Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: One quick note before we begin. Today is the day
Speaker 1: my book Anatomy a Love Story is finally available in
Speaker 1: bookstores everywhere. I worked so hard on it. If you're
Speaker 1: a fan of Noble Blood, I really think you're going
Speaker 1: to like it. It's a story about grave robbers and
Speaker 1: surgery in nineteen century Edinburgh. There is a slight nobility
Speaker 1: tied to it. It's basically an episode of Noble Blood,
Speaker 1: except times longer made up and you have to read
Speaker 1: words on a page unless you get the audio book.
Speaker 1: But it would mean the world to me if you're
Speaker 1: interested or you're a fan of this podcast, if you
Speaker 1: went to your local indie bookstore and picked up a copy.
Speaker 1: And as always, thank you so much for listening to
Speaker 1: the show, and for your support on the Patreon and
Speaker 1: everything you do to make the show happen. It was
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of
Speaker 1: Great Britain and Ireland was holding court at Windsor Palace,
Speaker 1: waiting to receive a very special guest, a young girl
Speaker 1: who was arriving by boat from the western coast of Africa.
Speaker 1: Victoria had been queen for thirteen years by this point,
Speaker 1: and though she was only thirty one years old, she
Speaker 1: was already mother to seven children, all seven of which
Speaker 1: were born without anesthesia for the record. Chloroform would be
Speaker 1: introduced for her eighth child's birth in eighteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: and she would finally experience such a relief that she
Speaker 1: would go on to have a ninth child. As a
Speaker 1: young female monarch, a mother and wife, Victoria represented a
Speaker 1: new era for the British Empire, an age that was
Speaker 1: celebrated as civility Incarnate. Her reign began just a few
Speaker 1: years after Parliament banned slavery throughout the Empire, a further
Speaker 1: expansion of the law prohibiting the slave trade that they
Speaker 1: had passed a few decades earlier. Victoria's husband, Prince Albert,
Speaker 1: was an outspoken opponent of slavery, and so the early
Speaker 1: years of Queen Victoria's reign were an optimistic moment for
Speaker 1: Great Britain, one of self satisfied idealism and notions of
Speaker 1: their own enlightenment, especially when British citizens could compare themselves
Speaker 1: to the Americans across the Atlantic. In America, eighteen fifty
Speaker 1: was the year that Congress passed the Second Fugitive Slave Act,
Speaker 1: a cruel and draconian law that allowed the seizure and
Speaker 1: return of enslaved people even after they had arrived in
Speaker 1: a free territory a northern state where slavery would be illegal.
Speaker 1: This new law would allow some to capture anyone they
Speaker 1: might suspect of being a runaway slave and bring them
Speaker 1: in front of local officials, who were deputized to decide,
Speaker 1: without a jury trial, the status of whether or not
Speaker 1: that kidnapped person was or was not the property of
Speaker 1: the white person who claimed them. Eighteen fifty was the
Speaker 1: year Harriet Beecher Stowe would begin writing her best selling
Speaker 1: novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, of which he would send a
Speaker 1: copy to the Royal Palace, writing a letter to Prince
Speaker 1: Albert raising his abolitionist sensibilities. Queen Victoria was such a
Speaker 1: fan of Stow, and she found herself so emotionally affected
Speaker 1: by her book that the Queen would eventually flout diplomatic
Speaker 1: protocol in order to meet her. But the larger issues
Speaker 1: of race in Victorian Britain were more complicated and nuanced
Speaker 1: than it might appear from the incredibly belated and self
Speaker 1: congratulatory progress made to free the people throughout the realm
Speaker 1: whom they had enslaved in the first place. In eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven, Victoria would become Empress of India. She would
Speaker 1: be the face used to legitimize colonialism under the guise
Speaker 1: of civility, the woman who would be known globally as
Speaker 1: the Great White Queen. In the words of historian David
Speaker 1: la Sauga in his book Black and British Are Forgotten History,
Speaker 1: Victoria was a quote cipher for British power. Colonialism was
Speaker 1: framed as expanding the gift of quote unquote civilization and Christianity,
Speaker 1: and by the middle of the eighteen hundreds, those in
Speaker 1: power in Great Britain were eager to justify their own
Speaker 1: efforts to other nations around the world, but also to themselves.
