: more about Dahomey's role in the Transatlantic slade trade and 209 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: the other episode that we keep mentioning or not going 210 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:02,080 Speaker 1: to rehash it all here, but basically, uh, the Kingdom 211 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 1: of Dahoma was often paid for slaves with weapons, and 212 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:06,360 Speaker 1: a lot of times the weapons that were used as 213 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: payment were deliberately broken, so they got very good at 214 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: fixing them. As the Amazons evolved from being a palace 215 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:16,959 Speaker 1: guard to being a true fighting force, the women started 216 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: undergoing really extensive training. A lot of it was inherently 217 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:24,079 Speaker 1: painful and dangerous and meant to desensitize them both the 218 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:26,679 Speaker 1: physical pain and to being around a lot of death. 219 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: They climbed acacia walls, which were covered in huge thorns, 220 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:34,760 Speaker 1: usually doing this with bare hands and feet. They underwent 221 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:38,120 Speaker 1: extensive survival training, including field testing, in which they were 222 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:40,200 Speaker 1: sent into the wilderness without a whole lot in the 223 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 1: way of either food or protection. In terms of desensitizing 224 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:49,760 Speaker 1: these Amazons to death, they participated in ceremonies in which 225 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:52,080 Speaker 1: they were made to kill prisoners of war, or to 226 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:57,240 Speaker 1: witness executions, or to perform these executions themselves. The women 227 00:12:57,280 --> 00:13:00,680 Speaker 1: most often put through this were normally the youngest recruits, 228 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:04,720 Speaker 1: who had little exposure to violence or death. Yet all 229 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:08,760 Speaker 1: these aspects of the Amazon's training, combined with exhibitions that 230 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:12,000 Speaker 1: were put on for visiting African and European leaders, to 231 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,120 Speaker 1: give the Amazons an extremely fierce reputation. Even before they 232 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:19,160 Speaker 1: took to the field of battle. These women were widely 233 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 1: viewed as brave and determined to the point of being ruthless. 234 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:25,120 Speaker 1: This element of fear was as much a part of 235 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:27,960 Speaker 1: their reason for being as their actual existence as a 236 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,360 Speaker 1: fighting force. As the words spread that Dahomey had this 237 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,680 Speaker 1: fighting force of women who climbed walls of thorns in 238 00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:37,600 Speaker 1: their bare feet or swung giant razor blades in combat. 239 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,480 Speaker 1: They bring tribes and kingdoms became a little more wary 240 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:45,080 Speaker 1: of them, like you would, you know, a rumor of 241 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:48,360 Speaker 1: a bunch of women swinging giant razor blades would be 242 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:52,440 Speaker 1: enough to keep me away, frankly, and this was the 243 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:55,800 Speaker 1: case as well for European visitors and later colonists and 244 00:13:55,920 --> 00:14:00,319 Speaker 1: conquerors in Africa as well, although virtually every European fighting 245 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,520 Speaker 1: force was better armed than the Amazons, meaning that Europeans 246 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:07,079 Speaker 1: who did meet them in battle, generally one European accounts 247 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,960 Speaker 1: have a generally admiring tone about this whole fighting force. 248 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 1: Explorer John Duncan, who visited the area in the mid 249 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:18,400 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, wrote of them, saying, quote, their appearance is 250 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,560 Speaker 1: more martial than the generality of men, and if undertaking 251 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:24,160 Speaker 1: a campaign, I would prefer the females to the male 252 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 1: soldiers of this country. Commoner Wilmot described them in his 253 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:32,320 Speaker 1: dispatches as quote far superior to the men in everything, 254 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,400 Speaker 1: in appearance and dress and figure, and activity, and their 255 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: performance as soldiers and in bravery Richard Burton wrote of 256 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:42,440 Speaker 1: there being better shots who fired from the shoulder rather 257 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: than the hip as the men did, and faster to 258 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:49,920 Speaker 1: reload than their male counterparts. But like the Dahoman Kingdom, 259 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,160 Speaker 1: the fighting force of Amazons did not last forever, and 260 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:55,960 Speaker 1: we will talk about that more after another brief word 261 00:14:56,120 --> 00:15:00,240 Speaker 1: from sponsor. The Dahoman Kingdom started to lose some of 262 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: its power in the mid to late eighteen hundreds with 263 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,720 Speaker 1: the decline and eventual abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade 264 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 1: and some attempted conquests of neighboring territory that went in 265 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: their enemies favor. Many Dahoman fighters, both male and female, 266 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,480 Speaker 1: were also killed in two different sailed attempts to overthrow 267 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,000 