In 1850 , a young naval police captain name Frederick E. Forbes arrive in the African kingdom of Dahomey ( today ’s Benin ) to see the powerful sovereign King Ghezo on an antislavery mission from the British Empire . As was stock for meetings of dignitaries , gifts were exchange . Among those feed to Forbes — as a courtly offer to Queen Victoria — was a 7 - twelvemonth - old girl .
Two years earlier , the girl ’s life had been upended . Her village of Okeadan ( in New - day Nigeria ) was raided , her category was kill , and she was enchant as an enslaved soul . Manysourcessuggest that the girl was the girl of a chieftain or of royal blood , but Forbeswrotethat of " her own history she has only a confused estimate " ; he speculate that she was " of a good family " because she had been kept alive at Margaret Court and not sell . With Forbes ’s arrival in the court of King Ghezo , her hazard — as dramatized in the PBS series — unexpectedly changed .
Forbes was part of the Royal Navy ’s antislavery squadron that patrol and enamor ships full of enslaved people off West Africa . Though Great Britain had been a prominent military unit in the transatlantic trade of enslaved people , by 1838 , under Queen Victoria , parliament had abolished slavery throughout the imperium .
It may seem ironical that a valet de chambre opposed to thrall would accept a man as a gift , which Walter Dean Myers , in his untried readerbookAt Her Majesty ’s Request : An African Princess in Victorian England , bid “ a present from the King of the Black person to the Queen of the whites . ” But as Forbeswrotein his journals , to refuse her would be to contract " her death - warrant . ” Hebelievedthat , " in condition of the nature of the service I had performed , the government would consider her as the property of the Crown , " so the government would take responsibility for her care . And , he was immediately imprint by her brightness and good luck charm , visit her " a perfect champion . ” He rename and baptize the unseasoned girl after himself and his ship , the HMSBonetta . From that moment frontward , she was know as Sarah Forbes Bonetta .
Queen Victoria get countersign of Sarah ’s delivery , and on November 9 , 1850 , ForbespresentedSarah to the Queen at Windsor Castle . Both Forbes and the Queen likely saw a purpose for her in England ’s publicity of Christianity in Africa . " God yield she may be taught to consider that her responsibility run her to deliver those who have not had the advantages of education from the mysterious way of their ancestors , ” Forbeswrotehopefully .
In heressayinBlack Victorians / Black Victoriana , Joan Anim - Addo suggests that Queen Victoria ’s decision to bear for Sarah ’s education and run her rearing " took into careful considerateness Forbes ’s projection of a time to come for Sally in missionary rope , particularly in coition to Sierra Leone . ” In the 1800s , the Sierra Leone Colony was part of the British Empire , and administered by Anglican missionary with the purpose of create a abode for freed , formerly enslave the great unwashed .
Sarah stay on for a time with Forbes ’s kinfolk and visited the Queen on a regular basis . In her journal , Queen Victoriawrotefondly of Sarah , who she sometimes called Sally . “ After luncheon Sally Bonita , the little African little girl come with Mrs Phipps , & prove me some of her piece of work . This is the 4th time I have seen the poor child , who is really an intelligent little affair . ”
The captaindied in 1851 , and Sarah , then about 8 years old , was sentto a missionary shoal in Freetown , Sierra Leone in May of that year . The school forbade students from wearing African clothes and talk their native languages , and promoted English culture as a path to civilisation . Sarah was a theoretical account student , but in 1855 , she returned to England . According toQueen Victoria : A Biographical Companion , Sarah was infelicitous at the school , and the Queen consort to her departure .
Her royal presenter placed her with a new menage , the Schoens , longtime missioner in Africa who now know atPalm Cottagein Gillingham , Kent , about 35 miles east of London . Sarah seemed to get along well with her new guardians — in her letters she call Mrs. Schoen as “ Mama . ” One of her letters , reprinted in Myers’sAt Her Majesty ’s Request , was sent from Windsor Castle and speck at the Queen ’s care for her well - being : " Was it not kind of the pouf — she sent to recognise if I had arrive last nighttime as she like to see me in the morning time . ”
The Schoens ’ daughter Annie laterrememberedhow Sarah " was very bright and clever , fond of study , and had a expectant talent for medicine , and soon became as accomplished as any English girl of her years . ” Furthermore , Queen Victoria " pass on constant proofs of her charitable sake in her , " including invitations to Windsor at holidays , and gift like an engraved Au watchband . In an1856 photograph , use up when she was around 13 , Sarah is posed like an English lady , a stitchery basketful at her elbow joint , and a bracelet , perhaps the one from the Queen , on her wrist .
Despite inhabit with the English elite group , and pick up a lady ’s education , Sarah had little control condition over her portion . And like most women of the nineteenth century , she was expected to marry when she reach the right age . For Sarah , that age was 19 . A suer was found : Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies , a Sierra Leone - turn out British naval ship’s officer . His own parents , of Yoruba origin , had been release from slave ship by the Royal Navy , and Davies had serve the same missionary school as Sarah . After retire from the navy , he became a successful merchandiser vas captain and businessman . They seemed to have a lot in vulgar , but Sarah did not love him . " I do it that the generality of people would say he is rich & your marrying him would at once make you independent , " Sarah write to Mrs. Schoen , " and I say , ' Am I to barter my peace of mind for money ? ' No — never ! ”
Yet she could not disobey the Queen , and in August 1862 , in St. Nicolas Church in Brighton , she wed Davies . Ina seriesof 1862 carte de visite pic now at theNational Portrait Galleryin London , Sarah poses in her copious white wedding party garb with her new husband . Her lively middle stare directly at the watcher in one shot , with a regard that seems almost defiant .
The brace make a motion to Sierra Leone , and then to Lagos . With majestic permission , they call their daughter , deport in 1863 , after Queen Victoria , who became her godmother . The Queenpresented babe Victoriawith a gilt cupful , salver , tongue , fork , and spoon engraved with an tender message : " To Victoria Davies , from her godmother , Victoria , Queen of Great Britain and Ireland , 1863 . ”
Sarah and James had two more children , but Sarah ’s health begin to decline . She went to Madeira , a Lusitanian island , to seek a remedy for tuberculosis . unhappily , she died in 1880 at just 37 days old .
Upon hearing that news show , Queen Victoria wrote in her diary that she would give her goddaughter Victoria Matilda Daviesan annuityof £ 40 ( which has theeconomic powerof £ 63,000 today ) .
Many mysteries remain about Sarah Forbes Bonetta ’s life . In her letters , she wrote only of current events . She never reflect on her childhood , the loss of her family , or her dramatic rescue . She also never mentioned regal blood , though the democratic belief of Sarah as an “ African princess ” endures .
Queen Victoria ’s care for Sarah may have been partially a moral military mission , fueled by the desire to open Christian righteousness in the British colony . Yet in an earned run average when slavery was still drill in the United States , her support and handle for Sarah and her family was a powerful statement of tolerance .