Speaker 1: To that end, success stories were needed, narratives that fueled
Speaker 1: into their preconceived notions of their own virtue. We brings
Speaker 1: us to Queen Victoria's special visitor at Windsor Castle November nine,
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty. It was a young girl seven or eight
Speaker 1: years old, taking small steps in the large echoing hallway.
Speaker 1: She was taught what to do when she reached the Queen,
Speaker 1: which was to dip into a low curtsey. After she rose,
Speaker 1: the young girl looked over her shoulder at the man
Speaker 1: who had brought her here, a captain named Frederick E. Forbes.
Speaker 1: The young girl was black. Captain Forbes had quote unquote
Speaker 1: rescued her from where she was enslaved in the palace
Speaker 1: of the African Kingdom of Daomi and presented as a
Speaker 1: gift to the English Captain. Forbes baptized her with the
Speaker 1: name Sarah Forbes Bonetta Forbes after himself, and Bonetta her
Speaker 1: surname after the boat on which they sailed back to
Speaker 1: England together. During the voyage, Sarah learned English, astonishing Captain
Speaker 1: Forbes and the crew with how intelligent she was. He
Speaker 1: wrote to Queen Victoria to let her know about the
Speaker 1: unexpected passenger joining them on the return trip, and to
Speaker 1: his surprise, word came from Queen Victoria that she intended
Speaker 1: to adopt and care for the girl to act as
Speaker 1: her godmother. A November ninth Sarah Forbes Bonetta met her
Speaker 1: royal godmother in person for the first time. Queen Victoria,
Speaker 1: who famously stood only five feet tall, was probably about
Speaker 1: the same size as her. Even still, we can't imagine
Speaker 1: how terrified Sarah Banetta must have been. Here was a
Speaker 1: girl whose life had been destroyed, whose family had been
Speaker 1: murdered by a rival kingdom, who was captured and enslaved,
Speaker 1: only to be handed off like dry goods to a stranger.
Speaker 1: Baptized in a new RelA jen forced to learn a
Speaker 1: new language as quickly as she could so that she
Speaker 1: could be presented to the most powerful woman in the
Speaker 1: world for her approval. Sarah Bonetta, whom the Queen would
Speaker 1: soon nickname Sally, would spend the rest of her life
Speaker 1: as a fixture of royal courtly life. She would be
Speaker 1: a regular guest at palaces around England. She would attend
Speaker 1: royal events and have her education fully funded. Her children
Speaker 1: would also be god children of the Queen, and her
Speaker 1: grandchildren would continue to benefit from Victoria financially for their
Speaker 1: entire lives. That relationship, the story of the black, formerly
Speaker 1: enslaved girl being effectively adopted by Queen Victoria, is why
Speaker 1: Sarah Forbes Banetta is famous and why we know her
Speaker 1: story today. In her book Infamous Bodies author Samantha Pinto writes, quote,
Speaker 1: Bonetta's proximity to the sovereign gave her access to the
Speaker 1: emerging mass media technologies that appended royalty, and also gave
Speaker 1: her and us access to her image via the Royal Archive.
Speaker 1: End quote. We have photos of Sarah Bonetta because she
Speaker 1: had access to the famous photographers of the day. There
Speaker 1: are newspaper articles about her that we can read, because
Speaker 1: she was considered a curiosity, a Cinderella story to modern audiences.
Speaker 1: Her photographs, in which Bonetta is wearing elaborate Victorian dress
Speaker 1: are sometimes paraded out under clickbait headlines akin to Wow,
Speaker 1: You'll never believe who this woman's godmother was, akin to that, or,
Speaker 1: in the case of BuzzFeed, exactly like that. As Samantha
Speaker 1: Pinto writes, quote, these fashions and this era have been
Speaker 1: so associated with whiteness that their encounter with Bonetta's flesh
Speaker 1: pique's immediate contemporary interest. As if Bonetta's skin and the
Speaker 1: fashion are so in hungry with in their proximity that
Speaker 1: the image demands explanation and explication end quote. It reminds
Speaker 1: me a little bit of an episode of Doctor Who,
Speaker 1: in which The Doctor played by Peter Capaldi, at this
Speaker 1: point visits regency era England to see the freezing of
Speaker 1: the Thames. His new companion Bill remarks that the London
Speaker 1: population is quote a bit more black than they show
Speaker 1: in the movies. The Doctor responds, so was Jesus. History
Speaker 1: is a whitewash. In recent years, there's been an effort
Speaker 1: by the British public to draw more attention to Seravonetta's life.