Speaker 1: the Eggba capital capital of a Bayo Kuta, the first 268 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,080 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty one and the second in eighteen sixty four. 269 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: One attack was probably the peak of the Amazon's military 270 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:33,320 Speaker 1: strength and their reputation in battle. Baya Kuta was large, 271 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: About fifty thou people lived there and it was surrounded 272 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 1: by a wall that made it easy to defend reports 273 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:43,280 Speaker 1: about exact numbers conflict, but there were as many as 274 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,760 Speaker 1: five thousand Amazons fighting for Dahoma at the time, and 275 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: roughly a fifth of them were killed in this battle. Then, 276 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:53,600 Speaker 1: during the rule of King Behanzan, France started trying to 277 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: annex the land that was occupied by Dahomy Zahoma, apparently 278 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: trying to drive the French out, tacked a village that 279 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:04,280 Speaker 1: had come under French control in eighteen eighty nine, when 280 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:06,600 Speaker 1: the chief of the village said that the French flag 281 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,080 Speaker 1: would protect them, presumably because the French had promised protection 282 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: when taking control of the village, The general who was 283 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:16,440 Speaker 1: attacking the village said, so you like this flag and 284 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 1: be it. It will serve you. Then one of the 285 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: Amazon's beheaded. The chief wrapped his head in the flag 286 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:26,120 Speaker 1: and carried it back to behind en all out war 287 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:30,440 Speaker 1: with France immediately followed. France's weapons were superior to the 288 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,920 Speaker 1: Dahoman army, so during fighting that went on from eight 289 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: casualties on the Dahoman side were very high. Of the 290 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,120 Speaker 1: roughly one thousand, five hundred women still serving in the 291 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:47,360 Speaker 1: Dahoman army, fewer than fifty were both alive and physically 292 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:50,920 Speaker 1: able to continue fighting. By the time France officially took control. 293 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:57,360 Speaker 1: France conquered Dahoman, there was a trend at this point 294 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,640 Speaker 1: in history for a quote ethnographic showcase races to be 295 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 1: part of world's fairs and other large public exhibitions. These 296 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:09,879 Speaker 1: showcases would include recreations of of places from around the world, 297 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:14,040 Speaker 1: populated with people purported to be front of these places. Generally, 298 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:17,440 Speaker 1: the world's largest colonial powers were the ones hosting these 299 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,960 Speaker 1: world's fairs and exhibitions, and the people on exhibit were 300 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,600 Speaker 1: from territory they had conquered a colonize. Several of these 301 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: exhibits between the eighteen nineties and the nineteen thirties included 302 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:30,880 Speaker 1: women who were described as Amazons, although whether they genuinely 303 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:36,080 Speaker 1: were women fighters from Dahomy is pretty suspect. The first 304 00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: of these displays was at a showcase at the Gaudin 305 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:42,879 Speaker 1: Daclamttion in Paris, not long after the war between France 306 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,000 Speaker 1: and Dahomey ended. As another example, in nineteen o nine, 307 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 1: a quote village from Dahomey was recreated as part of 308 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:53,800 Speaker 1: the Imperial International Exhibition, a world's fair that took place 309 00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:57,840 Speaker 1: in London. The Amazons that were displayed there toured in 310 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: other exhibitions throughout Europe, where, in addition to being show pieces, 311 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:06,000 Speaker 1: they would participate in simulated fights, and in these exhibitions, 312 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:10,199 Speaker 1: Dahomey's women fighters were depicted as vicious and barbaric, and 313 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:12,800 Speaker 1: as a good example of what one might find if 314 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:16,840 Speaker 1: they visited the so called quote Dark Continent. A woman 315 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: named Nawi, who was reported to be the last living 316 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:25,000 Speaker 1: Amazon of Dahomy, died in November of ninety nine, twenty 317 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:28,720 Speaker 1: one years after Benin had finally become independent from France. 