Sarah Baartman

Sarah Baartman was a Khoikhoi woman from southern Africa who lived during the early 19th century.

She became a famous figure in Europe because she was exhibited in public shows. These shows were part of a practice where people were displayed as curiosities. Because of how she was treated, her life is often used to study colonial exploitation. This term describes how powerful groups took advantage of people from other lands. Her story shows how people were sometimes treated as objects rather than as human beings.

Baartman was born in the Camdeboo area of the Cape Colony. Her early life involved significant loss and hardship. Her mother died when she was an infant. Later, her father was killed while he was working as a cattle driver. She grew up on Dutch European farms and kept a tortoiseshell necklace from her mother. As a young adult, she worked in Cape Town as a washerwoman and a nursemaid. She eventually worked as a wet-nurse for Hendrik Cesars.

In 1810, Baartman was brought to London by Hendrik Cesars and a surgeon named Alexander Dunlop. Dunlop was a Scottish military surgeon who also supplied animal specimens to showmen. He suggested that Baartman travel to Europe to earn money through exhibitions. He believed Londoners would pay to see her because her body type was uncommon in Northwestern Europe. She was known for her steatopygia, which is a medical term for a large accumulation of fat on the buttocks.

In London, she was often called the "Hottentot Venus."

Her exhibitions in London created a major legal and social scandal. An organization called the African Association tried to help her. They argued that she was being treated like property. They took the case to the Court of King's Bench in November 1810. The lawyers argued that her conditions were degrading. However, the court dismissed the case. A contract was produced that labeled her a domestic servant. This contract stated she would receive 12 guineas a year to be exhibited.

After her time in London, Baartman toured other parts of England and Ireland. In December 1811, she was baptized at Manchester Cathedral. In 1814, she was taken to France by a man named Henry Taylor. In Paris, she was exhibited at the Palais Royal under very pressured conditions. Some historians believe she may have been effectively enslaved during this time. Her presence in France became deeply tied to the rise of scientific racism.

In France, scientists studied her body to support unfair theories. This was part of a field called scientific racism, where science is used to claim one group of people is superior to another. One scientist, Georges Cuvier, wrote a monograph about her anatomy. He focused on her genitalia to support his ideas. These studies were used to categorize her as a "missing link" between humans and animals. This was a way to dehumanize her through a scientific lens.

Sarah Baartman died on December 29, 1815. Her life is now studied to understand the history of how African people were commodified. Commodification is when a person is treated like a product to be bought and sold. Her story connects to broader themes of human rights and the history of colonialism. Today, her memory is treated with respect. Her grave is located in South Africa, overlooking Hankey.