Speaker 1: The British Heritage commissioned a portrait of her by the
Speaker 1: artist Hannah Ozar, one of a series of quote previously
Speaker 1: overlooked black figures from British history. But Sarah's fame is
Speaker 1: a complicated paradox. In a way, the very reason Sarah
Speaker 1: is famous, and the reason we have information and about
Speaker 1: her life is because of her forced participation in a
Speaker 1: power structure that absorbed her individual agency. We know almost
Speaker 1: nothing about who she actually was as a person. Samantha
Speaker 1: Pinto continued to write, quote, Vanetta is a uniquely blank
Speaker 1: canvas of black agency, as she doesn't offer any significant
Speaker 1: text or performance. Instead, she persists almost entirely through the
Speaker 1: images of her card to visit a photographs as well
Speaker 1: as in some letters, histories and news report where it
Speaker 1: is her unlikely proximity to British Royalty that marks her
Speaker 1: as of public interest end quote. All we can do
Speaker 1: now is squint and look at the photographs of the
Speaker 1: beautiful girl in the giant Victorian dress, and remember that
Speaker 1: before she was a symbol, she was a real person.
Speaker 1: I'm Danish Wartz and this is noble blood. For about
Speaker 1: three hundred years, beginning in the sixteen hundreds, Daomi was
Speaker 1: an African kingdom that existed on the western coast of
Speaker 1: Africa within present day Benin. Originally, Daomi was a tributary
Speaker 1: kingdom to the Oyo Empire, which extended through present day Nigeria,
Speaker 1: but Daomi eventually became an independent and conquering power. Their
Speaker 1: rise in power was thanks to a few factors. An
Speaker 1: incredibly brutal expansionist approach to conquering neighboring kingdoms, a disciplined
Speaker 1: military which included an all female unit, and finally, and
Speaker 1: perhaps most importantly, a willingness to engage with the Atlantic
Speaker 1: slave trade. The Daomi Kingdom was one of the largest
Speaker 1: suppliers of the Atlantic slave trade, selling prisoners of war
Speaker 1: for money and advanced weaponry that allowed them to further
Speaker 1: dominate surrounding kingdoms and continue the cycle all over again.
Speaker 1: Military discipline and brutality was also on display during an
Speaker 1: annual ritual called the Customs of Daomi, which began around
Speaker 1: seventeen thirty and involved parades, the exchanging of gifts and tributes,
Speaker 1: and finally, the beheading of hundreds of prisoners of war
Speaker 1: as human sacrifices. The name for the ceremony in the
Speaker 1: Fond language Uenteno, translates to yearly head business. It was
Speaker 1: meant to be a massive display of strength, a strength
Speaker 1: that was only possible thanks to the arrival of Western
Speaker 1: European powers who wanted to purchase human beings and enslave them.
Speaker 1: The girl that would eventually come to be known as
Speaker 1: Sarah Forbes Vanetta was captured by Doaomi troops in eighteen
Speaker 1: forty eight during a slave hunt in which the soldiers
Speaker 1: burned her village, okay Odin in Yarhuba to the ground
Speaker 1: and murdered her siblings and parents. Prints Sarah was captured,
Speaker 1: but rather than being sold to Europeans, she was brought
Speaker 1: to the Daomi palace to serve King Gezo. The reigning
Speaker 1: monarch at the time. Historians speculate that Sarah might have
Speaker 1: been noble born because she was brought to the palace
Speaker 1: instead of being sold or killed, but we don't know
Speaker 1: for sure. However, by the time that she arrived in
Speaker 1: England and her story became well known throughout Great Britain,
Speaker 1: she was mythologized to the point where people would refer
Speaker 1: to her as an African princess or the daughter of
Speaker 1: a chief. But we don't know that for sure. We
Speaker 1: can only speculate, just like we don't know Sarah Forbes
Speaker 1: Vanetta's real name, the name she was born with and
Speaker 1: used for the first seven years of her life. Some
Speaker 1: historians speculate that her birth name was Aina or some
Speaker 1: variation on it, sometimes spelled A I N A, because
Speaker 1: later that name appears on her marriage license. Her marriage
Speaker 1: certificate is the one piece of writing we have in
Speaker 1: her own handwriting the words Ainah Sarah Forbes Bonetta. For
Speaker 1: clarity's sake, I'll continue to refer to her as Sarah
Speaker 1: because that's the name by which she's most commonly referenced.
