Sara Forbes Bonetta. A child (possibly princess) of the Egbado (now Yewa) tribe of the Yoruba people
Sara Forbes Bonetta. A child (possibly princess) of the Egbado (now Yewa) tribe of the Yoruba people, her parents were killed in intertribal warfare, and she became a slave of Ghezo, King of the Dahomey. Captain Frederick E. Forbes, on an anti-slavery mission from Britain to Dahomey (now Benin), persuaded Ghezo to present the girl to Queen Victoria as a gift. Ghezo agreed, and Forbes brought her to England, naming her Sara Forbes Bonetta (for his ship, HMS Bonetta). Victoria adopted her as her goddaughter and arranged for her housing, schooling (in both Sierra Leone and England), and marriage to a wealthy Sierra-Leonian-British naval captain (whom Bonetta did not want to marry, but had little choice). You can read more about Bonetta here.1-6. Bonetta in her wedding dress, and with her husband, Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies8. Bonetta at about age 7, in a color plate from Frederick E. Forbes’s Dahomey and the Dahomans, 18519. Bonetta at 13 -- source link
#history#african royalty#19th century#black history