Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T08:51:42.967Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Progress and decline in the Kat river settlement, 1829–1854*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Extract

The Kat River Settlement was established in the eastern Cape Colony in 1829 as a measure of frontier defence. In 1851 many of its coloured inhabitants rebelled against the colonial government. The rebels' motives were beyond the comprehension of contemporary officials, and no thorough investigation of them has since been made. All accounts agree that the Settlement initially thrived, despite the harmful effects of a frontier war in 1835. In later years, however, the government used the Settlement as a dumping ground for coloureds and tribesmen dispossessed elsewhere. The coloureds' system of economic clientship was simultaneously challenged by the extension of commercial farming techniques in the eastern Cape. Coloured people failed to obtain credit to enable them to adapt. Overcrowding and insecurity bred discontent, particularly among certain coloureds of Gonaqua (Khoi) origin, who remembered suffering earlier injustices at the hands of the whites. Unsympathetic colonial officials and the declining military importance of the Settlement compounded these basic grievances. In 1851, under cover of another frontier war, numbers of Settlement coloureds rebelled. The rebellion failed and the government appropriated the land belonging to the rebels, thus dispersing the last concentration of Gonaqua Khoi.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Smith to Grey, 18 Feb. 1851 (no. 23): A & P, 1851, XXXVIII [1352]: Further correspondence relative to the state of the Kafir Tribes, 12–13.Google Scholar

2 Smith to Grey, 12 June 1851 (no. 103): A & P, 1852, XXXIII [1428]: Correspondence relative to the outbreak on the eastern frontier.Google Scholar

3 Stockenstrom, A., Light and Shade (Cape Town, 1854), 5.Google Scholar

4 Read to Philip, 5 Apr. 1849, Transcripts of Philip Papers, Rhodes House Library, Oxford—MSS. Afr. 218, fol. 1651.Google Scholar

5 Report from the Select Committee on Granting Lands in Freehold to Hottentots (Cape House of Assembly, 1854), evidence of C. L. Stretch, q. 400.Google Scholar

6 Marais, J. S., The Cape Coloured People 1652–1937 (London, 1939), 110–11.Google Scholar

7 Kay's, S. journal, Dec. 1829: Methodist Missionary Society Archives, London– Albany 1829, item 36. (Cited below as M.M.S. Archives.)Google Scholar

8 Botha to Smith, 23 June 1850,Google Scholar in Freeman, J. J., A Tour in South Africa (London, 1851), 183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 M.M.S. Archives, Albany 1829, item 31, Kay, S. to Wesleyan Missionary Society, 31 Oct. 1829.Google Scholar

10 Stockenstrom to Secretary to Government, 31 Dec. 1830Google Scholar in Moodie, D., An Inquiry into the Justice & Expediency of Completing the Publication of the Authentic Records of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope relative to the Aboriginal Tribes (Cape Town, 1841), 29.Google Scholar

11 P.R.O. 30/43/98, Stockenstrom to Cole, Lowry, I July 1829, Lowry Cole Papers, Public Record Office, London.Google Scholar

12 Hinchliff, P. (ed.), The Journal of John Ayliff (Cape Town, 1971), 2 vols. I, 95–6.Google Scholar

13 B.P.P. Reports, 1851, XIV, (635): Report from the Select Committee on the Kafir Tribes. Evidence of Rev. J. Freeman, qq. 128–31.Google Scholar

14 ‘Extract from a Notebook (1853)’, London Missionary Society Archives, London—28/4/C. (Cited below as L.M.S. Archives.)Google Scholar

15 Wilson, M. and Thompson, L. (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa (Oxford, 1969), 2 vols., I, 61.Google Scholar

16 Williams, D., When Races Meet (Johannesburg, 1967), 117–19.Google Scholar

17 ‘Memorandum on the Kat River Settlement’, by Innes, J. R. in Hutton, C. W. (ed.), The Autobiography of the Late Sir Andries Stockenstrom (Cape Town, 1887), 2 vols., II, 421.Google Scholar

18 Irons, W., The Settlers Guide to the Cape of Good Hope and Colony of Natal (London, 1858), 510.Google Scholar

19 See copy of title deed enclosed in Pottinger to Grey, 14 Apr. 1847 (no. 36), C.O. 48/272, Public Record Office, London.Google Scholar

20 Stockenstrom, Light and Shade, Appendix B.Google Scholar

21 Quoted by Williams, When Races Meet, 118–19.Google Scholar

22 Stockenstrom to L.M.S., 14 Aug. 1851, Colonial Intelligencer, XLIII (Nov. 1851), 319–20.Google Scholar

23 Harinck, G., ‘Interaction between Xhosa and Khoi’, in Thompson, L. (ed.), African Societies in Southern Africa (London, 1969), 157–9.Google Scholar