Speaker 1: A few years after Sarah was taken by the Daomi
Speaker 1: soldiers to King Gezo's palace, a British captain arrived in Daomi.
Speaker 1: Captain Frederick E. Forbes was a naval captain of the
Speaker 1: West African Squadron or w A S, which was a
Speaker 1: collection of ships patrolling the western coast of Africa with
Speaker 1: the goal of stopping the slave trade. England had abolished
Speaker 1: the slave trade in eighteen o seven and then went
Speaker 1: on to abolish slavery in its colonies in eighteen thirty three,
Speaker 1: but the slave trade still continued from France and Spain,
Speaker 1: and of course the slave trade continued to the United States.
Speaker 1: It actually be King Gezo's son, the next King of Diaomi,
Speaker 1: who would go on to oversee the trade of the
Speaker 1: last ever, by then a legal ship of enslaved African
Speaker 1: people bound for America. According to Captain Forbes's account, King
Speaker 1: Gezo was a uniquely harsh leader. Forbes referred to him
Speaker 1: as an African nero. We also get a drawing from
Speaker 1: the captain of what the king looked like. In the drawing,
Speaker 1: King Gezo has a thin Gomez Adam style mustache. He
Speaker 1: wears a one shoulder robe in bright, astonishingly bright blue
Speaker 1: that looks like a cross between a French king's robe
Speaker 1: and a toga. His wide brimmed hat is edged with tassels.
Speaker 1: Captain Forbes was part of the British movement to eliminate
Speaker 1: the slave trade globally, which required negotiations with their neighboring
Speaker 1: European countries as well as making treaties with Africa nations.
Speaker 1: The captain was in Daomi with the purpose of getting
Speaker 1: the king to agree to no longer sell enslaved prisoners
Speaker 1: and to instead begin to engage more heavily in palm
Speaker 1: oil trading. At this point, the selling of enslaved people
Speaker 1: was King Gezo's kingdom's primary source of income, and so
Speaker 1: while he greeted Captain Forbes with respect, he denied his
Speaker 1: request to eliminate the supply of slaves. It was already
Speaker 1: the bedrock of his kingdom's economy. But even unsuccessful diplomatic
Speaker 1: missions engage in the appropriate rituals of politeness, and so
Speaker 1: as gifts to Captain Forbes to pass along to his
Speaker 1: sovereign Queen Victoria, King Gezo gifted quote a rich country cloth,
Speaker 1: a captive girl, a kabusiers stool, ten heads of coweries,
Speaker 1: and one keg of rum. Did you catch that second
Speaker 1: thing listed there. A small captive girl was given to
Speaker 1: Captain Forbes so that he might pass her along to
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria as a gift. Forbes writes that, as abhorrent
Speaker 1: as he believed slavery to be, he feared rejecting the
Speaker 1: gift because Daomi culture commonly involved ritual sacrifice. It's also
Speaker 1: possible that he saw the young girl enslaved in the
Speaker 1: palace and bargained for her so that he could quote
Speaker 1: unquote rescue her. Either way, the young girl accompanied Captain
Speaker 1: Forbes back to his ship, the h M. S. Bonetta,
Speaker 1: and he christened her with the name that she would
Speaker 1: use for the rest of her life, Sarah Forbes Bonetta.
