1710 Jan

Details
Name on Document:
Jan
Date:
1710-06-09
Document Type:
Suicide investigation
Primary Charge:
suicide
Secondary Charge:
--
Tag(s):
suicide (5)court investigation (1)
Summary

Another brief note in the Stellenbosch records which gives a poignant insight into the desperation to which some slaves were reduced. Slave suicides were relatively common and were of concern to their owners and the authorities, not least because they were thus deprived of valuable property.1

Footnotes

  1. About fifteen to twenty slave suicides a year were reported. Slaves who unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide were punished as a warning to others, Worden 1985: 134-7. See also 1786 Sara. ↩

1/STB 18/155 Notariële Verklaringen, 1706-1714, unpaginated.
Translation Dutch

Today, 9 June in the year 1710, we, the undersigned 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., Pieter van der Bijl, Warnar van den Brink, together with the secretary, Jan Mahieu, and the messenger of the court, Sebastiaan Schröder, on the requisition of the honourable landdrost, S.M. de Meurs, and on the request of the farmer David Heufke, set out to the farm or country place of the said Heufke, situated at Stellenbosch, to inspect his slave named Jan. Thus it is that we declare, after a proper inspection, that the said slave had a wound on his head, going upwards to the temple of the head, which he said he himself had inflicted with a knife, because he did not wish to live any longer, saying besides, in essence: “I wish to die or to be sold, because I cannot keep up with working.”1

Thus investigated and done at the aforesaid place and day.

[signed] P. van der Bijl, W. v.d. Brinck.

[signed] Jan Mahieu, secretary.

[signed] Sebastian Schröder, messenger of the court.

Footnotes

  1. This literally means ‘I cannot give satisfaction with my work’ but in this context the suggested translation seems more likely. ↩

Huijden, den 9e Junij anno 1710, hebben wij ondergetekende, de heemraden Pieter van der Bijl, Warnar van den Brink, nevens den secretaris, Jan Mahieu, en de geregtsbode, Sebastiaan Schröder, ter requisitie van den edele landdrost, S.M. de Meurs, en op ’t versoek aan voornoemde landdrost door den landbouwer, David Heufke, ons vervoegt op de plaats of hofstede van genoemde Heufke, gelegen aan Stellenbosch, omme zijn slaav, Jan genaamt, te visiteeren. Zoo is ’t, dat wij verklaaren, na exacte visie, dat gemelte slaav aan ’t hooft een wond hadde, gaande opwaarts in de slaap van ’t hooft, ’twelk hij seijde sigh selvs met een mes gedaan te hebben omdat hij niet langer leeven wilde, seijde verders in substantie: ’k Wil sterven, of verkogt weesen, want ik kan niet voldoen met werken.

Aldus gevisiteerd en verrigt ter plaatse en dage voorseijde.

[get.] P. van der Bijl, W. v.d. Brinck.

[get.] Jan Mahieu, secretaris.

[get.] Sebastian Schröder, geregtsboode.

Places
Stellenbosch Farm where Jan and David Heufke lives