1757 Baatjoe van Mandhaar :: Trials of Slavery

1757 Baatjoe van Mandhaar

Details

Name on Document:

Baatjoe van Mandhaar

Date:

1757-11-03

Document Type:

Sentence

Primary Charge:

attempted murder

Secondary Charge:

Tag(s):

running amok (6)artisan slaves (4)slave letters (2)police force (1)language complexity (1)

Summary

This concerns an attic siege at the Cape Town house of the burgher blacksmith Jan Broderik, where the slave Baatjoe van Mandhaar¹ had barricaded himself.² Baatjoe’s desperate resistance bore similarities to amok cases, including lashing out at anyone who came near him and attempted suicide.³ His use of Portuguese as a means of concealing his true intention from his owners is an intriguing indication of complexity of language usage in the colony, and the case is especially revealing for the details it gives of the police force of the VOC town, the geweldiger⁴ and caffers who attempted to break into the roof from outside. Baatjoe’s sentence of breaking alive on the wheel was one of the most severe punishments that the court could give, perhaps reflecting its alarm at the number of amok cases and of violent resistance by East Indian slaves in the town at this period.

Modern Mandar on the south-west coast of Sulawesi. It seems likely that this is the same slave as the one with this name in 1751 Januarij van Boegies et al. ↩
The documentation in this case also includes the eijsch, testimonies of Broderik, the geweldiger, Huijsheer, Baatjoe and two doctors’ reports, CJ 369, ff. 502-25. ↩
The geweldiger, Jan Jacob Doeksteen, stated that he had been called to Broderik’s house because one of the slaves ‘amok maakte’ (was running amok), CJ 369, f. 511). For amok, see 1744 Barkat van Timor, n. 3. ↩
The geweldiger arrived at the house when called to do so by Broderik, and brought with him eight caffers, whom he commanded during the operation*,* CJ 369, ff. 511-15. For the caffers and their role, see 1719 Jonas van Manado, n. 13. ↩

CJ 789 Sententiën, 1756-1760, ff. 80-91.

Translation Dutch

It has come to appear evident to the honourable Council of Justice of this government, both from the voluntary confession of Baatjoe van Mandhaar, bondsman of the burgher Jan Christoffel Broderik, 30 years old at a guess, currently their honours’ prisoner, as well as from the other documents, all properly verified, added to the case:

That towards the evening of Friday the 21^st of the just passed month October, the prisoner, after having pretended to be ill for some days, refused to come down, in accordance with the order of his owner, from the attic of the kitchen, where he had kept the whole day, in order to eat something.¹ Not only was he unwilling to do this but, what is more, at about nine o’clock that evening, when one of the two youths who were contracted with the prisoner’s owner for learning the smith’s trade,² by the name of Jan Karsten, wanted to enter the aforesaid attic with the intention to go to sleep there, as per usual, the prisoner not only did not scruple to push down from above, unexpectedly and without even the least warning, this apprentice when he was going up to the attic on a ladder (and without people realising at that time that this was done by the prisoner, but were assuming that this youth had fallen down through carelessness), but also shortly thereafter, when the other one of these apprentices, by the name of Frederik Huijsheer, likewise for the aforesaid reason, wanted to come up with the ladder to the attic, the prisoner did not scruple to give him a push with a pointed piece of wood in his face in such a way that he not only got wounded through this, but also fell down from above.

That upon this noise, the prisoner’s owner came into the kitchen and since, because of their alarm, he could not learn from either of these youths who had done that to them, he asked: “Who did this?”, and when this was answered by the prisoner: “Me, baas!”, the said Broderik ordered him to come down, upon which the prisoner also said: “At once”, without however doing so. The aforesaid Broderik again ordered this and added to it that if the prisoner did not come down, he would then come up, whereupon the prisoner had the audacity to say in Dutch that he should come up since it was the prisoner’s birthday, while at the same time adding in Portuguese that he would murder his owner, which last was made known through interpretation by his other slaves to the aforementioned Broderik who, since he did not understand Portuguese,³ was already busy climbing up the ladder, but was held back by the slaves and prevented from ascending further.