24 Report from the Select Committee on the Defence of the Eastern Frontier (Cape House of Assembly, 1854), Evidence of C. L. Stretch, qq. 397–409.Google Scholar

25 Godlonton, R., Introductory Remarks to a Narrative of the Irruption of the Kaffir Hordes (Grahamstown, 1835), 97.Google Scholar

26 Evidence taken before the Select Committee on Granting Land in Freehold to Hottentots (Cape House of Assembly, May 1856), qq 49–57 (Bayley) and 69–95 (Osterloh).Google Scholar For a detailed analysis of the pressure on coloured land in the Settlement arising from the expansion of eastern Cape wool-farming, see my paper ‘Some Notes on the Financial State of the Eastern Cape, 1846–54, and the fate of the at River Settlement’ in Collected Seminar Papers, 1971–2, The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, III (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, forthcoming).

27 South African Commercial Advertiser, 8 Dec. 1847.Google Scholar

28 Read, J., The Kat River Settlement in 1851 (Cape Town, 1852), vi.Google Scholar

29 Godlonton, R., Sketches of the Eastern Districts (Grahamstown, 1842), 37.Google Scholar

30 Cape of Good Hope Almanac & Annual Register (Cape Town, 1846), 317.Google Scholar

31 Kennedy, R. F. (ed.), Journal of Residence in Africa 1842–53, by Thomas Baines, 2 vols (Van Riebeeck Society; Cape Town, 1961), I, 190.Google Scholar

32 Macmillan, W. M., Bantu, Boer and Briton (Oxford, 1963), 279, n. 3. The term is usually used of poor-white clients on Afrikaner farms.Google Scholar

33 ‘Extract from Notebook (1853)’, L.M.S. Archives, 28/4/C.Google Scholar

34 South African Commercial Advertiser, 21 Feb. 1846. Read to Thompson, 30 June 1851, L.M.S. Archives, 26/4/C.Google Scholar

35 Green to Freeman, 26 June 1850,Google Scholaribid. 25/4/C.

36 A & P, 1851, XXXVIII (424): Correspondence relative to the Kaffir Tribes between the years 1837 and 1845, Napier to Russell, 22 Nov. 841 (no. 130), 95.Google Scholar

37 Molteno, P. A., The Life and Times of Sir J. C. Molteno (London, 1900), 2 vols, I, 52–3.Google Scholar

38 Correspondence respecting a Separation of the Eastern and Western Provinces (Cape Town, 1847) Memorial of Rev. Elliot, W., is 07 1845, 89.Google Scholar

39 C.O. 48/339/4, Cathcart to Newcastle, 14 Aug. 1853 (no. 35).Google Scholar

40 Stockenstrom, Light and Shade, 13.Google Scholar

41 Read jun. to Tidman, 28 Feb. 1848, L.M.S. Archives, 23/1/C.Google Scholar

42 ‘Memorandum on the Kat River Settlement’, by Innes, J. R. in Hutton, C. W. (ed.), op. cit. II, 420.Google Scholar

43 Godlonton, R., Sketches of the Eastern Districts, 18.Google Scholar

44 Graham's Town Journal, 20 Mar. 1847.Google Scholar

45 Report by Read, J. jun., 17 Dec. 1847, LM.S. Archives, 23/1/B.Google Scholar

46 Read, J. sen. to Tidman, 17 Aug. 1846,Google Scholaribid. 22/2/A.

47 CO. 48/272/730, Pottinger to Grey, 13 Mar. 1847 (no. 20).Google Scholar

48 Pottingert o Grey, 25 Mar. 1847, Grey Papers, University of Durham.Google Scholar

49 Report on the Kat River Settlement, Government Gazette, 18 Nov. 1847.Google Scholar

50 Smith, G. C. Moore (ed.), The Autobiography of Sir H. Smith (London, 1903), 452.Google Scholar

51 ‘Notes: Cases of illegal treatment and oppression brought under notice of Sir H. Smith’, n.d., L.M.S. Archives, 25/2/B.Google Scholar

52 Eastern Province Herald, 20 Oct. 1849.Google Scholar

53 Government Gazette, 4 July 1850.Google Scholar

54 Colonial Secretary to Freeman, I July 1850, in J. J. Freeman, A Tour in South Africa, 170–3.Google Scholar

55 Read, J., The Kat River Settlement, xiii–xxi.Google Scholar

56 du Toit, A. E., ‘The Cape Frontier’, Archives Year Book for South Afrisan History–1954, Part I (Cape Town, 1954), 48.Google Scholar

