1705 Cinna
This cross-examination of the elderly slave Cinna (his place of origin is not recorded) took place in Stellenbosch. It provides a brief glimpse into the way in which owners treated one of their slaves who had lived beyond his most productive labouring years. Cinna ran away to his sister in Cape Town (we do not know if she was a free woman or not), a telling insight into slave family lives and the connections between slaves separated by circumstances and location. He then briefly worked for another burgher, Hans Hendrik Hatting, who seems to have treated him better and wanted to buy him. Hendrik’s need for Cinna, despite his age, suggests a shortage of readily available labourers in this period.
As so often in the judicial records, this is a fragmentary glimpse of a telling episode. The case was not sent to the Council of Justice and we do not know whether Hendrik got his wish or what happened to Cinna. No other records of this case survive, so we do not know if Cinna was punished for his actions.1
Footnotes
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The case was not considered serious enough to send to the Council of Justice (there is no mention of it in the regtsrollenregtsrollenLiterally ‘rolls of justice’, the minutes of the proceedings of the Council of Justice., CJ 4, or Documents in Criminal Cases, CJ 308), and so was presumably dealt with by the landdrost in Stellenbosch. This testimony is a single fragment which survived by chance in the Stellenbosch archive, bound in the front of a volume of other testimonies from the 1740s. ↩
1/STB 3/8 Criminele Verklaringen, 1702-1749, unpaginated.
On Saturday, 29 August in the year 1705.
Examination done by the honourable landdrost Johannes Starrenburg, in the presence of the heemradenheemradenThe origin of this word is uncertain, but is connected to the Dutch words heem (‘homestead’) and raad (‘councillor’). This was the title of a free burgher who served on the Collegie van Heemraden in the rural districts of the Cape, usually for a term of two years. Guilliam du Toit and Ferdinandus Appel, of the slave of the farmer Arij van Wijk, named Cinna, who confesses as follows:
His name?
Cinna.
Age?
Does not know (but has grey hair).
Whose slave?
Arij van Wijk.
How long he lived with his master?
Since the death of the parents of Arij van Wijk.
If he had run away without the knowledge of his master?
Without consent or without asking.
For what reasons?
Because of getting no clothes, nor tobacco, and continually being abused as an old dog by the wife and children, and further being tormented.
When, at what time?
This last Sunday, 23 August 1705.1
Where he wanted to go to?
That for one day he had been to the Cape to his sister to get trousers and some tobacco.
When did he come to Hans Hendrik Hatting in Tijgers Valleij?
On returning from the Cape.
How long he remained there?
Four days.
If Hans Hendrik had him tied up?
He answers no.
What work he did there?
Nothing but digging in the garden for a day.
What he did on the other days?
Nothing at all.
What Hans Hendrik said to him?
That he wanted to go to his baasbaasIn seventeenth-century Dutch this was used both in the sense of ‘head’ (e.g. ‘head carpenter’) and ‘master’. In South Africa the second meaning developed further, and thus baas came to be a synonym for meester (‘master’). It was the form that slaves (and Khoikhoi) would use to address male Europeans. to buy him from the baasbaasIn seventeenth-century Dutch this was used both in the sense of ‘head’ (e.g. ‘head carpenter’) and ‘master’. In South Africa the second meaning developed further, and thus baas came to be a synonym for meester (‘master’). It was the form that slaves (and Khoikhoi) would use to address male Europeans..
Thus examined, in the presence of the aforesaid heemradenheemradenThe origin of this word is uncertain, but is connected to the Dutch words heem (‘homestead’) and raad (‘councillor’). This was the title of a free burgher who served on the Collegie van Heemraden in the rural districts of the Cape, usually for a term of two years. at the Stellenbosch judiciary where this was signed, the date as above.
[signed] Guilliam du Toit, Ferdinandus Appel.
In my presence, [signed] Jan Mahieu, secretary.
Footnotes
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It might be significant that Cinna ran away on a Sunday, when slaves were at least theoretically supposed to have a free day, although most farmers ignored the fact (Kolb 1777, vol. II: 306 and 309; Mentzel 1925: 124; Biewenga 1999: 203-4, 206; De Kock 1950: 61). For other examples in this volume, see 1719 Jonas van Manado; 1761 Johan Spring in ’t Veld; and 1775 Jephta van Madagascar. ↩
Op Saturdag, den 29e Augustus anno 1705.
Examen gedaan door den edele landdrost Johannes Starrenburg ten overstaan van den heemraaden Guilliam du Toit en Ferdinandus Appel wegens de slaav van den landbouwer Arij van Wijk, genaamt Cinna, dewelke ’t naar volgende belijd:
Sijn naam?
Cinna.
Ouderdom?
Weet het niet (maar heeft grijse haaren).
Wiens slaav?
Arij van Wijk.
Hoe lang bij sijn meester gewoond?
’t Sederd de dood van de ouders van Arije van Wijk.
Of hij buijten kennis van zijn meester weg gelopen is?
Buijten consent ofte sonder vragen.
Om wat redenen?
Omdat geen klederen nog tabak kreeg, en van de vrouw en kinderen gedurig gescholden wierd voor den ouden hond, en verders geplaagt.
Wanneer op wat tijd?
Den jongstledene Sondag, den 23 Augustus 1705.
Waar hij na toe wilde?
Dat hij een dag na de Caab is geweest na zijn suster om een broekje en wat tabak te krijgen.
Wanneer bij Hans Hendk. Hatting gecomen is in de Tijgers vallij?
In ’t weder comen van de Caab.
Hoe lang zig daar opgehouden heeft?
Vier dagen.
Of Hans Hendk. hem heeft laten binden?
Hij andwoord neen.
Wat werk daar gedaan heeft?
Niet anders als een dag in de tuijn gespit.
Wat de andre dagen gedaan heeft?
Niet met al.
Wat Hans Hendk. tegen hem heeft gesegt?
Dat hij na zijn baas wou gaan om hem van de baas te kopen.
Aldus g’examineert ten overstaan van voorseijde heemraden op ’t regthuijs Stellenbosch alwaar dese is getekent, dato ut supra.
[get.] Guilliam du Toit, Ferdinandus Appel.
Mij present, [get.] Jan Mahieu, secretaris.