That upon this some of the neighbours came to help,⁴ while at the same time they sent for their honours’ geweldiger in order to capture the prisoner, who did not want to come down from the attic at all, with his assistance. The aforesaid geweldiger presently rushed in with about eight caffers and called to the prisoner that he should come down, but he still, instead of doing this, utterly refused to, besides saying: “I am a Mandhaar, you come up to me”, for which reason their honours’ geweldiger ordered the caffers with him to climb along the ladder standing there to the trap-door and onto the attic. This was undertaken by the caffer Johanna who, when he came close to the attic, was given a blow by the prisoner on the back of his head with an unwrought butt-end of a pistol in such a way that he came to fall down from above as a result of it and remained lying for dead on the ground. Immediately hereafter the prisoner threw down from the attic a chest which would have fallen onto the aforesaid caffer had he not been, just a moment before, dragged away from under the trap-door.

That in the meantime the burgerwacht also came to help and it was then agreed that, in order to capture the prisoner, the aforesaid attic had to be entered from outside the house, to which end some ladders were fetched. These were first put to the attic windows above the house door in the fire-gable,⁵ and then also to the roof, and at the same time they attempted to enter the attic through one of these windows, and even through making an opening in the roof. However, as soon as the prisoner noticed that the aforesaid windows were being broken open, he swiftly fortified them from the inside with everything that he could find, and when he heard somebody coming onto the roof, he stabbed at him through the thatch with a sword, and in this way also wounded the caffer on it in his foot, so that the said caffer had to retreat from there. They then finally thought it fit to hack some holes into the walls on both sides of the aforesaid house in order to discover in this way, by lighting the attic through means of candles on long sticks, where the prisoner was who, after he had heard this noise, had started running up and down in the attic and, in order to prevent this [hacking or entering], was frantically throwing bottles, stones and everything that he could find at the people who came towards the attic. In the meantime, the burgher Daniel Rood, provided with a pistol loaded with shot, took position in front of one of these openings in order to shoot at the prisoner as soon as he could discover him and get him in sight, and thus to capture him. The prisoner, however, as soon as one could see him on the aforesaid attic, retreated with an unsheathed sword in his hand to a corner behind the chimney and then tried to hide himself in a hole there, but was driven out of it by being shoved from the outside with an iron rod, when he was shot by the aforementioned burgher Daniel Rood and was wounded in his right hand, in which he was then still holding the sword, as well as in his right side, whereupon the prisoner, at great speed, jumped with the sword in his hand from the attic through the window in the fire-gable below onto the street where, after still running about three paces forward, he was taken by the caffers and thus came into the hands of justice; which is when it was discovered that the prisoner had wounded himself in the neck and did this with, as he claims, the aforesaid side-arm. In addition, as soon as the prisoner was brought into the prison, he said to their honours’ geweldiger that it was aimed at his baas and one of the apprentices, while adding that it was better to be punished by the justice than by his baas.

And while such a dangerous and premeditated murderous undertaking, accompanied with the injuring of and violent resistance to servants of justice, as well as those of the burgerwacht who came to help, cannot be tolerated in any way in a country where law and righteousness are properly upheld, but, on the contrary, must be punished rigorously as a deterrent to similar and other evil scoundrels.

Thus it is that the honourable Council of Justice, aforementioned, serving today, having carefully read and considered the written crimineelen eijsch ende conclusie, drawn up and delivered for and against the prisoner by the honourable independent fiscaal Pieter Reede van Oudshoorn, by reason of his office, and further having noted the voluntary, verified confession of the prisoner, as well as everything else which served the case and could possibly have moved their honours, practising justice in the name and on behalf of the high and mighty Lords States General of the United Netherlands, as well as his most serene highness, the Lord Prince of Orange and Nassau, as hereditary Stadholder, Captain and Admiral General of the Republic, and having judged the prisoner, their honours are sentencing him with this: to be taken to the place where criminal sentences are usually executed here, there to be handed over to the executioner and to be tied onto a cross, to be broken alive from the bottom up without the coup de grâce, to remain lying thus on the cross until he has given up the ghost, thereafter his dead body to be dragged to the outer place of execution, there again to be placed upon a wheel and to remain thus until being consumed by the air and the birds of heaven; with sentencing to the costs and expenditure of justice.⁶

Thus done and sentenced in the Castle of Good Hope on 3 November 1757, as well as pronounced and executed on the 5^th thereupon.