57 ‘Extract from Notebook, (1853)’, L.M.S. Archives, 28/4/C.Google Scholar

58 Freeman, 587.Google Scholar

59 A & P, 1851, XXXVII. [1362]: Papers relative to the Establishment of a Representative Government at the Cape of Good Hope, Stockenstrom to Montagu, 11 July 1850, 108–9.Google Scholar

60 Read, J. sen. to Fairbairn, 14 Aug. 1848, Fairbairn Papers, Library of Parliament, Cape Town.Google Scholar

61 Freeman, Tour, 183.Google Scholar

62 Ibid. 180.

63 Report of the Blinkwater Commission of 1850’, Graham's Town Journal, 7 02. 1852.Google Scholar

64 Thompson, W. to Tidman, 7 Mar. 1851, L.M.S. Archives, 26/4/A.Google Scholar

65 Read, J. sen. to Thompson, W., 30 June 1851,Google Scholaribid. 26/4/C.

66 Cory, G. E., The Rise of South Africa, 5 vols. (London, 1921/1930), V, 339.Google Scholar

67 Report from the Select Committee on Granting Lands in Freehold to Hottentots (Cape House of Assembly, 1854), q. 397.Google Scholar

68 Freeman, Tour, 183.Google Scholar

69 Ibid. 188.

70 Read, J. jun. to Anti-Slavery Society, 20 Oct. 1850, Anti-Slavery Papers, Rhodes House Library, Oxford.Google Scholar

71 Petition from eight Kat River men, 21 Oct. 1850, Colonial Intelligencer, Feb. 1851, 147.Google Scholar

72 Williams, When Races Meet, 131.Google Scholar

73 Extract from Journal, Oct. 1829, M.M.S. Archives, Albany 1829, item 37.Google Scholar

74 C.O. 48/313/2, Smith to Grey, I Feb. 1851 (Confidential).Google Scholar

75 Testimony of David, Prins, Graham's Town Journal, 2 Aug. 1851.Google Scholar

76 A &P, 1851, XXXVIII [1380]: Correspondence relative to the State of the Kafir Tribes, Somerset to Smith, 28 Feb. 1851, 13.Google Scholar

77 Uithaalder to Kok, II June 1851, Encl, no. 2 in C.O. 48/317/277, Smith to Grey, 18 Sept. 1851 (no. 160).Google Scholar

78 Erasmus, Gert and others to the Directors of the Aborigines Protection Society, 8 Mar. 1849, Annual Report of the Aborigines Protection Society, May 1849.Google Scholar

79 Stockenstrom, Autobiography, 87.Google Scholar

80 C.O. 48/317/334, Report on the coloureds of Caledon and Swellendam, II Aug. 1851. Among the rebels were descendants of Boesak and the Stuurman brothers, Khoi leaders who led their people in a war against the colony between 1799 and 1802, in alliance with the Xhosa.Google Scholar

81 Macmillan, W. M., The Cape Colour Question (Repr. London, 1968), 280.Google Scholar

82 Robinson, H. to his grandmother, 10 Apr. 1852, Howard-Vyse Papers, Beverley Record Office, Yorkshire.Google Scholar

83 C.O. 48/339/4, Cathcart to Newcastle, 14 Aug. 1853 (no. 35).Google Scholar

84 Read, J. Sen. to Thompson, 30 June 1851, L.M.S. Archives, 26/4/C.Google Scholar

85 Godlonton, R., A Narrative of the Irruption of the Kaffir Hordes into the Eastern Provinte of the Cape of Good Hope, 1834–5 (Grahamstown, 1836), 73.Google Scholar

86 Thompson, W. (ed.), The Trial of Andries Botha (Cape Town, 1852), 125.Google Scholar

87 Ibid. 4.

88 A & P, 1852, XXXIII [1428]: Correspondence relative to the State of the Kaffir Tribes, Statement of Jacob, Moses, Dean of Theopolis, June 1851, 51.Google Scholar

89 Stockenstrom, Light and Shade, 87.Google Scholar

90 Leibbrandt, H. C. V. (ed.), The Rebellion of 1815, Generally known as Slachter's Nek (Cape Town, 1902), Interrogation of Gustavus van der Nest, 23 12. 1815, 396.Google Scholar

91 Memorandum by Read, J. jun., 17 June 1853, L.M.S. Archives, 28/2/D.Google Scholar

92 Hogge, W. S. to Grey, Earl, 14 May 1852, Grey Papers, University of Durham.Google Scholar

93 C.O. 42/339/4: Cathcart to Newcastle, 14 Aug. 1853 (no. 35). Stockenstrom, Light and Shade, 29.Google Scholar