WEBVTT - The Queen's Goddaughter 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.920 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:08.520 and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:13.520 One quick note before we begin. Today is the day 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.880 my book Anatomy a Love Story is finally available in 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.880 bookstores everywhere. I worked so hard on it. If you're 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.040 a fan of Noble Blood, I really think you're going 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.680 to like it. It's a story about grave robbers and 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:29.160 surgery in nineteen century Edinburgh. There is a slight nobility 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.520 tied to it. It's basically an episode of Noble Blood, 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:39.080 except times longer made up and you have to read 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.520 words on a page unless you get the audio book. 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:43.960 But it would mean the world to me if you're 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.479 interested or you're a fan of this podcast, if you 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.680 went to your local indie bookstore and picked up a copy. 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.040 And as always, thank you so much for listening to 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.280 the show, and for your support on the Patreon and 0:00:55.480 --> 0:01:05.640 everything you do to make the show happen. It was 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.600 eighteen fifty and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.600 Great Britain and Ireland was holding court at Windsor Palace, 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.920 waiting to receive a very special guest, a young girl 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:22.040 who was arriving by boat from the western coast of Africa. 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.399 Victoria had been queen for thirteen years by this point, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.560 and though she was only thirty one years old, she 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.280 was already mother to seven children, all seven of which 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.720 were born without anesthesia for the record. Chloroform would be 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.360 introduced for her eighth child's birth in eighteen fifty three, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.720 and she would finally experience such a relief that she 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.200 would go on to have a ninth child. As a 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:53.000 young female monarch, a mother and wife, Victoria represented a 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:57.080 new era for the British Empire, an age that was 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:02.640 celebrated as civility Incarnate. Her reign began just a few 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.960 years after Parliament banned slavery throughout the Empire, a further 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.400 expansion of the law prohibiting the slave trade that they 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:15.239 had passed a few decades earlier. Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.480 was an outspoken opponent of slavery, and so the early 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.480 years of Queen Victoria's reign were an optimistic moment for 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:29.320 Great Britain, one of self satisfied idealism and notions of 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:34.720 their own enlightenment, especially when British citizens could compare themselves 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:40.680 to the Americans across the Atlantic. In America, eighteen fifty 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.000 was the year that Congress passed the Second Fugitive Slave Act, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:49.360 a cruel and draconian law that allowed the seizure and 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.880 return of enslaved people even after they had arrived in 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:57.200 a free territory a northern state where slavery would be illegal. 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.600 This new law would allow some to capture anyone they 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.919 might suspect of being a runaway slave and bring them 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.440 in front of local officials, who were deputized to decide, 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.000 without a jury trial, the status of whether or not 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:17.000 that kidnapped person was or was not the property of 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:21.080 the white person who claimed them. Eighteen fifty was the 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.639 year Harriet Beecher Stowe would begin writing her best selling 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.040 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, of which he would send a 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.200 copy to the Royal Palace, writing a letter to Prince 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:37.200 Albert raising his abolitionist sensibilities. Queen Victoria was such a 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.720 fan of Stow, and she found herself so emotionally affected 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.080 by her book that the Queen would eventually flout diplomatic 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:48.360 protocol in order to meet her. But the larger issues 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.600 of race in Victorian Britain were more complicated and nuanced 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.720 than it might appear from the incredibly belated and self 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.200 congratulatory progress made to free the people throughout the realm 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:06.280 whom they had enslaved in the first place. In eighteen 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.920 seventy seven, Victoria would become Empress of India. She would 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.840 be the face used to legitimize colonialism under the guise 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.200 of civility, the woman who would be known globally as 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.520 the Great White Queen. In the words of historian David 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.200 la Sauga in his book Black and British Are Forgotten History, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:32.919 Victoria was a quote cipher for British power. Colonialism was 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:39.400 framed as expanding the gift of quote unquote civilization and Christianity, 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.520 and by the middle of the eighteen hundreds, those in 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.839 power in Great Britain were eager to justify their own 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.040 efforts to other nations around the world, but also to themselves. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:55.640 To that end, success stories were needed, narratives that fueled 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:00.400 into their preconceived notions of their own virtue. We brings 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:06.080 us to Queen Victoria's special visitor at Windsor Castle November nine, 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:11.159 eighteen fifty. It was a young girl seven or eight 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:16.080 years old, taking small steps in the large echoing hallway. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.440 She was taught what to do when she reached the Queen, 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:24.039 which was to dip into a low curtsey. After she rose, 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.719 the young girl looked over her shoulder at the man 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.880 who had brought her here, a captain named Frederick E. Forbes. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:36.440 The young girl was black. Captain Forbes had quote unquote 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.480 rescued her from where she was enslaved in the palace 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:42.760 of the African Kingdom of Daomi and presented as a 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:47.240 gift to the English Captain. Forbes baptized her with the 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:53.840 name Sarah Forbes Bonetta Forbes after himself, and Bonetta her 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.560 surname after the boat on which they sailed back to 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:04.480 England together. During the voyage, Sarah learned English, astonishing Captain 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.960 Forbes and the crew with how intelligent she was. He 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.920 wrote to Queen Victoria to let her know about the 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.960 unexpected passenger joining them on the return trip, and to 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:19.200 his surprise, word came from Queen Victoria that she intended 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.640 to adopt and care for the girl to act as 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:29.560 her godmother. A November ninth Sarah Forbes Bonetta met her 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:34.440 royal godmother in person for the first time. Queen Victoria, 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:38.640 who famously stood only five feet tall, was probably about 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.760 the same size as her. Even still, we can't imagine 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.800 how terrified Sarah Banetta must have been. Here was a 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.520 girl whose life had been destroyed, whose family had been 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.560 murdered by a rival kingdom, who was captured and enslaved, 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.080 only to be handed off like dry goods to a stranger. 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.520 Baptized in a new RelA jen forced to learn a 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.000 new language as quickly as she could so that she 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.440 could be presented to the most powerful woman in the 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:12.640 world for her approval. Sarah Bonetta, whom the Queen would 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.960 soon nickname Sally, would spend the rest of her life 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:20.120 as a fixture of royal courtly life. She would be 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:24.240 a regular guest at palaces around England. She would attend 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:29.160 royal events and have her education fully funded. Her children 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.960 would also be god children of the Queen, and her 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:36.320 grandchildren would continue to benefit from Victoria financially for their 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:42.160 entire lives. That relationship, the story of the black, formerly 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:47.320 enslaved girl being effectively adopted by Queen Victoria, is why 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.920 Sarah Forbes Banetta is famous and why we know her 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:57.120 story today. In her book Infamous Bodies author Samantha Pinto writes, quote, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.160 Bonetta's proximity to the sovereign gave her access to the 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:06.160 emerging mass media technologies that appended royalty, and also gave 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.920 her and us access to her image via the Royal Archive. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.480 End quote. We have photos of Sarah Bonetta because she 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.000 had access to the famous photographers of the day. There 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.200 are newspaper articles about her that we can read, because 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:27.360 she was considered a curiosity, a Cinderella story to modern audiences. 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.760 Her photographs, in which Bonetta is wearing elaborate Victorian dress 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:36.319 are sometimes paraded out under clickbait headlines akin to Wow, 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.360 You'll never believe who this woman's godmother was, akin to that, or, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.880 in the case of BuzzFeed, exactly like that. As Samantha 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:49.480 Pinto writes, quote, these fashions and this era have been 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.600 so associated with whiteness that their encounter with Bonetta's flesh 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:58.440 pique's immediate contemporary interest. As if Bonetta's skin and the 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.920 fashion are so in hungry with in their proximity that 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:08.360 the image demands explanation and explication end quote. It reminds 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.079 me a little bit of an episode of Doctor Who, 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.840 in which The Doctor played by Peter Capaldi, at this 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.680 point visits regency era England to see the freezing of 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:22.120 the Thames. His new companion Bill remarks that the London 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.640 population is quote a bit more black than they show 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:30.480 in the movies. The Doctor responds, so was Jesus. History 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:36.560 is a whitewash. In recent years, there's been an effort 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.480 by the British public to draw more attention to Seravonetta's life. 