1766 Carel Boom
This record of an emergency Sunday meeting of the Council of Justice tells the suicide of Carel Boom,1 the ‘portier’ at the Company’s Slave Lodge in Cape Town. It gives a brief insight into this key building for slaves. The Lodge housed the slaves owned by the Company itself, as well as the convict bandietenbandietenLiterally ‘bandits’. These were convicts sentenced by the VOC courts to hard labour. The term was used for any such person, irrespective of his or her status as a slave or free person. (about 580 altogether in the mid-1760s), except for those who worked on the outposts away from the town.2 Boom had formed a relationship with the slave Cornelia van Piloane.3 When she wanted to break it, Boom tried to force her and wounded her in the process, displaying a jealousy shown in other cases by male slaves towards their female partners.
Footnotes
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Carel Boom van Koningsburg arrived at the Cape in 1749 as a soldier and was employed as portier of the Slave Lodge (the gatekeeper, whose job it was to remove the key each night as a precaution against arson attempts by the inmates, Shell 1994: 177-78). He left behind 158 guilders, but no will, VOC 13988, f. 163. ↩
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On the Slave Lodge, see Geyser 1958: 6-41; Shell 1994: 172-205; Vollgraaff 1997; and Schoeman 2001: 542-72. ↩
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There is no record of Cornelia van Piloane in the death registers of Company slaves, as recorded in the Attestatiën of the Council of Policy (Duvenage et al. 2000). ↩
CJ 48 Crimineele Regtsrolle des Casteels de Goede Hoop, 1766, ff. 54-6.
Sunday, 30 March 1766.
By order of the honourable president and on the proposition of the honourable independent fiscal, Jan Willem Cloppenburg, which has been circulated [amongst the members of the Council of Justice], viz. if it would not be a good thing, as an example and deterrent to other God-forsaken scoundrels, that the body of the porter of the honourable Company’s slave lodge, by the name of Carel Boom, who took his own life miserably with a pistol shot early during the night yesterday, be buried under the gallows by the executioner;1 since this self-murderer had at first, a moment before killing himself, shot a woman slave of the honourable Company, by the name of Cornelia van Piloane, with a different pistol and wounded her on the head; which wound, according to the report made by the chief surgeon, may well become fatal, and also since it appears from the circumstances that it was the intention of the said Carel Boom to take the life of that woman slave in this way, since she, after having had a relationship with him for a long time, had ended it. Consequently, on last Monday, in order to force her to continue their relationship for longer, he wrathfully wounded the aforesaid Cornelia with a knife on her hand; which she at that time, in order to exculpate him, claimed to have happened when she was cutting cheese.2
The members present, having taken these motives into account, and since such a cruel and evil-minded creature does not merit an honourable burial, accept and allow the proposition made by the honourable independent fiscal.
Cape of Good Hope, the date as above.
In my presence, [signed] C.L. Neethling, secretary.
Footnotes
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This was a particularly dishonourable end for Boom since association with the executioner was considered highly polluting, and burial below the gallows a fate for criminals (see 1719 Jonas van Manado, n. 13). It is not clear whether this was because he had committed suicide or because of his attack on one of the Company’s slaves. The description of Boom as a ‘wreed en boosaardig schepsel’ (cruel and malicious creature) suggests both. Upham 2001b argues that suicides by Europeans were not punished judicially, yet this particular case was considered important enough for an emergency meeting of the Council to be held on a Sunday. ↩
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The slaves in the Lodge got weekly rations which they cooked themselves (Geyser 1958: 24 and Schoeman 2001: 531-32). ↩
Sondag, den 30e Maart 1766:
Ter ordre van den edelachtbaare heere Praesident, en op voordragt van den heer Independent Fiscaal Jan Willem Cloppenburg, in rondvrage gebragt sijnde, of het, ten spiegel en afschrik van andere Godvergeetene fielten, niet goed sijn soude dat het lighaam van den, hem gisteren in de voornagt door een pistool schoot deerlijk om ’t leeven gebragt hebbenden, portier der edele Compagnies slaven logie, in naame Carel Boom, door den scherpregter onder de galg begraven wierd; dewijl dien selfsmoordenaar, eerst momentelijk voordat sigselfs had vermoord, naar eene slavin der edele Compagnies, in naame Cornelia van Piloane, met eene andere pistool geschooten en aan ’t hoofd geraakt had; dat, volgens het door de opperchirurgijns gedaane rapport, de daardoor veroorsaakte wonden wel doodelijk werden konden, en uijt de omstandigheeden bleek, dat het voorneemen van gemelde Carel Boom geweest was om die slavin ’t leeven daardoor te beneemen, overmits deselve, naar een tijd lang bij hem gehouden te hebben, daarvan afgesien had; hebbende hij voorseijde Cornelia van Piloane dierhalven op laatstleeden Maandag, ten eijnde haar te dwingen tot langere bijhoudinge, bij derselver onwilligheijd, gramstoorig met een mes in de hand gequetst, ’tgeen die slavin egter toenmaals, om denselven te verschoonen, opgegeeven had, geschied te zijn door het snijden van kaas.
Welke motiven door de praesente leeden in aanmerkinge genoomen sijnde, is door haar edeles, dewijl diergelijken wreed en boosaardig schepsel geene eerlijke begraffenis meriteerd, het gedaane voorstel van den heer Independent Fiscaal geamplecteerd en toegestaan geworden.
Cabo de Goede Hoop, datum ut supra.
Mij praesent, [get.] C.L. Neethling, secretaris.