This document is the first of two on this page relating to the case
of Saartjie Baartman, the 'Hottentot Venus'. In 1810 Zachary
Macaulay, merchant, anti-slavery campaigner and Secretary of the African
Institution in London, applied to the Court of King's Bench
to return Baartman to her home in South Africa.
In his deposition, Macaulay describes the young woman's features
and states that her exhibitor charged spectators money and invited
them to touch her. According to Macaulay, the exhibitor commanded
Baartman in Dutch to parade for the viewers 'in the same manner
that any animal of the brute creation would be exhibited'.
KB 1/36/4, f. 117 (17 Oct 1810)
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