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Hendrik Albertus and his Ex-slave Mey: A Drama in Three Acts*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John Edwin Mason
John Edwin Mason
Affiliation:
University of Florida
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Extract

This essay draws on documents relating to a single extraordinary episode, and on supporting materials, to illustrate aspects of the mentalités of slaves, slave-owners, and Protectors of Slaves in the British South African colony of the Cape of Good Hope. The narrative follows the story of a slave, Mey, who was harshly beaten twice within six days in 1832. Mey, and several other slaves who had been whipped for the same offence, accepted the first punishment; Mey complained about the second, which he alone suffered, to a colonial official called the Protector of Slaves. The Protector vigorously investigated the complaint. Mey's master, Hendrik Albertus van Niekerk, co-operated only reluctantly with the investigation. As the Protector pursued the case, van Niekerk suddenly brought it to an end by manumitting Mey, giving cash compensation to the other slaves he had whipped, and paying legal fines.

The behaviour of each of the men fails to conform to the roles conventional wisdom has prepared for masters, slaves, and colonial officials. The essay demonstrates that the men were not eccentric, but that they were both rational and representative of their class. Mey acted as he did because the slaves had developed a ‘moral economy of the lash’ and because the second beating fell outside the boundaries of acceptable punishment by those standards. The Protector prosecuted van Niekerk with determination because he believed the punishment had been brutal and capricious and because Mey was a good slave who had been wronged. Hendrik Albertus freed Mey and compensated the other slaves because he refused to accept the legitimacy of the Protector. He settled the case before he was forced to visit the Protector's office or face Mey in court. To have honored the law and to have answered Mey's charge directly would have been to dishonor himself. He would have compromised the power and authority on which his honor as a slave-owner rested. Hendrik Albertus valued his honor more highly than one slave and a few pounds Sterling.

Type
Courtroom Dramas
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , November 1990 , pp. 423 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 The standard accounts of slavery in the Cape Colony are: Raynor, Mary Isabel, ‘Wine and slaves: The failure of an export economy and the ending of slavery in the Cape Colony, South Africa, 1806–1834’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1986)Google Scholar; Ross, Robert, Cape of Torments: Slavery and Resistance in South Africa (London, 1983)Google Scholar; Shell, Robert Carl-Heinz, ‘Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652 to 1731’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 1985)Google Scholar; and Worden, Nigel, Slavery in Dutch South Africa (Cambridge, UK, 1985).Google Scholar

2 Except where noted, this narrative draws upon the Day Book, Assistant Protector of Slaves, Cape Town, vols. 4 and 5, Cape Archives Depot [CAD], Cape Town, South Africa, SO 5/9.

3 Will and Testament of Hendrik Albertus van Niekerk, Sr., CAD, MOOC 7/1/120 (1833).

4 ‘Young Master’ was a convention indicating that Hendrik, Jr., was Hendrik, Sr.'s son, but nothing much about his age. Hendrik, Jr., was 44 at the time, with a wife and children of his own. de Villiers, C. C. and Pama, C., Genealogies of Old South African Families, vol. 2 (Cape Town, 1966), 636.Google Scholar

5 I have no direct evidence to indicate that physical correction was an ordinary part of life on van Niekerk's farm, but to suggest that it was is consistent with what is known about Rondebosjes Heuwel and other Cape farms of the day.

6 Calculated from: Report of the Registrar and Guardian of Slaves, 25 Dec. 1826 and 24 June 1827, Public Record Office, London (PRO), Colonial Office (CO) 53/48; Reports of the Protector of Slaves, Western Division, 24 June 1831, PRO, CO 53/52; 20 Jan. 1834, PRO, CO 53/57; 28 Aug. 1834, PRO, CO 53/58.

7 Ordinance No. 19 of 1826, Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette, 30 June 1826, para. 8. In September 1832 superseded by the Order of the King in Council of 2 Nov. 1831, Government Gazette, 17 Aug. 1832.

8 Report of the Protector of Slaves, Western Division, 28 May 1833, PRO, CO 53/55.

9 Newton-King, Susan, ‘The labour market of the Cape Colony, 1807–28’, in Marks, Shula and Atmore, Anthony (eds.), Economy and Society in Pre-industrial South Africa (London, 1980), 171–207Google Scholar; Raynor, ‘Wine and slaves’.

10 I am not denying the importance of structural analysis. I will build here on the work others have done along those lines, for instance, Mary Raynor's dissertation (see n. 2).

11 The phrase is that of the wife of a senior British colonial official, Barnard, Lady Anne, South Africa a Century Ago, 1797–1801 (reprint ed., Cape Town, 1952), 5.Google Scholar

12 Slave Register, Cape District, CAD, SO 6/26.

13 Ibid.

14 Day Book, Assistant Protector of Slaves, Cape Town, CAD, SO 5/9.

15 Many slaves in the Cape had surnames which they used, at least, among themselves. These occasionally make their way into the Protectors' reports and court cases. The convention, however, is to record only one name.

