Today, when Belfi and Kim Kardashian are in fashion, it doesn't surprise anyone if a woman inserts implants into her buttocks. But earlier, when one had only to dream about plastic surgery, the natural, but oversized forms of some parts of the human body caused wild delight among the public. Wild - literally.
Sarah Bartman, also known as Saarty Bartman, was born in 1789 in South Africa. She is a representative of the Hottentot people. A feature of this people is considered to be large buttocks and genitals in women.
The girl's father was killed by the Bushmen. She spent her childhood and adolescence on settlement farms. In the late 1790s, she was met by a certain Peter Cesar from among the liberated blacks, who suggested that she move to Cape Town, then under British rule. It is not known for certain whether Saarti agreed to move of her own free will or under pressure from relatives, nevertheless, the girl left for Cape Town, where she worked as a laundress and nanny for two years, and then as a wet nurse in the family of Peter Cesar's son-in-law, whose name was Hendrick. At the same time, Sarah lived next to the slave house. And although, according to the law, as a representative of the Hottentot people, the girl could not be enslaved, it is unlikely that her living conditions were very different from those of slaves.
There is evidence that Saarti had two children, but both died in infancy. In addition, she had an affair with a poor military man from Europe named Hendrik Van Jong. But when his regiment left the Cape Town area, their relationship naturally ended.
It was here on the way that Bartman met the Scottish military surgeon William Dunlop, who suggested that she go to London to earn money at exhibitions. Saarti refused. But Dunlop persisted, and then the girl said that she was ready to go only if Hendrik Cesar went with them to look after her. But Cesar also refused. However, his debts on the farm grew, and his status as "free black" did not allow him to earn enough to make ends meet. In the end, he gave up.
Caricature of Bartman, written in the early 19th century
In 1810, Saarti traveled to London with Hendrick Cesar and William Dunlop. There, Dunlop sent a letter to the Royal Society, which said that Sarah would perform at exhibitions for two years due to her unusual appearance, make money on it, and then return to her homeland - allegedly such was the agreement between Dunlop and her family. Of course, this letter had little to do with reality, but the Society on these conditions agreed to the girl's participation in the show, although later, when the true purpose of Dunlop became clear, his representatives regretted their decision.
As a result, Bartman spent four years as an exhibit in public areas in England and Ireland, often shown in a cage, like an animal. True, at the same time, Saarti never allowed herself to be shown naked. Let it be tight, but she was always wearing clothes.
Representatives of the movement for the liberation from slavery, seeing Saarti, took pity on the girl and went to court with a statement that Sarah's demonstration was not only dishonest, but also committed against her will. It is worth noting here that the slave trade was banned in England back in 1807. However, the court ruled in favor of the girl's owners after Dunlop provided a contract allegedly between him and Bartman. In fact, no one believed in the authenticity of this contract, but in those days, even the "former" slave owners always had privileges over their "product".
However, shortly after the trial, Cesar left the show, and Dunlop became the sole owner of the girl. He continued to take her to fairs in the country, including to Manchester, where the girl received her name Sarah Bartman after her baptism (Saarti's real name is unknown). There is evidence that Bartman got married on the same day.
Etienne Geoffroy, lithograph / Wikipedia
In 1814, after Dunlop's death, the girl was taken over by a man named Henry Taylor, who brought her to Paris and sold her to animal trainer S. Reo. Reo exhibited Saarti for the amusement of spectators at the Palais Royal. Here already Saarti did not have a hint of freedom. She really began to live in slave conditions. History holds evidence that Bartman was put on a collar like an animal. During one of the shows, Georges Cuvier, founder and professor of comparative anatomy at the Museum of Natural History, became interested in her. He began to study Bartman - his goal was to find evidence that there is a so-called missing link between animals and humans. In addition, the girl was obliged to pose nude for the artists. True, even here Saarti insisted that an apron cover her hips.
Soon after these events, in December 1815, Saarti Bartman died in extreme poverty from an undefined inflammatory process, presumably smallpox, syphilis or pneumonia. After her death, Cuvier opened the body of the unfortunate woman and began to show her remains, he had no desire to find out the cause of the death of the 26-year-old woman.
Picture from the book about Saarti / Wikipedia
Only in 2002, from the Paris Museum, where the girl's brain, skeleton and genitals were displayed, her remains were exported to their homeland in South Africa, largely thanks to the personal participation of Nelson Mandela.
In his monograph, Cuvier, despite obvious racial bias, admitted that Saarti was an intelligent woman with an excellent memory, especially for faces. She was fluent not only in her native dialect, but also in the Dutch language, and besides, she spoke English and French well, knew how to play the jew's harp and danced beautifully, according to the traditions of her people. Nevertheless, he interpreted her remains on the basis of racist inclinations: for example, he compared Saarti's small ears to those of an orangutan, and under no circumstances attributed the liveliness of character and unwillingness to despondency to “inheritance” from monkeys.
