Short Essay On Sarah Baartman's Life

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Sarah Baartman Sarah Baartman, born in 1790, is an important aspect in African American History. She endured so many tribulations throughout her lifetime. Sarah is important because of the abuse she experienced, the way she was compared to an animal because of her unusual figure, and the legacy she left behind for this generation of Black people. The first reason Sarah Baartman is very important is because of the torture she experienced at the hands of racist “white people”. Baartman was considered a “freak of nature” because of her huge buttocks. Because of Baartman’s large buttocks, she was put on display to entertain people. Baartman was sold to a Frenchman, who took her to France around September 1814, where she was the object of fascination by the Europeans who figured they were racially superior. She was taken to a building in London called Picadilly where she was displayed inside a cage for others amusement. The Europeans were allowed to poke or stick her with their fingers. Baartman was ordered to sit or stand in a position that circus animals would be ordered to do. English men and women paid to watch Sarah’s half naked body displayed in a cage that was a “meter and half high”. She was only allowed to wear a tan loincloth. During Baartman’s life, she was raped by over 60 “white men” per day. The …show more content…

The people that came to see her on display didn’t see her as a person but as one part of the natural world. Sarah was treated like an animal, and there is some evidence that at one point in time a collar was placed around her neck. George Cuvier concluded that Sarah was closer to Great Apes than humans; Baartman’s organs, genitalia, and buttocks were considered to be evidence of her sexual and intellectual connection with that of an

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