Let the execution be done, [signed] R. Tulbagh.

[signed] S. Swellengrebel, Cl. Brand, Corns. Eelders, D. d’Aillij, Jn. Fr. Tiemmendorf, Pieter Coningh, H.J. Prehn, C.G. Wieser.

[signed] L.S. Faber, sworn clerk.

According to other testimonies in this case, Baatjoe was sick and was waiting for medication from the doctor (CJ 369 f. 507v). Baatjoe stated in his interrogation that he refused to come down because he heard his owner say that he was lazy and that he wanted to beat him to death, CJ 369, ff. 519 and 522v. ↩
This is a very rare mention of artisan training among Cape Town’s burgher population. It is noteworthy that the apprentices slept in the attic together with the slaves but that one of them, Frederick Huijsheer, is referred to in the regtsrollen as a burgher, CJ 39, f. 118. On artisans at the Cape, see De Wet 1981: 62-76 and Worden 2002a. ↩
While by this stage Creole Portuguese was common as a contact language amongst Cape slaves, knowledge of it was not so widespread amongst settlers; see the discussion of this in 1763 Christina Strang, n. 12. ↩
According to the testimony of Jan Christoffel Broderik, these included the surgeon Francois van Nirop, who told Baatjoe to come down in Malay, CJ 369, f. 508v. ↩
The fire-gable (brandgeevel) was the central gable above the front door which prevented burning thatch from falling on people escaping from the house, or from scorching the front door. It usually also included windows which let light into the attic. We are grateful to Antonia Malan for this information. ↩
The charge of attack on Baatjoe’s owner, the burgerwacht, servants of the court and other persons, as well as the wounding of two servants and the burgher Frederick Huijsheer and the sentence, was recorded in the rollen, CJ 39, ff. 117-20. In his cross-examination, Baatjoe stated that he knew he had done wrong but that ‘ik kan het niet helpen, en laat het aan de groote heeren over’ (I cannot help it and I leave it in the hands of the important lords), CJ 369, f. 522v. ↩

Den edeleagtbaaren Raad van Justitie deezes gouvernements, soo uijt de vrijwillige confessie van Baatjoe van Mandhaar, lijfeijgen van den burger Jan Christoffel Broderik, oud naar gissing 30 jaaren, thans ’s heeren gevangen, als andere ten processe gevoegde stukken, alle behoorlijk gerecolleert, duijdelijk zijnde koomen te blijken:

Dat den gevangen, naar bevoorens eenige dagen geveijnsd hebbende siek te weesen, vervolgens op Vrijdag, den 21^e der afgeweekene maand October, in steede van in opvolginge der door zijn lijfheer teegens den avond aan hem gegeevene ordre, van den combuijs zolder, waarop sig dien geheelen dag had opgehouden, af te komen en wat te eeten, niet alleen onwillig geweest is sulx te doen, maar hem bovensdien niet ontsien heeft om, wanneer dien avond de klokke omtrent neegen uur, een der bij zijn gevangens lijfheer tot het leeren van ’t smids ambagt aanbesteedde twee jongelingen, in naame Jan Karsten, sig op voorseijde zolder wilde vervoegen, met voorneemen om hem volgens gewoonte op denzelven tot slapen te begeeven, dien leerjongen, wanneer gedagte zolder langs eene ladder opklom, sonder ’t minste woord ofte weerwoord, op ’t onverwagtste, en sonder dat men toenmaals wist dat sulx door den gevangen wierd gedaan, maar vermeijnde dat dien jongeling door onvoorsigtigheijd was koomen te vallen, niet alleen van boven needer te stooten, maar ook, wanneer kort daarna de andere dier leerjongens, in naam Frederik Huijsheer, meede ten fine voorseijde, sig langs dezelve ladder op meergemelde zolder vervoegen wilde, denzelven met een puntig stuk hout zoodanigen stoot in desselfs aangesigt toe te brengen, dat daar door niet alleen gequetst, maar insgelijx van boven is komen needer te vallen.

