A Dahomey “Amazon” is depicted in a sketch made after an 1860s expedition to Dahomey in West Africa by Sir Richard Francis Burton. The Amazons were an all-female regiment of the Dahomey army that served as bodyguards to the king. (“A mission to Gelele, king of Dahome. With notices of the so called ‘Amazons,’ the grand customs, the yearly customs, the human sacrifices, the present state of the slave trade, and the Negro’s place in nature,” London, Tinsley brothers, 1864, via Library of Congress)
“A mission to Gelele, king of Dahome. With notices of the so called ‘Amazons,’ the grand customs, the yearly customs, the human sacrifices, the present state of the slave trade, and the Negro’s place in nature,” London, Tinsley brothers, 1864, via Library of Congress