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.640 The British Heritage commissioned a portrait of her by the 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:48.080 artist Hannah Ozar, one of a series of quote previously 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:53.400 overlooked black figures from British history. But Sarah's fame is 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.720 a complicated paradox. In a way, the very reason Sarah 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.400 is famous, and the reason we have information and about 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.120 her life is because of her forced participation in a 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:09.280 power structure that absorbed her individual agency. We know almost 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:13.679 nothing about who she actually was as a person. Samantha 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:18.000 Pinto continued to write, quote, Vanetta is a uniquely blank 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.280 canvas of black agency, as she doesn't offer any significant 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:27.200 text or performance. Instead, she persists almost entirely through the 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.199 images of her card to visit a photographs as well 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.360 as in some letters, histories and news report where it 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.640 is her unlikely proximity to British Royalty that marks her 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:42.400 as of public interest end quote. All we can do 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:46.240 now is squint and look at the photographs of the 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:51.240 beautiful girl in the giant Victorian dress, and remember that 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.959 before she was a symbol, she was a real person. 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:04.640 I'm Danish Wartz and this is noble blood. For about 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.600 three hundred years, beginning in the sixteen hundreds, Daomi was 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.720 an African kingdom that existed on the western coast of 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:17.080 Africa within present day Benin. Originally, Daomi was a tributary 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.800 kingdom to the Oyo Empire, which extended through present day Nigeria, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:28.000 but Daomi eventually became an independent and conquering power. Their 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:32.040 rise in power was thanks to a few factors. An 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:37.760 incredibly brutal expansionist approach to conquering neighboring kingdoms, a disciplined 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:42.320 military which included an all female unit, and finally, and 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.800 perhaps most importantly, a willingness to engage with the Atlantic 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.000 slave trade. The Daomi Kingdom was one of the largest 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:55.240 suppliers of the Atlantic slave trade, selling prisoners of war 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.720 for money and advanced weaponry that allowed them to further 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.800 dominate surrounding kingdoms and continue the cycle all over again. 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.679 Military discipline and brutality was also on display during an 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.920 annual ritual called the Customs of Daomi, which began around 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:17.079 seventeen thirty and involved parades, the exchanging of gifts and tributes, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.280 and finally, the beheading of hundreds of prisoners of war 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.440 as human sacrifices. The name for the ceremony in the 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:31.520 Fond language Uenteno, translates to yearly head business. It was 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.920 meant to be a massive display of strength, a strength 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.000 that was only possible thanks to the arrival of Western 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:43.959 European powers who wanted to purchase human beings and enslave them. 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.439 The girl that would eventually come to be known as 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.640 Sarah Forbes Vanetta was captured by Doaomi troops in eighteen 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.640 forty eight during a slave hunt in which the soldiers 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.679 burned her village, okay Odin in Yarhuba to the ground 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:02.319 and murdered her siblings and parents. Prints Sarah was captured, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.880 but rather than being sold to Europeans, she was brought 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.400 to the Daomi palace to serve King Gezo. The reigning 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.800 monarch at the time. Historians speculate that Sarah might have 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.440 been noble born because she was brought to the palace 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.480 instead of being sold or killed, but we don't know 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.600 for sure. However, by the time that she arrived in 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.720 England and her story became well known throughout Great Britain, 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.280 she was mythologized to the point where people would refer 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.640 to her as an African princess or the daughter of 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.760 a chief. But we don't know that for sure. We 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:40.360 can only speculate, just like we don't know Sarah Forbes 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.600 Vanetta's real name, the name she was born with and 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.280 used for the first seven years of her life. Some 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:51.360 historians speculate that her birth name was Aina or some 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:56.320 variation on it, sometimes spelled A I N A, because 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:00.880 later that name appears on her marriage license. Her marriage 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.920 certificate is the one piece of writing we have in 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:11.480 her own handwriting the words Ainah Sarah Forbes Bonetta. For 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.880 clarity's sake, I'll continue to refer to her as Sarah 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.479 because that's the name by which she's most commonly referenced. 