16 See, for instance, the Protector on the difficulty of explaining the law to the slaves and of interpreting their complaints, in Report of the Registrar and Guardian of Slaves, 25 Dec. 1826, PRO, CO 53/48.

17 Scott, James C., Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, 1985), 286.Google Scholar

18 Davis, Natalie Zemon explores the construction of narratives in Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and Their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Stanford, 1987).Google Scholar

19 Day Book, Assistant Protector of Slaves, Cape Town, CAD, SO 5/9. My emphasis.

20 The record does show Mey complaining about the severity of the beatings. He contends that, in the first instance, he received more lashes than the law allowed and that the whip Hendrik, Jr., used was ‘a much heavier Instrument’ than a ‘regular’ cat, and, so, illegal. These complaints, which assume a detailed knowledge of the law, were almost certainly prompted by the Protector.

21 A classic discussion of a moral economy is Scott's, James C.The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven, 1976).Google Scholar

22 See, especially, Ross, Cape of Torments, passim.

23 Day Book, Assistant Protector of Slaves, Cape Town, CAD, SO 5/9.

24 Ibid.

25 See, my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation, ‘Slavery and emancipation in South Africa, 1806 to 1842’ (Yale University).Google Scholar

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27 Report of the Protector of Slaves, Assistant Protector, Somerset, 28 May 1833, PRO, CO 53/55.

28 Report of the Protector of Slaves, Assistant Protector, Stellenbosch, 24 June 1831, PRO, CO 53/52.

29 A leather whip, 4 to 6 feet long, tapering to the thickness of a man's finger, that was used on livestock and slaves. The modern sjambok is made of plastic.

30 Report of the Protector of Slaves, Eastern Division, 23 Jan. 1834, PRO, CO 53/57.

31 Kolchin, Peter, Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Cambridge, MA, 1987), 315.Google Scholar

32 Order of the King in Council, 2 Nov. 1831, para, XXXVII, Government Gazette, 17 Aug. 1832.

33 For evidence of literate slaves, see examples of their signed letters to the Protectors in Miscellaneous Letters, CAD, SO 1/52.

34 See, for example, the case of Aurora, a slave of Rudolph Cloetes, in Day Book, Assistant Protector of Slaves, Cape Town, CAD, SO 5/9.

35 The petition is contained in, Governor of the Cape Colony to the Secretary of State, 1 April 1831, CAD, ZP 1/1/74 (microfilm). For the letters see, Zuid-Afrikaan, 4 May and 25 May 1832.

36 Zuid-Afrikaan, 25 May 1832.

37 Cited by Craton, Michael in Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies (Ithaca, NY, 1982), II.Google Scholar

38 See, Phillips, U. B., American Negro Slavery (New York, 1918)Google Scholar, and Elkins, Stanley, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual History (Chicago, 1959).Google Scholar

39 Scott, Rebecca J., Slave Emancipation in Cuba: The Transition to Free Labor, 1860–1899 (Princeton, NJ, 1985), 169.Google Scholar

40 This point is discussed in Secretary of State to Governor of the Cape Colony, 29 Feb. 1832, CAD, GH 1/89.

41 See my ‘The slaves and their protectors’, Journal of Southern African Studies (forthcoming, 1991).Google Scholar

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43 Assistant Guardians/Protectors were posted in 11 towns and villages throughout the colony.

44 Philip, , British Residents, 354Google Scholar; and Reports of the Protectors of Slaves, 1826–34, PRO, CO 53/48–58.

45 The South African Directory and Almanac for 1834 (Cape Town, 1834), 148–9, 155.Google Scholar

46 Philip, , British Settlers, 354.Google Scholar

47 Slave Register, Cape District, CAD, SO 6/28.

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49 Report of the Protector of Slaves, 27 Dec. 1830, PRO, CO 53/51.

50 Ibid.

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52 Report of the Guardian of Slaves, 24 June 1827, PRO, CO 53/48.

