Sarah Forbes Bonetta escaped slavery to become a friend of a monarch
The girl who became Sarah Forbes Bonetta was born as Aina, in an Egabao Yoruba village in West Africa, in 1843. In 1848, the Kingdom of Dahomey raided Aina’s village, decapitating her parents and capturing her. She was taken as a personal slave of the ruler of Dahomey, King Ghezo.
Dahomey profited greatly off of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and were loath to end the practice. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom had abolished slavery and were trying to end the practice in other countries. Around 1850, Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the Royal Navy was sent to treat with King Ghezo. While there, he tried to encourage the King to end Dahomey’s participation in the slave trade. Captain Forbes was unsucessful. However, King Ghezo did give Captain Forbes gifts to take back to his queen. These gifts included a footstool, cowry shells and Aina.
Captain Forbes, although a resolute abolitionist, accepted the gift of Aina. He knew that Dahomey practiced the mass execution of slaves in annual celebrations. Captain Forbes speculated that Aina had been a slave in Dahomey for two years, which indicated that she may have important ancestry, perhaps royal, which precluded her from being sold into slavery or executed in the celebrations. However, Captain Forbes was not going to risk Aina’s…