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.160 A few years after Sarah was taken by the Daomi 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:26.320 soldiers to King Gezo's palace, a British captain arrived in Daomi. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.720 Captain Frederick E. Forbes was a naval captain of the 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:35.120 West African Squadron or w A S, which was a 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:39.600 collection of ships patrolling the western coast of Africa with 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:44.000 the goal of stopping the slave trade. England had abolished 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.840 the slave trade in eighteen o seven and then went 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.880 on to abolish slavery in its colonies in eighteen thirty three, 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.160 but the slave trade still continued from France and Spain, 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.920 and of course the slave trade continued to the United States. 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.560 It actually be King Gezo's son, the next King of Diaomi, 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.400 who would go on to oversee the trade of the 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:11.120 last ever, by then a legal ship of enslaved African 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:17.880 people bound for America. According to Captain Forbes's account, King 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:22.400 Gezo was a uniquely harsh leader. Forbes referred to him 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.240 as an African nero. We also get a drawing from 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.560 the captain of what the king looked like. In the drawing, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.040 King Gezo has a thin Gomez Adam style mustache. He 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:39.040 wears a one shoulder robe in bright, astonishingly bright blue 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.800 that looks like a cross between a French king's robe 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:47.520 and a toga. His wide brimmed hat is edged with tassels. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.080 Captain Forbes was part of the British movement to eliminate 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.520 the slave trade globally, which required negotiations with their neighboring 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.640 European countries as well as making treaties with Africa nations. 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.200 The captain was in Daomi with the purpose of getting 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.640 the king to agree to no longer sell enslaved prisoners 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.960 and to instead begin to engage more heavily in palm 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:16.360 oil trading. At this point, the selling of enslaved people 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.600 was King Gezo's kingdom's primary source of income, and so 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:24.360 while he greeted Captain Forbes with respect, he denied his 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:28.200 request to eliminate the supply of slaves. It was already 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:33.680 the bedrock of his kingdom's economy. But even unsuccessful diplomatic 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:38.840 missions engage in the appropriate rituals of politeness, and so 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.800 as gifts to Captain Forbes to pass along to his 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:47.640 sovereign Queen Victoria, King Gezo gifted quote a rich country cloth, 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:52.520 a captive girl, a kabusiers stool, ten heads of coweries, 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.640 and one keg of rum. Did you catch that second 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.840 thing listed there. A small captive girl was given to 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.600 Captain Forbes so that he might pass her along to 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:08.600 Queen Victoria as a gift. Forbes writes that, as abhorrent 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.480 as he believed slavery to be, he feared rejecting the 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:18.080 gift because Daomi culture commonly involved ritual sacrifice. It's also 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.720 possible that he saw the young girl enslaved in the 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.320 palace and bargained for her so that he could quote 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:29.240 unquote rescue her. Either way, the young girl accompanied Captain 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.520 Forbes back to his ship, the h M. S. Bonetta, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.200 and he christened her with the name that she would 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:39.400 use for the rest of her life, Sarah Forbes Bonetta. 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.800 Almost immediately, young Sarah surprised the crew with how quickly 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:50.439 she learned English. Forbes would later write, quote for her age, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.400 she is a perfect genius. She now speaks English well 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.400 and has a great talent for music. She has won 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.480 the affections with but few exceptions of all who have 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.399 known her by her docile and amiable conduct, which nothing 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:09.800 can exceed. But for all of his fairly condescending benevolence 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:14.240 towards his new ward there was also a slightly nefarious 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.119 edge to Forbes's interest in her from the moment that 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:22.240 Sarah joined the crew on the Vanetta, she was a specimen. 