53 Report of the Protector of Slaves, Western Division, 26 July 1833, PRO, CO 53/56.

54 Edwards, Isobel Eirlys, Towards Emancipation: A Study of South African Slavery (Cardiff, 1942), 122.Google Scholar

55 Raynor, , ‘Wine and slaves’, 276–7.Google Scholar

56 Ibid. 274.

57 Report of the Protector of Slaves, 25 Dec. 1830, PRO, CO 53/51.

58 Report of the Protector of Slaves, Western Division, 28 May 1833, PRO, CO 53/55.

59 Ibid.

60 Ordinance Nineteen of 1826, paras. 33 and 34; Order in Council of 2 Nov. 1831, paras, LXXV and LXXVI.

61 Report of the Protector of Slaves, 24 June 1831, PRO, CO 53/52.

62 Ibid., and Report of the Protector of Slaves, Western Division, 28 May 1833, PRO, CO 53/55.

63 Report of the Protector of Slaves, 24 June 1831, PRO, CO 53/52.

64 Rogers noted this in Report of the Protector of Slaves, Western Division, 28 May 1833, PRO, CO 53/55.

65 I return to this point below.

66 Newton-King, ‘The labour market’, passim.

67 Return of Slaves Sold at Public Auction, CAD, SO 10/19.

68 Estimated from van Niekerk's tax returns for 1825 (the last year before his death for which they exist), Opgaaf Roll, 1825, CAD, J 56; wheat prices in Cape of Good Hope Government Blue Book,1831, CAD, CO 5974, and South African Almanac and Directory for 1832 (Cape Town, 1832), 41, 128.Google Scholar

69 De Villiers, and Pama, , Old Families, 636Google Scholar; Will and Testament of H. A. van Niekerk, Sr., CAD, MOOC 7/1/120 (1833).

70 Will and Testament, Ibid.; Slave Register, Cape District, CAD, SO 6/26. I can find no death certificate or other notice of his death.

71 South African Almanac for 1832, 126.

72 Will and Testament, CAD, MOOC 7/1/120 (1833).

73 Opgaaf Roll, Cape District, 1825, CAD, J 56.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid. Will and Testament, CAD, MOOC 7/1/120 (1833).

76 Ross, , Cape of Torments, 25.Google Scholar

77 Slave Register, Cape District, CAD, SO 6/26.

78 Ibid. Day Book, Assistant Protector of Slaves, Cape Town, vol. 4, CAD, SO 5/9.

79 Shell, Robert, ‘The family and slavery at the Cape, 1680–1808’, in James, Wilmot G. and Simons, Mary (eds.), The Angry Divide: Social and Economic History of the Western Cape (Cape Town, 1989), 20–30.Google Scholar See, Hugo's, A. M. similar argument in ‘The Cape vernacular’, Inaugural Lecture, University of Cape Town (Cape Town, 1970).Google Scholar

80 Petition from Agriculturalists of the Cape District, enclosure, Lowry Cole to Goderich, 1 Apr. 1831, CAD, ZP 1/1/74 (microfilm). In Dutch. Translation enclosed in dispatch.

81 Zuid-Afrikaan, 4 May 1832. Text in Dutch and English.

82 Ibid.

83 Zuid-Afrikaan, 25 May 1832. In Dutch and English.

84 Court of Justice to Maj. Gen. Craig, 14 Jan. 1796, in du Toit, Andre and Giliomee, Hermann (eds.), Afrikaner Political Thought: Analysis and Documents, vol. 1, 1780–1850 (Berkeley, 1983), 91–3.Google Scholar

85 Burgher Senate to Acting Governor of the Cape Colony, 30 June 1826, in Theal, George McC. (comp.), Records of the Cape Colony (hereafter RCC) (Cape Town, 1897–1905), vol. 29, 93–94.Google Scholar Emphasis in the original.

86 Will and Testament, CAD, MOOC 7/1/120 (1833).

87 Slave Register, Cape District, CAD, SO 6/26.

88 Ibid.

89 Will and Testament, CAD, MOOC 7/1/120 (1833).

90 Slave Register, Cape District, CAD, SO 6/26.

91 See the hundreds of complaints concerning corporal punishment in Reports of the Protectors of Slaves, 1826–34, PRO, CO 53/48–58.

92 Quoted in, Report of the Protector of Slaves, Eastern Division, 14 Aug. 1833, PRO, CO 53/56.

93 Memorial, Burgher Senate to Acting Governor of the Cape Colony, RCC, vol. 27, 93.

94 Zuid-Afrikaan, 4 May 1832.

95 Zuid-Afrikaan, 25 May 1832. Emphasis in original.

96 Quoted in du Toit, and Giliomee, (eds.), Afrikaner Thought, 279.Google Scholar

97 Ibid.

98 Patterson, Orlando, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (Cambridge, MA, 1982), 11–12.Google Scholar

99 Quoted in du Toit, and Giliomee, (eds.) Afrikaner Thought, 49.Google Scholar

100 Ibid. 7.

101 . Ibid. 281–2.

102 Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, Yankee Saints and Southern Sinners (Baton Rouge, 1985), 187–8.Google Scholar

103 Day Book, Assistant Protector of Slaves, Cape Town, CAD, SO 5/9.

104 See the Protector for the Eastern Division complaining about the difficulty of securing a conviction in Report of the Protector, Eastern Division, 14 Aug. 1833, PRO, CO 53/56.