1729 Jephta van Batavia
This case of jealousy by a male slave over a female slave with whom he had previously had a relationship, leading to him stabbing her, shows how slaves, despite their unfree status, still managed to have emotional relationships and contacts with other slaves. It thus gives a rare glimpse into the world of the slaves which existed alongside that of their owners. The case is striking for the strong expression of Jephta’s emotions, he declaring that he wanted her death even though he might be broken on the wheel for it. Jephta’s owner1 was not prepared to pay the costs of the trial, and was willing to relinquish this troublesome slave to the Company, which was glad to accept a ‘healthy’ slave convict labourer.2
Footnotes
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Johannes Heufke, a member of the Cape burgher elite, who obtained part of the monopolies to sell brandy and Cape wine every year between 1726 and 1731. From other documentation (CJ 333, ff. 295-96) we know that he did not operate a tavern from his own house at the time of this case, but it certainly served, as with many of the other pachters, as a warehouse for his alcohol, hence Jephta’s being able to drink himself into a stupor there. On Heufke, see Hoge 1946: 157. ↩
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. The testimonies of Jephta van Batavia, Maria van Ceijlon, Johanna Lens, Barend Smit van Groningen and a surgeon’s report on Maria’s wounds are preserved in CJ 333, ff. 308-16. ↩
CJ 785 Sententiën, 1726-1735, ff. 178-82.
As Jephta van Batavia, bondsman of the burgher Johannes Heufke, 30 years old, currently their honours’ prisoner, has voluntary confessed without any torture or coercion of bonds, of irons, or the least threat of suchlike, and since it also appeared evident to the honourable Council of Justice of this government:
That on Tuesday morning, which was the 30th of the previous month August, the prisoner was sent by his owner, Johannes Heufke, to his farm situated at Rondebosch, in order to stay at that place. He did go there in the morning, but instead of obeying the command of 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. by staying there, he, on the contrary, had returned to the Cape already by nine o’clock that morning; remaining here and wandering around until seven o’clock at night, at which time the prisoner went into his aforementioned master’s house, situated behind the Company’s hospital, where he then got himself drunk in the wine cellar. After this the prisoner called to the door a certain fellow slave, by the name of Maria van Ceijlon, who also lives at that house and with whom the prisoner has had a relationship for some time; which is also the reason why she came to him and remained standing in the door; at which point he, Jephta van Batavia, said to the slave Maria: “Why are you hurting me?”, meaning with this that she was having a relationship or has had carnal knowledge with someone other than him.
That the prisoner thereupon went into the house with the aforesaid slave Maria, and the two of them sat down upon the stairs where he held her until she, having extricated herself, went away from him and into the pantry inside the kitchen, to which the prisoner followed her and immediately, in a murderous manner, gave her a stab in the left side of her chest with the knife that he ordinarily carries with him and which he had sharpened just before. However, the prisoner was not satisfied with this, but once again gave the aforementioned slave Maria, as she fled into the kitchen, a stab on her right breast, as a result of which she fell down onto the ground.
That she, Maria van Ceijlon, thereupon got up and fled to the front, where the burgher Johanna Lens and the mason Baarend Smit said to him, the prisoner: “Jephta, what are you doing, do you realise that you have wounded Maria, and do you know what the consequences will be?” to which the prisoner answered in a rage: “Masque raadbraaken, 1 I shall kill her, I shall devour her heart, I want my death”.
All of which are atrocious deeds and unheard-of cruelty which, in a country where justice is administered well, cannot be tolerated but, on the contrary, must be punished most rigorously, in order to check the evil and to serve as an example to other villains.
Wherefore it is thus, that the honourable Council of Justice of this government, serving today, having seen and heard the written crimineelen eijsch drawn up and delivered for and against the prisoner by the honourable independent fiscal Adriaan van Kervel in his official capacity, and moreover, having noted with carefully considered counsel the former’s voluntary confession, properly verified, and everything further that should be noted in this [case], practising justice in the name and on behalf of the high and mighty Lords States General of the free United Netherlands and, having judged the prisoner, Jephta van Batavia, their honours are sentencing him with this: to be taken to the place where criminal sentences are usually executed here, and there being handed over to the executioner, firstly to be exposed with a rope around his neck under the gallows, thereafter to be tied to a stake with the murder weapon, or the knife with which he had committed the deed, above his head, and to be severely scourged on the bare back, thereafter to be branded, whereafter to labour in chains, without payment, on the public works for the period of ten years, with sentencing to the costs and expenditure of justice.2
Thus done and sentenced in the Castle of Good Hope on 13 October 1729.