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.159 With that in mind, the rest of Captain Forbes's quote 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:30.919 continues quote, she is far in advance of any white 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.880 child of her age in aptness of learning, and strength 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.480 of mind and affection, and with her being an excellent 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.760 specimen of the Negro race, might test the capability of 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:47.200 the intellect of the Black it being generally and erroneously 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:51.040 supposed that after a certain age the intellect becomes impaired 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.840 and the pursuit of knowledge impossible, that though the Negro 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.560 child may be clever, the adult will be dull and stupid. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:03.760 Her head is considered so excellent a phrenological specimen, and 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.320 illustrating such high intellect, that M. Pistrucci, the medalist to 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:13.480 the Mint, has undertaken a bust of her. As Olasoga 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:18.680 writes in Black and British Quote, Victoria ruled over an 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.720 empire that, in the latter decades of the nineteenth century 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:28.199 was increasingly influenced by racial thinking and new quote unquote 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:34.280 scientific racial theories, and Victoria, like most Victorians thought in 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.119 terms of racial types, and may well have believed to 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:43.080 some extent that the races of mankind possessed innate inner 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:50.080 characteristics end quote. Almost as soon as Sarah arrived in London, 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:52.679 she was brought to Windsor Palace to meet the Queen, 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.520 her new godmother, who remarked that the girl spoke perfect 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:00.440 English and was quote dressed as any other the girl, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:06.320 presumably meaning Victorian dress. As the girl's godmother, Queen Victoria 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.480 was determined to arrange for Sarah's education. For the next 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.560 few months, Sarah was educated and cared for by a 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:17.040 woman named Mrs Phipps, who would periodically bring the girl 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:21.280 to see Queen Victoria. In one of the Queen's diary entries, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.800 she wrote, after luncheon, Sarah Bonita, the little African girl, 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.399 came with Mrs Phipps and showed me some of her work. 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.280 This is the fourth time I have seen the poor child, 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:37.240 who is really an intelligent thing. But the English climate 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.720 didn't agree with Sarah, or at least that's what people 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:44.920 believed when she became withdrawn and melancholy with a deep cough. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:49.000 To get her to a more amiable climate, Sarah was 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:53.400 sent to the church missionary Society School in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.480 a British colony. The British at the time viewed Sierra 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.960 Leone as a toe hold for bringing Aristianity into Africa. 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.119 The hope was that the Africans educated at the missionary 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:11.400 school would continue east, building missionary momentum and eventually helping 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.640 the anti slave trade movement. Many of the other students 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:19.359 at the school were liberated from intercepted slave ships, or 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.760 they were the children of those who were rescued. While 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:28.000 Sarah was studying in Sierra Leone's favorable climate, Queen Victoria 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:32.360 continued to send along books and little gifts, and allegedly 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.639 it was Sarah's own unhappiness that prompted the Queen to 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:39.760 bring her back to England after four years abroad. Now 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.639 twelve years old, Sarah was put under the care of 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.040 two former missionaries who had served in Africa, Mr. And 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.920 Mrs Shown, who lived in Kent. Sarah studied with them, 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.800 learning English and French, alongside their daughter Annie, who became 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.320 a friend of hers. All the while her godmother kept 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:01.280 an active presence in her life. A any Shown wrote 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:05.800 Queen Victoria gave constant proofs of her kindly interest in Sarah. 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.359 At the Midsummer and Christmas seasons, she often went either 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.359 to Windsor or Osborne to stay in the family of 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.480 one of the officers of her Majesty's household, and was 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:18.680 frequently sent for by the Queen to see her privately. 