Dat des gevangens lijfheer op dat geraas in de combuijs gekoomen sijnde, en mits de ontsteltenisse dier beijde jongelingen uijt dezelve niet hebbende verneemen wie henlieden dat gedaan had, oversulx gevraagt heeft: Wie doet dat? en door den gevangen daarop geantwoord sijnde: Ik Baas!, gemelde Broderik hem gevangen alsdoen heeft g’ordonneert dat beneeden koomen zoude, op ’twelke den gevangen ook gesegt had: Aanstonds, sonder ’tselve nogthans te doen, des voorseijde Broderik, naar nogmaalige ordre, daarbij gevoegt heeft dat, soo den gevangen niet beneeden quam, hij dan boven koomen soude. Waarop den gevangen die assurantie heeft gehad in ’t Neederduijtsch te seggen dat maar soude boven komen dewijl hij gevangen jaarig was, teffens in ’t Portugeesch daarbij gevoegt hebbende dat hij gevangen hem lijfheer vermoorden soude, welk laatste voormelde Broderik, als geen Portugeesch verstaande, soo als beesig was de ladder op te klimmen, door desselfs andere slaven bij vertolking bekent gemaakt, en teffens door dezelve, om niet verder te steijgen, terug gehouden geworden is.

Dat hierop deeze en geene buuren te hulp gekoomen, mitsgaders om ’s heeren geweldiger gesonden geworden sijnde, ten eijnde den gevangen, die geensints van den zolder afkomen wilde, door desselfs assistentie magtig te worden, voorseijde geweldiger ook opstonds met een caffer of agt is toegeschooten, dewelke hem gevangen toegeroepen hebbende, dat beneeden koomen soude, hij gevangen nogthans in steede van dien, sulx volstrektelijk geweijgert heeft, teffens seggende: Ik ben een Mandhaar, kom gij boven tot mij, alwaaromme voorseijde ’s heeren geweldiger aan de bij hem sijnde caffers heeft gelast om langs de aldaar staande ladder door ’t luijk op dien zolder te klimmen, ’twelk bij den caffer Johanna ondernoomen zijnde, heeft den gevangen dien caffer, wanneer den zolder genadert was, met een onbewerkte kolf eener pistool zoodanigen slag agter op ’t hoofd toegebragt, dat denselven daar door van boven needervallende, op de grond voor dood is blijven leggen, werdende immediaat daarop door den gevangen van de zolder eene kist omlaag gegooijt die, ingevalle voorseijde caffer niet een oogenblik te vooren van onder het luijk was weggetrokken, op denselven needergekoomen zijn soude.

Dat immiddens de burgerwagt meede te hulp gekoomen sijnde, voorts goed gevonden was om, ter bemagtiging van den gevangen, voorseijde zolder van buijten ’s huijs te beklimmen, ten welken eijnde eenige ladderen gehaald weesende, dezelve eerst aan de, in den brandgeevel en boven de huijs deur sijnde, zoldervengsteren, mitsgaders vervolgens ook aan ’t dak zijn geset, en teffens is gepoogt geworden om door een dier vengsteren, dan wel door een in ’t dak te maakene opening op dien zolder te koomen, dog den gevangen soo ras ontwaarde dat aan voorseijde vengsteren gebrooken wierd, dezelve met al wat hem voorquam van binnen bebolwerkt hebbende heeft, wanneer hoorde dat sig op ’t dak ijmand quam te begeeven, met een degen door ’t riet heen naar denzelven gestooken, en dus ook den daarop sijnde caffer in de voet gequetst, sulx gemelde caffer sig van daar had moeten retireeren. Als wanneer eijndelijk is goedgevonden, eenige gaten ter weederseijden van ’t voorseijde huijs in de muuren te kappen, om op dusdanige wijse, door middel van kaarsen gestooken op lange stokken, op den zolder ligtende, te ontwaaren waar sig den gevangen – die, naar dat beweeging hoorde, althoos op dezelven gints en herwaarts liep en, om sulx te beletten naar de, dien zolder naderende, menschen, soo met boddels, steenen en al wat hem voorquam, verwoedelijk gooide – quam te bevinden, ondertusschen dat den burger Daniel Rood sig met eene, met hagel gelaaden, pistool voorsien, voor een dier openingen stelde om den gevangen ontdekkende, mitsgaders onder ’t visier bekoomende, naar hem te schieten en dusdanig magtig te worden, waardoor den gevangen die, soo ras men op voorseijde zolder, invoegen voorseijde, sien konde, hem met een bloote deegen in de hand in een hoek agter de schoorsteen geretireert had, en voorts poogde sig in een aldaar sijnde gat te verschuijlen, dog door de hem met een stange ijser van buijten toegebragte stooten, daaruijt verdreeven sijnde, voorts door bovengemelde burger Daniel Rood is geschooten, en in desselfs regterhand, in dewelke hij den deegen als nog was hebbende, soo wel als in de regterseijde gequetst geworden, waarop den gevangen met een vaard door ’t, in de brandgeevel staande, vengster met den deegen in de hand van den zolder op de straat omlaag gesprongen sijnde, alwaar hij naar dat nog een treed of drie voortgeloopen was, door de caffers gevat en dus in handen der justitie geraakt is; als wanneer is ontwaard geworden dat den gevangen hem selfs in de hals gequetst had, ende sulx, soo als hij segt, met het voorseijde seijdgeweer, hebbende den gevangen soo dra in den tronk gebragt was tot ’s heeren geweldiger nog gesegt dat hij ’t op desselfs baas en een der leerlingen had gemunt gehad, met bijvoeging dat het beeter was door de justitie als door sijn baas gestraft te worden.