Moreover pronounced and executed on the 15th thereupon.
[signed] J.T. Rhenius, Ns. Heijning, H. Swellengrebel, Cl. Brand, Js. Möller, R. Tulbagh, Hendk. Oostwald Eksteen, J. Blanckenberg, G. la Febre.
In my presence, [signed] Js. de Grandpreez, secretary.
Footnotes
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In the phrase ‘masque raadbraaken’, the last word is the Dutch verb ‘to be broken upon the wheel’, while the first is the Creole Portuguese maski meaning ‘never mind, although, even (so), in spite of’ (from Portuguese mas que). Thus this phrase literally means: ‘never mind [being] broken on the wheel’. The word maski had been in use at the Cape from the late seventeenth century (Franken 1953: 48, 204), seemingly by both slaves and Khoikhoi as a modal element in their varieties of Dutch and eventually became part of incipient Afrikaans, being quite common in nineteenth-century texts. Curiously, with the linguistic engineering that resulted in modern standard Afrikaans, it disappeared from the language, being only retained in the archaic almaskie, ‘nevertheless’ (Roberge 2002: 398-404). ↩
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This was more lenient than the death sentence by hanging which the fiscal recommended in the eijscheijschLiterally ‘claim’ or ‘demand.’ This is strictly speaking the eijsch ende conclusie without the final part about sentencing, but the term is often used as a shorthand for the whole document., CJ 333, f. 307. The lesser sentence was confirmed, CJ 11, ff. 56-7, but Heufke was unwilling to pay the costs and instead offered to make Jephta over to the VOC, which the Council of Policy happily accepted since Jephta was in such a ‘kloeke, jonge en gesonde gesteltheijd’ (fine, young and healthy condition), Resolusies, vol. 8: 60-1. Such a statement contradicts the fiscal’s claim that Jephta was an atrocious villain. Doubtless his suitability to undertake heavy labour overrode any qualms the Company might have had in taking him into their control. It also points to the fact that the phrase ‘with the costs’ was no empty one, but a real factor (see De Kock 1950: 167). From 1730 onwards, Jephta appears on the Bandieten rollen of prisoners on Robben Island with this annotation next to his name: ‘geweesen slaaf van den burger Johannes Heufke, en door hem voor de costen aan den E. Comp. geschonken, voor hoe lang: 10 jaar, gesententieerd: 13.10.1729’ (former slave of the burgher Johannes Heufke and donated by him to the honourable Company for the costs, for how long: 10 years, sentenced: 13.10.1729), CJ 3188, ff. 46-7 et seq. ↩
Alsoo Jephta van Batavia, leijfeijgen van den burger Johannes Heufke, oud 30 jaaren, thans ’s heeren gevangen, buijten pijn ofte dwang van banden, van ijsers, dan wel de minste bedreijging van dien, vrijwillig heeft beleeden ende den edelagtbare Raad van Justitie deeses gouvernements ook duijdelijk is gebleeken:
Dat hij gevangen op Dingsdag morgen, zijnde geweest den 30e der voorleedene maand Augustus, door zijnen leijfheer, Johannes Heufke, naar zijn plaats, geleegen aan ’t Rondebosje, gesonden zijnde, omme aldaar te vertoeven, wel des morgens naar derwaarts is gegaan maar, in steede van aan de ordre van zijnen baas te gehoorsaamen en daar te verbleijven, ter contrarie des voormiddags om neegen uuren al weederom aan de Caab terug is gekoomen, bleijvende dus alhier omswerven tot des avonds omtrent seeven uuren, als wanneer hij gevangen sig in de wooninge van zijnen booven genoemde leijfheer, staande agter ’s Compagnies hospitaal, heeft begeeven, drinkende sig vervolgens in de wijnkelder dronken, waar naar hij gevangen seekere zijne meede slavin, Maria van Ceijlon genaamt, daar ten huijse meede woonagtig en bij dewelke hij gevangen eenigen tijd gehouden heeft, voor de deur heeft geroepen, die ook uijt dien hoofde bij hem gevangen is gekoomen, bleijvende in de deur staan, bij welke geleegentheijd hij Jephta van Batavia teegens die slavin Maria heeft gesegt: Waarom doe je mij quaad?, meijnende daar meede dat zij ’t met iemand anders als met hem hadde gehouden ofte vleeschelijk geconverseert.
