Queenvictoria’s Black Goddaughter
The unbelievable story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the captive African girl who became a royal protégée
Even though Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the black goddaughter of Queen Victoria, had a remarkable life, it’s not widely known. However, it’s been brought into the spotlight thanks to a new project by English
Heritage, and we spoke to Anna Eavis, curatorial director of English Heritage, to learn more about Sarah’s story. She was born in West Africa, in the south-west of modern-day Nigeria, in around 1843. When she was about five, her life was upended when the forces of King Gezo of Dahomey (located within present-day Benin) raided her home, murdered her parents and took her captive. “The king of Dahomey was still participating in slaving, so he was working with a Portuguese slave trader who would take captured people and sell them on,” explains Eavis. “Sarah was not transported anywhere as she was five years old and she was kept at the king’s court, presumably to later become a slave there, but we don’t know that.”
Meanwhile Britain – one of the most successful and dominant countries involved in the transatlantic slave trade – had finally abolished it throughout its empire with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Twenty-five years earlier, the West Africa Squadron (WAS) had been established to patrol the coasts of West Africa to suppress the slave traders in the Atlantic. To this end, British naval captain Frederick Forbes of the WAS visited Dahomey twice, in 1849 and 1850, to persuade King Gezo to stop participating in the slave trade. Although Forbes failed in his mission, the king offered him a girl – Sarah
– to take back with him as a diplomatic gift for Queen Victoria. Forbes subsequently wrote about Sarah, who was now seven years old, in his accounts and diaries, providing us with some information on her. “They are very jarring accounts because he lists the gifts that he’s taking back and he describes this captive girl included in this list of other things, like carpet and some kegs of rum and so on. It’s appalling,” says Eavis. “On the other hand, he’s kindly towards her and he has her baptised before they set sail to come back to England.”
Not only was Forbes responsible for Sarah’s baptism and taking her to Britain, but he also chose her name. “The name Forbes Bonetta is partly his surname, Forbes, and Bonetta is the name of his ship, so he concocts that surname. I don’t know how he arrived at Sarah, but that’s how she gets the name by which she’s then known,” says Eavis. Do we know what Sarah’s birth name was? Eavis explains that “on her marriage certificate she wrote her European name but also the name ‘Aina’, so the assumption is that was her real name”.
Despite facing more upheaval in her young life, Sarah appears to have settled on the ship and she was popular with the crew – by the time she arrived in England she was even able to speak some English. Eavis states that Forbes was very impressed with Sarah: “He felt that she was much more intelligent and she had a much better attitude to learning than most White children.”
A few months after arriving in Britain, Forbes presented Sarah to Queen Victoria on 9 November 1850. The queen describes meeting Sarah – whom she calls ‘Sally’ – in her journal: “She is seven years old, sharp and intelligent, and speaks English. She was dressed as any other girl. When her bonnet was taken off, her little black woolly head and big earrings gave her the true negro type.”
After that meeting, Queen Victoria agreed to take Sarah under her wing, provide for her welfare and fund her education. “I think both Forbes and Queen Victoria and, later on, other White people like her because she’s really intelligent and I think that this surprises them, to be honest. They’re not expecting a Black African girl to be as accomplished and capable of education as she is, and so they’re really keen to support her,” says Eavis.
In 1851, Sarah was sent to the Church Missionary Society school in Freetown, Sierra Leone, because, according to Eavis,
“It was believed then that the English climate would be difficult for somebody of African origins.” This particular school was chosen because both Forbes and the queen believed that Sarah would make an ideal missionary, at a time when missionaries were being sent to Africa to Christianise Africans.
Sarah became very accomplished during her time at the missionary school but she reportedly disliked being there.
After four years she returned to Britain, where she paid another visit to the queen, and it’s said that she got on well with the royal children. Eventually, she was placed in the care of Miss Sophia Welsh in Brighton, who oversaw Sarah’s introduction into British society.
When she was 19, Sarah was approached by James Davies, a 33-year-old widower and merchant from Sierra Leone, who wanted to marry her. He had also been taught at the Christian Missionary Society school and it’s thought that they were introduced to each other there, although they barely knew one another. “She didn’t really want to marry him and others said, ‘You’ll learn to love him and he’s well off, he’s a good catch.’ Her reaction was, ‘Am I to barter my peace of mind for money? No!’” says Eavis.
Even though Sarah was not keen on marrying Davies, the marriage was deemed favourable and it was approved by Queen Victoria. The couple wed in a lavish ceremony in Brighton on 14 August 1862, with crowds reportedly lining up outside to catch sight of them. “At their wedding… representatives of the Church Missionary Society were there and they spoke about this wonderful moment. There was a great deal of publicity about the wedding in the colonial national press, presenting this union as an example of the great benefit of a Christian education,” explains Eavis.
After their wedding, Sarah and her husband were photographed by Camille Silvy in London. Silvy was known for being a celebrity photographer who boasted Queen Victoria as a patron, so the fact that he photographed the newlyweds demonstrates their status in society. The couple moved to Sierra Leone and later to Lagos, where they had three children together over the next decade. Sarah named her eldest daughter Victoria after the queen,
“Sarah’s extraordinary life tells us a lot about how Victorian attitudes to race and cultural identity are being shaped during this period”
who agreed to become the little girl’s godmother, with Sarah returning to Britain and presenting her daughter to the monarch in December 1867.
Unfortunately, by the late 1860s it was clear that Sarah was suffering from tuberculosis and she moved to Madeira in the hope that the climate would improve her health. Sadly, she succumbed to her illness on 15 August 1880, at the age of just 37. Her daughter, Victoria, heard the news while on her way to see the queen at Osborne House. Queen Victoria later wrote that she “saw poor Victoria Davies, my black godchild, now 17, who heard this morning of the death of her dear mother at Madeira”.
Although it was tragically cut short, Sarah’s extraordinary life tells us a lot about how Victorian attitudes to race and cultural identity were shaped during this period. “I think the fact that it is happening at the moment after Britain has abolished slavery in its empire is really important because what we’re seeing from Forbes, the queen and the Church Missionary Society is a kind of benign interest. Yet that in itself is fraught with some underlying assumptions about Black Africans which are actually very uncomfortable,” says Eavis.
To many people, Sarah’s education and accomplishments were a social experiment to demonstrate how Africans could become ‘civilised’ through British guidance and Christian education. “She was very musical, had a beautiful singing and speaking voice, was great company, multilingual and very intelligent – and the Church Missionary Society was very proud of that,” says Eavis.
Sarah’s life was not only a matter of interest in Britain but also across the Atlantic. “She was held up as a sort of poster girl, not only by the Church Missionary Society but by campaigners for abolition in the States, who were pointing to her and saying look, Black people should be educated and look at what can be achieved – that was coming from Black American abolitionists. So it’s a complex picture in terms of the range of attitudes to Sarah and that complexity is really important to reflect on,” says Eavis.
Many people are now discovering Sarah’s story thanks to English Heritage’s project to display paintings of ‘overlooked’
Black figures connected with its properties. A new portrait of Sarah, in her wedding dress, has been painted by artist Hannah Uzor and is now on display at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, the former holiday home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
About the importance of this project, Eavis states, “We did some research a few years ago partly about slave trade links to our sites but also looking at the evidence for Black presence at our sites, and that work revealed a number of names… We wanted to build on that and feel that it’s important to be giving visibility to the historic presence of Black people in this country because there are many assumptions about the degree to which British society did have people of colour in it historically.”