Slave and Citizen: The South African Case

Among those who have recently argued that the picture of relatively mild slavery and race relations in Latin America is misleading are C. R. Boxer, David Brion Davis, Marvin Harris, Franklin Knight and Eric Williams.

For examples see Victor de Kock , Those in Bondage: An Account of the Life of the Slave at the Cape in the Days of the Dutch East India Company (Capetown, 1950), p. 217; Isobel E. Edwards , Towards Emancipation: A Study in South African Slavery (Cardiff, 1942), p. 15; George M. Theal , History of South Africa under the Administration of the Dutcb East India Company, 1652-1795 (New York, 1962), II, pp. 79-80. In light of the Tannenbaum-Elkins thesis, which at least Theal and Edwards pre-date, it is ironic to note that the case is being made for a mild form of slavery at the Cape even though the Dutch settlers were neither Catholic nor did they have the Iberians' heritage of smooth inter-racial relations.

The Memorandum of Commissary J. A. de Mist [1802] ( Capetown , 1920), p. 252.

Arnold Sio , 'Interpretations of Slavery: The Slave Status in the Americas', Comparative Studies in Society and History (VII, 1965), p. 289.

See Table 1.

O.F. Mentzel , A Geographical and Topographical Description of the Cape of Good Hope, Part II (Capetown, 1925), VI, pp. 126f.

Philip D. Curtin , The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison, 1969), p. 59.

Not everywhere in the Americas did the slave population so greatly outnumber the white population as it did in Barbados or in Surinam where, in 1792, there were 42,000 slaves and only 3,200 Europeans. For example, at the height of the Brazilian coffee boom in Vassouras in the mid-nineteenth century, slaves comprised only 50 per cent of the population. See 'A Topographical Description of the Dutch Colony of Surinam. By George Henry Apthorp in a Letter to his Father, James Apthorp, Esq. of Braintree — November, 1790'. Collections of the Massachussetts Historical Society for the Year 1792 (Boston, 1792) and Stanley J. Stein , Vassouras, A. Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1890 (New York, 1970), p. 117.

Journal of Jan van Riebeeck (28 January 1654), I, pp. 208-9.

'XVII to van Riebeek, October 30, 1655', in Donald Moodie , The Record or a Series of Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Aftica (Amsterdam, 1960), p. 75.

Cornelis Ch. Goslinga , The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast, 1580-1680 (Gainesville, 1971), pp. 354-5.

The Portuguese in Brazil provide the exception to this rule. There the enslavement of Amerindians continued despite sporadic efforts by the Crown and the more strenuous efforts of the Jesuits.

H. Deherain , Le Cap de Bonne Esperance au XVIIe Siecle (Paris , 1909), pp. 200-1.

Deherain , op. cit., pp. 209-11.

If anything, the South African ratio was less balanced than that in the Americas. Philip Curtin estimates that ships engaged in the Atlantic slave trade generally carried two to five males per female. This is less than the six to one ratio at the Cape. See The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 41, n. 37. Recent evidence suggests that the British on the Caribbean sugar islands made more of an attempt to import equal numbers of men and women than has heretofore been acknowledged. See Carl and Roberta Bridebaugh , No Peace Beyond the Line: The Englisb in the Caribbean, 1624-1690 (Oxford University Press, 1972). For this information and for his helpful guidance and criticism I am most grateful to Professor Charles R. Boxer.

Mentzel , op. cit., VI, p. 125.

Mentzel , op. cit., VI, p. 126.

Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson , ed., The Oxford History of South Africa (Oxford, 1969), I, p. 207.

See for example Victor de Kock and Mentzel. C. R. Boxer also discusses this activity in The Dutcb Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800 ( New York , 1970), pp. 263-4.

Mentzel , op. cit., VI, p. 130. This is the same type of relationship described and enjoyed by Captain Stedman with his Johanna in Surinam in the late eighteenth century.

Moodie , The Record, p. 398, n. 1.

Victor de Kock , op. cit., p. 114.

Goslinga , op. cit, p. 369.