Dat hij gevangen vervolgens met voorseijde slaavin Maria in huijs is gegaan, gaande met haar beijde op de trap sitten, alwaar hij gevangen deselve heeft vast gehouden, totdat zij los geraakt zijnde, van hem gevangen is weggegaan, naar ende in de bottelerij, staande in de combuijs, werwaarts hij gevangen die slavin heeft vervolgt, en haar immediatelijk met een mes, dat hij gemeenlijk bij sig droeg en bevoorens scherp gemaakt hadde, op een moorddadige wijse een steek in de linker zeijde van de borst heeft toegebragt, waarmeede hij gevangen nogh niet tevreeden zijnde, meergenoemde slavin Maria, soo als zij in de combuijs de vlugt nam, nogmaals een steek in de regter borst toegebragt heeft, waarvan deselve ter aarde is gevallen.
Dat zij Maria van Ceijlon daarop opgestaan, en naar vooren gevlugt zijnde, de burgeresse Johanna Lens en den metzelaar Baarend Smit teegens hem gevangen hebben gesegt: Jephta, wat doe je daar, weet je wel dat je Maria gequest [sic] hebt, en weet je niet wat daarop volgt?, daar hij gevangen in verwoetheijd op antwoorde: Maske raadbraaken, ik sal haar vermoorden, ik sal haar het hert op vreeten, ik soek mijn dood.
Alle ’twelke zijnde gruwelstukken en ongehoorde wreetheijd, die in een land daar de justitie wel geadministreert word, niet te verdraagen is, maar ter contrarie tot stuijting van ’t quaad en ten spiegel van andere booswigten op ’t rigoureuste moet werden gestraft.
Weshalven soo is ’t, dat den edelagtbare Raad van Justitie deeses gouvernements, ten dage dienende, gesien ende gehoord den schriftelijken crimineelen eijsch door den heer Independent Fiscaal Adriaan van Kervel ex officio op ende jeegens den gevangen gedaan ende genoomen, weijders met aandagt van raade geleth hebbende op desselfs vrijwillige confessie, behoorlijk gerecolleert, en op ’tgeene voorts in deesen te letten stond, doende regt uijt naame ende van weegen de hoogmoogende de Heeren Staaten Generaal der vrije Vereenigde Neederlanden, den gevangen Jephta van Batavia hebben gecondemneert, gelijk haar Edel Agtbaarens denselven condemneeren mits deesen: om gebragt te werden ter plaatse alwaar men alhier gewoon is crimineele sententiën uijt te voeren, en aldaar den scherpregter overgeleevert zijnde, eerst met de strop om den hals onder de galg te pronk staan, vervolgens met ’t moordgeweer, ofte mes waarmeede hij de daad begaan heeft, booven ’t hooft aan een paal gebonden, op de bloote rugge strengelijk gegeesselt en daarop gebrandmerkt te werden, en voorts den tijd van 10 jaaren in de ketting ad opus publicum voor niets te arbeijden, met condemnatie in de costen en mise van justitie.
Aldus gedaan ende gesententieert in ’t Casteel de Goede Hoop, den 13e October 1729.
Mitsgaders gepronuntieert ende geëxecuteert den 15e daaraanvolgende.
[get.] J.T. Rhenius, Ns. Heijning, H. Swellengrebel, Cl. Brand, Js. Möller, R. Tulbagh, Hendk. Oostwald Eksteen, J. Blanckenberg, G. la Febre.
Mij present, [get.] Js. de Grandpreez, secretaris.