Speaker 1: Almost immediately, young Sarah surprised the crew with how quickly
Speaker 1: she learned English. Forbes would later write, quote for her age,
Speaker 1: she is a perfect genius. She now speaks English well
Speaker 1: and has a great talent for music. She has won
Speaker 1: the affections with but few exceptions of all who have
Speaker 1: known her by her docile and amiable conduct, which nothing
Speaker 1: can exceed. But for all of his fairly condescending benevolence
Speaker 1: towards his new ward there was also a slightly nefarious
Speaker 1: edge to Forbes's interest in her from the moment that
Speaker 1: Sarah joined the crew on the Vanetta, she was a specimen.
Speaker 1: With that in mind, the rest of Captain Forbes's quote
Speaker 1: continues quote, she is far in advance of any white
Speaker 1: child of her age in aptness of learning, and strength
Speaker 1: of mind and affection, and with her being an excellent
Speaker 1: specimen of the Negro race, might test the capability of
Speaker 1: the intellect of the Black it being generally and erroneously
Speaker 1: supposed that after a certain age the intellect becomes impaired
Speaker 1: and the pursuit of knowledge impossible, that though the Negro
Speaker 1: child may be clever, the adult will be dull and stupid.
Speaker 1: Her head is considered so excellent a phrenological specimen, and
Speaker 1: illustrating such high intellect, that M. Pistrucci, the medalist to
Speaker 1: the Mint, has undertaken a bust of her. As Olasoga
Speaker 1: writes in Black and British Quote, Victoria ruled over an
Speaker 1: empire that, in the latter decades of the nineteenth century
Speaker 1: was increasingly influenced by racial thinking and new quote unquote
Speaker 1: scientific racial theories, and Victoria, like most Victorians thought in
Speaker 1: terms of racial types, and may well have believed to
Speaker 1: some extent that the races of mankind possessed innate inner
Speaker 1: characteristics end quote. Almost as soon as Sarah arrived in London,
Speaker 1: she was brought to Windsor Palace to meet the Queen,
Speaker 1: her new godmother, who remarked that the girl spoke perfect
Speaker 1: English and was quote dressed as any other the girl,
Speaker 1: presumably meaning Victorian dress. As the girl's godmother, Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: was determined to arrange for Sarah's education. For the next
Speaker 1: few months, Sarah was educated and cared for by a
Speaker 1: woman named Mrs Phipps, who would periodically bring the girl
Speaker 1: to see Queen Victoria. In one of the Queen's diary entries,
Speaker 1: she wrote, after luncheon, Sarah Bonita, the little African girl,
Speaker 1: came with Mrs Phipps and showed me some of her work.
Speaker 1: This is the fourth time I have seen the poor child,
Speaker 1: who is really an intelligent thing. But the English climate
Speaker 1: didn't agree with Sarah, or at least that's what people
Speaker 1: believed when she became withdrawn and melancholy with a deep cough.
Speaker 1: To get her to a more amiable climate, Sarah was
Speaker 1: sent to the church missionary Society School in Freetown, Sierra Leone,
Speaker 1: a British colony. The British at the time viewed Sierra
Speaker 1: Leone as a toe hold for bringing Aristianity into Africa.
Speaker 1: The hope was that the Africans educated at the missionary
Speaker 1: school would continue east, building missionary momentum and eventually helping
Speaker 1: the anti slave trade movement. Many of the other students
Speaker 1: at the school were liberated from intercepted slave ships, or
Speaker 1: they were the children of those who were rescued. While
Speaker 1: Sarah was studying in Sierra Leone's favorable climate, Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: continued to send along books and little gifts, and allegedly
Speaker 1: it was Sarah's own unhappiness that prompted the Queen to
Speaker 1: bring her back to England after four years abroad. Now
Speaker 1: twelve years old, Sarah was put under the care of
Speaker 1: two former missionaries who had served in Africa, Mr. And
Speaker 1: Mrs Shown, who lived in Kent. Sarah studied with them,
Speaker 1: learning English and French, alongside their daughter Annie, who became
Speaker 1: a friend of hers. All the while her godmother kept
Speaker 1: an active presence in her life. A any Shown wrote
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria gave constant proofs of her kindly interest in Sarah.