Ende wijl sulk eene gevaarlijke en gepraemediteerde moorddaadige onderneeming, verseld met quetsing en geweldaadige resistentie van de dienaaren der justitie, mitsgaders de te hulp gekoomene respectievelijk burgerwagt, in een land daar regt en geregtigheijd naar behooren gehandhaaft word, geensints geduld worden mag, maar daarenteegen, tot afschrik van diergelijke en andere boose fielten, rigoreuselijk gestraft werden moet.

Soo is ’t, dat den edelagtbaaren Raad van Justitie, voormeld, ten dage dienende, aandagtelijk geleezen en overwoogen hebbende den schriftelijken crimineelen eijsch ende conclusie, door den heer Independent Fiscaal, Pieter Reede van Oudshoorn, ratione officii, op ende jeegens den gevangen gedaan ende genoomen, en weijders geleth op des gevangens vrijwillige, gerecolleerde confessie, voorts op alle hetgeene ter saake dienende was, en haar edelagtbaarens eenigsints konde doen moveeren, regt doende uijt naame ende van weegens de hoogmoogende heeren Staaten Generaal der Vereenigde Neederlanden, mitsgaders van zijne doorlugtigste hoogheijd den heere Prince van Oranjen en Nassouw, als Erfstadhouder, Capitain, en Admiraal Generaal van de Republicq, den gevangen Baatjoe van Mandhaar hebben gecondemneert, gelijk haar edeleagtbaarens denzelven condemneeren mits deesen: om gebragt te werden ter plaatse alwaar men alhier gewoon is crimineele sententiën te executeeren, aldaar den scherpregter overgeleevert en op een kruijs gebonden zijnde, van onder op, sonder slag van gratie, leevendig geleedebraakt te werden, en dus op het kruijs te blijven leggen totdat den geest sal hebben gegeeven; vervolgens desselfs doode lighaam naar ’t buijten geregt gesleept en aldaar weeder op een rad geset sijnde, dus te verblijven totdat door de lugt en de vogelen des heemels sal sijn verteerd, met condemnatie in de kosten en misen van justitie.

Aldus gedaan ende gesententieert in ’t Casteel de Goede Hoop, den 3^e November 1757, mitsgaders gepronuntieert ende g’executeert den 5^e daaraanvolgende.

Fiat Executie, [get.] R. Tulbagh.

[get.] S. Swellengrebel, Cl. Brand, Corns. Eelders, D. d’Aillij, Jn. Fr. Tiemmendorf, Pieter Coningh, H.J. Prehn, C.G. Wieser.

[get.] L.S. Faber, geswoore clercq.

Footnotes

Footnotes