Sarah Baartman was a South African woman whose freakishly enormous buttocks became a source of entertainment for Europeans in the nineteenth century. She was a freak show attraction known as ‘Hottentot Venus’ and belonged to the Khoikhoi community of Africa. Her boss brought her to the UK in the early 1800s and staged exhibitions with Sarah as the main attraction as a “freak of nature.” She spent four years throughout Europe like this, mainly in London and Ireland’s wealthy circles, until being rescued by a group of British abolitionists who rescued her and sued the organization for the ‘indecency’ depicted on stage. The lawsuit was heard, but the ruling was in favor of her displays, and she continued to appear as a freak on stage around Europe. She was then used as a test subject for researchers looking for missing links between animals and humans, and she died of an illness a few years later in 1815. Her skeleton was displayed in the Museum of Man in Paris for the public to see.
Childhood and Adolescence
Sarah Saartjie Baartman was born in 1789 to a Khoikhoi cattle-herding family in what is now known as the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Her family worked as servants for the farm’s owner and she was born on a farm.
Colonialism was at its height at the time. Sarah’s parents died shortly after she was born. She married a musician from her tribe when she was a teenager.
Sarah was sold to a slaver, Peter Cesars, who took her to his residence in Cape Town, South Africa, where she began working as a servant after her husband was slain in a conflict by Dutch colonists.
Cesar’s English friend, who wanted Sarah as a house servant in London and occasionally intended to employ her for ‘entertainment’ purposes, signed her on for a contract in October 1810.
She accepted to relocate to London after receiving assurances of big pay. Sarah’s illiteracy made it difficult for her to understand the genuine intentions of others around her, and she ended herself on stage, in an exhibition, as a “freak of nature” due to her huge buttocks and strange skin color.
Europe’s exhibitions
Caesars and Alexander Dunlop first performed her on stage in London in 1810, and she was included in a performance in the Egyptian hall of the Piccadilly Circus in November of that year.
The organizers believed she could make a lot of money because of her disability, and they were correct. By that time, the residents of London had not seen many black-skinned people, especially not with such a huge bottom.
Throughout the rest of the year, several additional shows took place as interest in Sarah grew, the word spread like wildfire, and the scientific community rushed to conduct studies on her.
The practice of displaying people with malformations was common in London at the time, and the English thought it humorous. Sarah instantly realized she was being used as a prop and attempted to fight it. Her bosses, however, would not allow it, despite the fact that it had been agreed that she would not perform naked.
Caesars and Dunlop faced still another hurdle when the ‘African Association’ learned of her and launched a court lawsuit to release her. This was just a few years after England passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which was a further roadblock for Cesars and Dunlop.
Cases were filed, and when Sarah appeared in court, she rejected all of the allegations leveled against her owners, claiming that she came to England of her own free will and had no intention of returning to her birthplace. She also stated that she was not sexually assaulted or mistreated and that she was satisfied with the way she was handled.
However, her reputation grew as a result of the court case, and she began to draw larger crowds to her presentations. In 1812, she managed to go out of England to perform on stage in Ireland. Sarah had been baptized a year before, and there are documented records that she married in December 1811, the same day she was baptized.
By September 1814, French people had heard about her, and there were calls for her to be taken to France. A Frenchman named Henry Taylor braved the risk and brought her to Paris for displays. She piqued the interest of various artists and scientists, who sought her for their works of art and study, respectively.
She grew more and more of a slave to the French. Even after being promised a substantial quantity of money, she refused to strip naked there.
People in France treated her badly in the most heinous manner possible, and she became impoverished. There is proof that she was sexually molested, and it has been proven that chains were sometimes wrapped around her neck.
Her supporters were unconcerned by the accusations of slavery, and she was treated inhumanely until she died of an inflammatory condition.
Death and the Afterlife
Sarah Baartman died in December 1815, and her death was attributed to smallpox complications. Her recurrent sexual abuse in France may have exposed her to Syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, according to some authorities. Her body was never officially autopsied in a customary manner, and her death is still a mystery.
She was later regarded as a strong and clever woman who spoke fluent French and English and was fluent in her own language and Dutch. She also had a great memory, and it was believed that if it weren’t for her physical ‘deformity,’ she was a stunning woman.
After her death, she became a source of fascination around the world, and when Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa in 1984, he requested that France return her remains.
Sarah became a symbol of Africa’s sad colonial past, and countless books and poems honoring her beauty and dignity were written about her.
Estimated Net worth
Sarah Baartman’s name is alternatively spelled Sara, and she goes by the nickname Saartje or Saartjie. Her net worth is believed to be $700,000.