318 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,960 Speaker 1: She claims to have fought against the French and eight 319 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:35,679 Speaker 1: two and that's the Amazons of Dahomy. It is a 320 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,720 Speaker 1: really fascinating story. There are so few historical accounts of 321 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 1: full women's forces, but the ones that uh, we do 322 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:46,439 Speaker 1: talk about and that exists in the historic record never 323 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:50,360 Speaker 1: ceased to just completely capture my attention. UH. In the meantime, 324 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:51,959 Speaker 1: do you have a bit of listener mail for us 325 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: to enjoy? So the mail I have us from Christine 326 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:57,000 Speaker 1: who talks about how she's recently been catching up on 327 00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:59,200 Speaker 1: episodes like our Child Migrant Program episode and the what 328 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:02,560 Speaker 1: about the King's Daughter ers. She says, these topics remind 329 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:05,640 Speaker 1: me a lot of early American context, and it's been 330 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:09,679 Speaker 1: so delightful and informative to hear about France, Canada, Britten, Australia, 331 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:12,879 Speaker 1: et cetera as well. What these podcasts are calling to 332 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:16,199 Speaker 1: my mind is the genesis of American colonial history. I 333 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: teach an undergrad race and American Politics class, and my 334 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 1: students this term got super interested in how the problem 335 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,920 Speaker 1: of quote population in England in part prompted the colonization 336 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,560 Speaker 1: of the quote New World. As historians like Edmund Morgan 337 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:34,479 Speaker 1: and others tell it, England was in the sixteenth and 338 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:39,760 Speaker 1: early seventeenth centuries suffering a population boom without an economic 339 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:43,280 Speaker 1: growth to match. This resulted in several efforts by Parliament 340 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: to contain what was suddenly a rather problematic population of 341 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:51,119 Speaker 1: destitute labors without work. They built workhouses and hospitals to 342 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: house many, stowed away others in prisons, and sent still 343 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 1: more to the gallows. But unlike these efforts, colonization allowed 344 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 1: England to achieve two things at once. First, that helped 345 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:04,480 Speaker 1: curtail the population problem by sending their conflicts, their poor, 346 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 1: and their riff raff away to the New World as 347 00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:10,400 Speaker 1: settlers and laborers. Second, and just as importantly, and fulfilled 348 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:12,800 Speaker 1: dreams of empire that we're starting to take root in 349 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 1: British thought. In the American colonial context, the arrival of 350 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:20,639 Speaker 1: masses of indentured servants from England predated the arrival of 351 00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:23,919 Speaker 1: masses of slaves from Africa for the simple reason that 352 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,240 Speaker 1: this helped solve some serious pro poverty problems for Parliament 353 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,679 Speaker 1: while enriching the British Empire. It was only later that 354 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:34,280 Speaker 1: colonies like Virginia turns to chattel slavery as the primary 355 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:38,119 Speaker 1: source of unpaid labor. After it turns out insurgencies like 356 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:42,040 Speaker 1: Bacon's Rebellion outlined for the colonists the dangers of indentured 357 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 1: servants outliving their servitude and roaming the frontier again, poor, restless, 358 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:51,440 Speaker 1: relatively young, without work and armed. Apologies for the long note. 359 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 1: Never apologize for your long notes, folks. Uh. It has 360 00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,240 Speaker 1: been so interesting to hear about programs like the Child 361 00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:02,160 Speaker 1: Migrant Program because it reminds us the issues of population, 362 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:06,399 Speaker 1: settlement and sometimes full scale colonization are all wrapped up 363 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:09,040 Speaker 1: in each other and they can have incredible ripple effects 364 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:12,560 Speaker 1: throughout history on race, gender, youth, etcetera. Thanks for your 365 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,639 Speaker 1: interesting podcasts of late best Cursed Thin. I wanted to 366 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:18,399 Speaker 1: read this for a couple of reasons. One is that 367 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,840 Speaker 1: we we talked about, um, a lot of the population 368 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,919 Speaker 1: boom in in Britain and what it was leading to 369 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,080 Speaker 1: in our episode on The Lady Juliana, so that, like, 370 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,080 Speaker 1: that's not totally new territory for the podcast. But we've 371 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:34,399 Speaker 1: never really talked about the fact that a lot of 372 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:38,119 Speaker 1: the first people who were sent to uh, the American 373 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:44,080 Speaker 1: colonies from Britain were indentured servants and that that was 374 00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:47,879 Speaker 1: the primary form of unpaid labor until the slave trade 375 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: really reached North America. It was already reaching South America 376 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:56,199 Speaker 1: long before it made its way into North America. UM. 377 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,480 Speaker 1: So yeah, I thought that was a good a good 378 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:02,159 Speaker 1: time to be able to note that. So thank you 379 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:04,679 Speaker 1: so much Christine for sending us this note. If you 380 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:06,640 Speaker 1: would like to write to us about this or any 381 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,520 Speaker 1: other podcast, we're at History Podcast at how Stuff Works 382 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,360 Speaker 1: dot com. 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