Sarah Baartman was originally named Saartjie and referred to as Hottentot Venus.
She was a late 18th-century individual from the Eastern Cape (present-day South Africa), who was exploited as a spectacle to entertain white masters throughout Europe.
Sarah endured steatopygia, resulting in excess fatty tissue around her hips and posterior. She was hypersexualized and ridiculed and symbolizes a grim period in black history. Many still connect it with the objectification and hyper-sexualization of voluptuous black women by white individuals.
In the 1770s, Saartjie was born in the Camdeboo valley in the eastern region of the Cape Colony, now South Africa. Following her birth, her family relocated to Gamtoos Valley.
As she matured, she experienced steatopygia, which caused her to have pronounced fatty tissue around her midsection and buttocks. While the African woman is typically curvaceous, her curves were exceptionally marked.
In 1810, she relocated to England with her employer, Hendrik Cesars, and an English physician, William Dunlop. It was during her stay in Manchester, England that she was baptized and renamed Sarah.
When Baartman departed from the Cape, it was under the guise of seeking treatment for her unusual condition in Piccadilly. However, they began exhibiting her for profit throughout England and Ireland. Her curves were accentuated in revealing outfits to satisfy the petty desires and fetishes of the white masters. This occurred long before slavery was abolished in 1880.
While she was presented at exhibitions, British abolitionists fervently campaigning against slavery witnessed her. They also observed the coercive conditions under which she was forced to perform and the indentured servitude she endured. Some historical accounts even suggest that white women treated her poorly as white men prodded her with sticks.
These British abolitionists then sought justice for Baartman’s unjust treatment in court. However, the court notoriously ruled in favor of the demeaning exhibition after William Dunlop submitted a controversial document. It was purportedly a contract signed between Dunlop and the unlettered Baartman.
After Dunlop’s passing, Henry Taylor brought Baartman to Paris and made her amuse onlookers. There, a scientist named George Curvier studied and experimented on her in an attempt to discover a connection between humans and animals.
According to Wikipedia sources, Baartman was later sold to Sean Reaux, who assaulted and impregnated her as part of an experiment. A daughter named Okurra Reaux was born, but she passed away at the age of 5. During this time, she lived in abject poverty and struggled to afford food.
In December 1815, she passed away in Paris, France. Until 2002, when her remains were returned to South Africa, they were displayed in France after being dissected by George Curvier.