Victor de Kock , op. cit, p. 62. The Knecbt system is also described by Mentzel in Description of the Cape, Part I, pp. 164-6.

Theal , op. cit., I, p. 436.

Victor de Kock , op. cit., p. 31.

John Mayson claims that Malay slaves sold for as much as 5,000 rix dollars apiece. See The Malays of Capetown (Capetown, 1963), p. 12. It should be noted, however, that as in the Americas there was a general preference for native-born slaves as opposed to imported slaves.

Deherain, op. cit., p. 202.

'Despatch from Governor Bax and Council to Chamber XVII, May 18, 1679', in Moodie, The Record, p. 363. Similar distinctions were made in the Americas where slaves from the Guinea Coast were usually preferred to the Bantu from Angola though the former had a reputation for independence and rebelliousness.

'Despatch from the Chamber XVII to Commander van Riebeeck and Council, September 5, 1959', in Moodie, The Record, p. 376.

Victor de Kock, op. cit., p. 33.

Victor de Kock, op. cit., p. 3 3.

'Despatch from the Chamber XVII to Commander Simon van der Stel and Council, June 20, 1680', in Moodie, The Record, p. 376.

Theal, op. cit., II, p. 77 and Curtin, op. cit., pp. 275 f.

A.F. Hattersley , 'Slavery at the Cape', The Cambridge History of the British Empire (Cambridge, 1963 ), VIII, p. 267.

Victor de Kock , op. cit., p. 57.

Victor de Kock , op. cit., p. 60.

M. H. de Kock , Economic History of Soutb Africa ( Capetown, 1924).

Victor de Kock , op. cit., 53-4.

Isobel Edwards , op. cit., p. 15.

Journal of Jan van Riebeeck (8 June 1658), II, p. 282.

Journal of Jan van Riebeeck (18 August 1659), III, p. 121.

Journal of Jan van Riebeeck (8 September 1658), II, p. 337.

Moodie , The Record, p. 139 fn.

Victor de Kock , op. cit., p. 80. 83.

Victor de Kock , op, cit., p. 83.

M. Whiting Spilhaus , The First South Africans (Capetown, 1949), p. 131.

Wilson and Thompson , op. cit., p. 234.

Mentzel , op. cit. VI, p. 130 and Victor de Kock , op. cit., pp. 82-3, pp. 175-6.

Governor Isbrand Goske's Journal contains some choice examples including the following (22 September 1673): 'the runaway slaves of the freeman, for seducing 4 of the Company's slaves to desert, to have an car cut off, to be flogged and branded and the two ringleaders to work for the Company for life.' See Moodie , The Record, p. 335.

Victor de Kock , op. cit., p. 156.

Mentzel , op. cit., VI, p. 132.

Victor de Kock , op. cit., p. 159.

Mentzel , op. cit., VI, p. 133.

Moodie , The Record, pp. 382-4.

E.A. Walker , A History of Southern Africa ( London, 1957), p. 85.

Theal , op. cit., II, p. 80.

Spilhaus , op. cit, p. 123.

J.E.S. Marais , The Cape Coloured People, 1652-1937 (London, 1939), 176, n. 2.

Spilhaus , op. cit, p. 131.

See Table 2.

Victor de Kock, op. cit., p. 202.

It is remarkable that the stereotype of the black at the Cape so closely resembled that in our own hemisphere. In South Africa, blacks were accused of being superstitious, lazy, musical, addicted to cock-fighting and other forms of gambling, lascivious, etc.

Theal, op. cit., II, pp. 79-80.

Franklin W. Knight , Slave Society in Cuba during the Nineteenth Century (Madison, 1970), passim.

Taken from Victor de Kock, op. cit., p. 237, and Beyers's 'Kaapse Patriotte', Theal's Records of the Cape Colony and Barrow's Travels.

This table, though beyond the period discussed in this paper, is included to demonstrate the scarcity of manummited slaves even after 150 years of slavery. Taken from George Thompson , Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa (London, 1962), p. 490.