Speaker 1: At the Midsummer and Christmas seasons, she often went either
Speaker 1: to Windsor or Osborne to stay in the family of
Speaker 1: one of the officers of her Majesty's household, and was
Speaker 1: frequently sent for by the Queen to see her privately.
Speaker 1: But being in the royal orbit with its privileges, also
Speaker 1: has its costs, the sacrifices that people, but especially women,
Speaker 1: were forced to make to exist in high society. In
Speaker 1: January eighteen sixty two, the Queen's daughter, Princess Alice fulfilled
Speaker 1: her duty of marrying one of the royal princes of Europe,
Speaker 1: Louis of Hesse, who was scoped out for her by
Speaker 1: her older sister, The Queen's eldest daughter, Victoria. Sarah Bonetta
Speaker 1: attended the royal wedding, and later that year the Queen
Speaker 1: would compel Sarah to get married herself. Sarah was taken
Speaker 1: away from the Shawns, not by her own choice, and
Speaker 1: forced to move to a miserable house in Brighton with
Speaker 1: two elderly ladies, with the stated purpose of them preparing
Speaker 1: Sarah to enter British high society. It was while Sarah
Speaker 1: was living in Brighton miserable and far from the people
Speaker 1: who loved her. That she received a proposal by a
Speaker 1: man named James Pinson Lubulo Davies, who was a relatively
Speaker 1: wealthy Eurobo businessman thirty one years old living in Britain.
Speaker 1: James Davies was the son of parents who had been
Speaker 1: freed by the British from a slave ship, and like Sarah,
Speaker 1: he had been educated at the missionary school in Sierra Leone. Sarah,
Speaker 1: eighteen years old, had very little interest in marrying him.
Speaker 1: In a letter to her former guardian, Mrs Shown, Sarah wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: others would say he is a good man, and though
Speaker 1: you don't care about him now, will soon learn to
Speaker 1: love him. That I believe I never or could do.
Speaker 1: I know that the generality of people would say, he
Speaker 1: is rich, and you're marrying him, would at once make
Speaker 1: you independent? And I say, am I to barter my
Speaker 1: peace of mind for money? No? Never. But Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: had made up her mind. She thought it was a wonderful, convenient,
Speaker 1: and altogether prudent match, and so Queen Victoria granted her
Speaker 1: permission for the marriage, which meant that in effect, she
Speaker 1: issued an order. The wedding itself was a spectacle which
Speaker 1: began with a promenade of ten horse drawn carriages arriving
Speaker 1: at the St. Nicholas Church in Brighton. Sarah Bonetta had
Speaker 1: sixteen bridesmaids, twelve of whom were white and four were black.
Speaker 1: I think the best way to describe what the event
Speaker 1: was like is through the lens of how it was
Speaker 1: reported at the time. This article, originally from the Brighton News,
Speaker 1: was published in the Daily News on August fo eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty two. The headline is interesting marriage in Brighton. I'm
Speaker 1: quoting directly now quote this morning, a marriage is to
Speaker 1: be performed at the Parish Church, Brighton to unite a
Speaker 1: lady and gentleman of color whose previous history gives to
Speaker 1: the ceremony a peculiar interest, chiefly to those who have
Speaker 1: been so long and so deeply interested in the African race,
Speaker 1: and who have watched the progress of civilization caused by
Speaker 1: the influence of Christianity on the Negro and the ceremony
Speaker 1: will also tell our brethren on the other side of
Speaker 1: the Atlantic that British ladies and gentlemen consider it a
Speaker 1: pleasure and a privilege to do honor those of the
Speaker 1: African race who have proved themselves capable of appreciating the
Speaker 1: advantages of a liberal education. Several things I want to
Speaker 1: point out about that framing, but first is that the
Speaker 1: newspaper has not yet mentioned Sarah Bonetta's name. The reference
Speaker 1: to brethren across the Atlantic is of course a dig
Speaker 1: at the United States. The newspaper article continues, quote, the
Speaker 1: lady supposed to be an African chieftain's daughter was presented
Speaker 1: when about the age of five years to the late
Speaker 1: Captain Frederick Forbes. The next paragraph features a long excerpt
Speaker 1: from a book that Forbes wrote about his experience in Daomi,
Speaker 1: in which he says that the girl he met was
Speaker 1: about eight years old the very next paragraph. It's also