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:24.719 But being in the royal orbit with its privileges, also 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:29.399 has its costs, the sacrifices that people, but especially women, 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:34.080 were forced to make to exist in high society. In 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:39.200 January eighteen sixty two, the Queen's daughter, Princess Alice fulfilled 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.360 her duty of marrying one of the royal princes of Europe, 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.400 Louis of Hesse, who was scoped out for her by 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:50.040 her older sister, The Queen's eldest daughter, Victoria. Sarah Bonetta 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.200 attended the royal wedding, and later that year the Queen 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:58.480 would compel Sarah to get married herself. Sarah was taken 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:01.360 away from the Shawns, not by her own choice, and 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:04.560 forced to move to a miserable house in Brighton with 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:09.080 two elderly ladies, with the stated purpose of them preparing 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:15.000 Sarah to enter British high society. It was while Sarah 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:18.320 was living in Brighton miserable and far from the people 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.359 who loved her. That she received a proposal by a 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:25.959 man named James Pinson Lubulo Davies, who was a relatively 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:30.160 wealthy Eurobo businessman thirty one years old living in Britain. 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.440 James Davies was the son of parents who had been 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.120 freed by the British from a slave ship, and like Sarah, 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:42.119 he had been educated at the missionary school in Sierra Leone. Sarah, 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:46.600 eighteen years old, had very little interest in marrying him. 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:51.000 In a letter to her former guardian, Mrs Shown, Sarah wrote, quote, 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:54.240 others would say he is a good man, and though 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:56.800 you don't care about him now, will soon learn to 0:23:56.880 --> 0:24:00.560 love him. That I believe I never or could do. 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:03.520 I know that the generality of people would say, he 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:06.360 is rich, and you're marrying him, would at once make 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:09.439 you independent? And I say, am I to barter my 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:14.679 peace of mind for money? No? Never. But Queen Victoria 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:19.840 had made up her mind. She thought it was a wonderful, convenient, 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:24.760 and altogether prudent match, and so Queen Victoria granted her 0:24:24.800 --> 0:24:29.040 permission for the marriage, which meant that in effect, she 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:34.080 issued an order. The wedding itself was a spectacle which 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:38.200 began with a promenade of ten horse drawn carriages arriving 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:41.840 at the St. Nicholas Church in Brighton. Sarah Bonetta had 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:46.080 sixteen bridesmaids, twelve of whom were white and four were black. 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:49.439 I think the best way to describe what the event 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:51.840 was like is through the lens of how it was 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:57.000 reported at the time. This article, originally from the Brighton News, 0:24:57.280 --> 0:25:01.000 was published in the Daily News on August fo eighteen 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:06.440 sixty two. The headline is interesting marriage in Brighton. I'm 0:25:06.520 --> 0:25:10.280 quoting directly now quote this morning, a marriage is to 0:25:10.359 --> 0:25:13.440 be performed at the Parish Church, Brighton to unite a 0:25:13.520 --> 0:25:17.600 lady and gentleman of color whose previous history gives to 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:21.399 the ceremony a peculiar interest, chiefly to those who have 0:25:21.480 --> 0:25:24.960 been so long and so deeply interested in the African race, 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:29.400 and who have watched the progress of civilization caused by 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:33.720 the influence of Christianity on the Negro and the ceremony 0:25:33.800 --> 0:25:36.320 will also tell our brethren on the other side of 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:40.520 the Atlantic that British ladies and gentlemen consider it a 0:25:40.560 --> 0:25:43.919 pleasure and a privilege to do honor those of the 0:25:43.960 --> 0:25:47.840 African race who have proved themselves capable of appreciating the 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:52.600 advantages of a liberal education. Several things I want to 0:25:52.640 --> 0:25:56.040 point out about that framing, but first is that the 0:25:56.080 --> 0:26:00.880 newspaper has not yet mentioned Sarah Bonetta's name. The reference 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:04.399 to brethren across the Atlantic is of course a dig 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:09.080 at the United States. The newspaper article continues, quote, the 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:13.160 lady supposed to be an African chieftain's daughter was presented 0:26:13.200 --> 0:26:15.760 when about the age of five years to the late 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:21.760 Captain Frederick Forbes. The next paragraph features a long excerpt 0:26:21.880 --> 0:26:24.960 from a book that Forbes wrote about his experience in Daomi, 0:26:25.520 --> 0:26:27.439 in which he says that the girl he met was 0:26:27.560 --> 0:26:31.920 about eight years old the very next paragraph. It's also 0:26:31.960 --> 0:26:34.720 worth noting that this is a point where the mythology 0:26:34.840 --> 0:26:38.520 of Sarah being a chieftain's daughter is deeply embedded in 0:26:38.520 --> 0:26:43.800 the public consciousness. A few weeks after their marriage, the 0:26:43.880 --> 0:26:48.480 newlyweds had their portrait taken by Comis Sylvie, a photographer 0:26:48.520 --> 0:26:52.240 to the rich and famous. Sylvie, still in his twenties 0:26:52.280 --> 0:26:55.639 at this time, had photographed almost the entirety of the 0:26:55.640 --> 0:26:59.680 British royal family, with the exclusion of the Queen, Sarah 0:26:59.720 --> 0:27:03.480 and Aimes getting their photograph taken was a clear status symbol. 0:27:03.960 --> 0:27:07.600 Thanks to Sarah's royal benefactor, they had arrived in the 0:27:07.680 --> 0:27:12.960 upper echelon of British society. The two eventually moved to Lagos, 0:27:13.240 --> 0:27:17.160 where James worked with middling success as a shipping merchant, 0:27:17.359 --> 0:27:20.359 and where Sarah would give birth to her first child, 0:27:20.840 --> 0:27:24.600 a daughter, whom she named Victoria, with the Queen's permission. 0:27:24.760 --> 0:27:28.879 Of course, the Queen was the baby Victoria's godmother as well, 0:27:29.000 --> 0:27:32.040 and as a gift she sent the infant a gold cup, 0:27:32.440 --> 0:27:36.440 tea tray and a knife, fork and spoon. The cup 0:27:36.560 --> 0:27:41.679 was inscribed to Victoria Davies from her godmother Victoria, Queen 0:27:41.760 --> 0:27:47.280 of Great Britain in Ireland eighteen sixty three. Sarah and 0:27:47.400 --> 0:27:50.879 James would have two more children in relatively quick succession, 0:27:51.400 --> 0:27:55.000