Speaker 1: worth noting that this is a point where the mythology
Speaker 1: of Sarah being a chieftain's daughter is deeply embedded in
Speaker 1: the public consciousness. A few weeks after their marriage, the
Speaker 1: newlyweds had their portrait taken by Comis Sylvie, a photographer
Speaker 1: to the rich and famous. Sylvie, still in his twenties
Speaker 1: at this time, had photographed almost the entirety of the
Speaker 1: British royal family, with the exclusion of the Queen, Sarah
Speaker 1: and Aimes getting their photograph taken was a clear status symbol.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Sarah's royal benefactor, they had arrived in the
Speaker 1: upper echelon of British society. The two eventually moved to Lagos,
Speaker 1: where James worked with middling success as a shipping merchant,
Speaker 1: and where Sarah would give birth to her first child,
Speaker 1: a daughter, whom she named Victoria, with the Queen's permission.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Queen was the baby Victoria's godmother as well,
Speaker 1: and as a gift she sent the infant a gold cup,
Speaker 1: tea tray and a knife, fork and spoon. The cup
Speaker 1: was inscribed to Victoria Davies from her godmother Victoria, Queen
Speaker 1: of Great Britain in Ireland eighteen sixty three. Sarah and
Speaker 1: James would have two more children in relatively quick succession,
Speaker 1: and Sarah periodically returned to England to visit the Queen
Speaker 1: and to show the Queen her namesake children. But by
Speaker 1: the mid eighteen seven and these Sarah was suffering from tuberculosis,
Speaker 1: and no doubt her condition wasn't helped by the stress
Speaker 1: of her husband's failing business, which by this point was
Speaker 1: twenty thousand pounds in debt. It was thought, for the
Speaker 1: second time in her life, that a gentler climate would
Speaker 1: help Sarah's health, and so she was moved to Madeira,
Speaker 1: the island region off the coast of Portugal. In eighteen eighty,
Speaker 1: at only thirty seven years old, Sarah Forbes Banetta died.
Speaker 1: Her daughter Victoria, was en route to visit her godmother,
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria when she heard the news of her mother's death.
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria received her at Osborne House and wrote in
Speaker 1: her diary, my black god child was dreadfully upset and distressed.
Speaker 1: Her father had failed in business, which aggravated her poor
Speaker 1: mother's illness. I shall give her an annuity. Sarah Forbes
Speaker 1: Panetta was buried on Madeira, but back in Laga, her
Speaker 1: husband erected an obelisk in her honor. It's a small,
Speaker 1: permanent stone reminder of a woman who was thrust across
Speaker 1: the sea, forced to live a new life, and who
Speaker 1: died too young. It's strange to try to unravel the
Speaker 1: legacy of Sarah Forbes Banetta when so much of her
Speaker 1: story has been told through the words of others. But
Speaker 1: there's one absolutely fascinating modern figure with a direct tie
Speaker 1: to her. Sarah Forbes, Vanetta's great great granddaughter, was born
Speaker 1: in Nigeria. She graduated from the University of Lagos College
Speaker 1: of Medicine and worked as a resident at the Lagos
Speaker 1: University Teaching Hospital. Her name was a Mayo Dadavo, and
Speaker 1: when she correctly recognized that a patient, a Liberian businessman,
Speaker 1: was exhibiting symptoms of ebola, she forced him into quarantine.
Speaker 1: Despite pressure from the Liberian ambassador, who wanted the patient
Speaker 1: discharge without the proper protective equipment a data vote, still
Speaker 1: tried to isolate the patient and prevent widespread infection. She
Speaker 1: herself was infected and she died of the Ebola virus
Speaker 1: in two thousand and fourteen, but her quick thinking and
Speaker 1: brave actions saved countless lives. Later that year, after the
Speaker 1: Nigerian Ministry of Health set up an Ebola Emergency Operation Center,
Speaker 1: the World Health Organization declared Nigeria Ebola Free. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Minky. The show was written and hosted
Speaker 1: by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include air Manky, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rema Ill
Speaker 1: Kali and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media
Speaker 1: at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about
Speaker 1: the show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows. M