1774 Michiel Radijn
This dispute between a slave and a knechtknechtLiterally ‘male servant,’ but because most European knechten at the Cape were used as slave overseers, this original meaning gradually eroded and the word ended up meaning primarily (as in modern Afrikaans), ‘farm foreman.’ reveals the ways in which slaves could be denied any authority, including that over their own children.1 Julij van de Caab was hit by the knechtknechtLiterally ‘male servant,’ but because most European knechten at the Cape were used as slave overseers, this original meaning gradually eroded and the word ended up meaning primarily (as in modern Afrikaans), ‘farm foreman.’ Michiel Radijn for giving his own son a boxing on the ears. He argued that his owner (who was away at the time) would have approved. Radijn resented this challenge to his control over the farm’s slaves in his employer’s absence.2
The limiting of a slave father’s ability to care for or to control his own children was a cause of resentment and resistance in a number of recorded cases. Male slaves could not be ‘masters’ of their own families and were so prevented from developing the gendered role which was customary for other fathers at the time.3
Footnotes
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Radijn was presumably investigated by the Stellenbosch landdrost for assault, but there is no record that he was punished and the case was not forwarded to the Council of Justice. The case strikingly demonstrates the lack of potestas (legal authority or power) that slaves had over their own children. These were instead the possessions of their owners (De Kock 1950: 114; Botha 1962, vol. II: 171-72; and Schoeman 2001: 583-84). ↩
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See 1761 Johan Spring in ’t Veld, n. 1 for a discussion of the role of knechtenknechtenLiterally ‘male servant,’ but because most European knechten at the Cape were used as slave overseers, this original meaning gradually eroded and the word ended up meaning primarily (as in modern Afrikaans), ‘farm foreman.’ on farms. ↩
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For example, 1749 Reijnier van Madagascar, who attacked his owners and ran away when his daughter was whipped by them. One of the causes of resentment by Galant van de Caab, who led the Bokkeveld uprising in 1825, was that he was forbidden to discipline his own child. Van der Spuy (1996) argues that this challenge to his masculinity was one of the gendered aspects of the revolt. ↩
1/STB 3/11 Criminele Verklaringen, 1759-1782, unpaginated.
Statement given, on the requisition of the honourable landdrost, Marthinus Adrianus Bergh, by the slave Julij van de Caab, of competent age, bondsman of the burgher Jacobus Malan, which is of the following content, namely:
That on a Sunday evening, some time ago now, without the testifier being able to specify when, when his owner was at the Cape and the mistress had already gone to bed, while the testifier, as also the women slaves Cadace and Dina, as well as the testifier’s little son Februarij, were in the kitchen on their owner’s farm, the said Februarij ridiculed and laughed at the slave Cadace because of her speaking broken Dutch,1 over which the testifier punished him and gave him two clouts on the ears. The knechtknechtLiterally ‘male servant,’ but because most European knechten at the Cape were used as slave overseers, this original meaning gradually eroded and the word ended up meaning primarily (as in modern Afrikaans), ‘farm foreman.’, Michiel Radijn, who was there, intervened, asking the testifier why he was beating this little jongenjongenLiterally ‘boy.’ In Dutch it was common to use this word also to refer to male servants, irrespective of age. At the Cape, however, this usage was extended to slaves and then became exclusive, so that jongen (also in the deflected form jong) came to mean ‘male slave’, such that Afrikaans lost the use of the word to mean ‘boy’ and instead uses seun (from Dutch zoon) for both ‘boy’ and ‘son.’ In this primary meaning, the word has become obsolete in modern Afrikaans, except for the archaic terms tuinjong (‘garden boy’) and plaasjong (‘farm boy’), in the sense of male workers of colour. and the testifier answered: “Because he was naughty and ridiculed the old folk”, while adding: “I may beat him, he is my son, even if my 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. were present, he would even have said: ‘Hit him!’” Thereupon, when the testifier turned himself around, he received such a blow against his head from the back that he suddenly fell down and remained lying senseless like this, until he was picked up by the meijdenmeijdenLiterally ‘girl.’ This word developed among the same lines as jongen, the word coming to mean ‘female slave.’ However, its trajectory diverged from that of jongen in that it eventually was used more widely to refer to indigenous women, so that meid still survives in modern Afrikaans as a pejorative term for women of colour. As with jongen, the word was no longer available to refer to European girls, but instead of the difference between girl and daughter disappearing, the diminutive form, meijsje (Afrikaans, meisie), came to be used for ‘girl.’ and taken into a room next to the kitchen, which is when he again came to, but was still unaware of how this blow was given to him or with what; of which, as well as his transport to the aforesaid room, the testifier was eventually informed by aforementioned Dina and Cadace.2
There being nothing further to relate, the testifier asserts to be convinced of the accuracy of his statement as in the text, being willing, if so required, to subsequently confirm the above.
Thus related at the office of the secretary in Stellenbosch on 18 August 1774 in the presence of the messenger of the court Morits Herman Otto Woeke and the soldier Frederik Wagener, as witnesses.
This mark X was set down by the slave Julij with his own hand.
As witnesses, [signed] M.H.O. Woeke, F. Wagener
With my cognisance, [signed] A. Faure, secretary.
Footnotes
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It is intriguing that in this case all the slaves mentioned are ‘van de Caab’ and seemingly conversing in a form of Dutch with one another, and not making use of one of the contact languages common amongst slaves at the Cape during this time (see 1775 Moses van Bengalen). This may be indicative of the fact that more and more slaves were locally born at the Cape by this stage (although full creolisation did not take place until the nineteenth century). But even though Candace seems to have grown up at the Cape, she still does not pronounce Dutch ‘correctly’, at least in the eyes of the young boy (according to her testimony, he teased her every time ‘onder het spreeken van een Duits woord door haar niet wel uitgebragt’ [when she said a Dutch word not well pronounced by her], 1/STB 3/11, testimony of Candace van de Caab, 2 August 1774, unpaginated). This may reflect something of the nature of the variety of Dutch used by Cape-born slaves, although very little is known about this topic. ↩
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It was of course Radijn who had hit him from behind with a piece of firewood, as reported in the testimonies of both Dina van de Caab and Candace van de Caab, 1/STB 3/11, 2 August 1774, unpaginated, the only other documentation for this case. ↩
Relaas gegeven, ter requisitie van den heer landdrost, Marthinus Adrianus Bergh, door den slaaf Julij van de Caab, van competenten ouderdom, lijfeigen van den burger Jacobus Malan, zijnde van den volgenden inhoud, namentlijk:
Dat nu eenigen tijd geleden, zonder dat den relatant dies wist te bepalen, zijnde op eenen Zondag avond, wanneer zijn lijfheer aan de Caab, en lijfvrouw reeds te bed gegaan was, terwijl hij relatant nevens de slavinnen Cadace1 en Dina, mitsgaders des relatants zoontje Februarij, zig in de combuijs ter hunner lijfheers woonplaats bevonden, en gemelde Februarij de slavinne Cadace over haar krom Duijtsch spreeken bespot en uitgelagt had, waarover den relatant hem bestrafd en twee klappen om d’ ooren gegeven hebbenden, den aldaar zijnde knegt, Michiel Radijn, daarbij gekomen was, vragende den relatant waarom hij dat jongetje geslagen had, en den relatant had g’antwoord: Omdat hij stout is, en de oude luijden bespot; met bijvoeging: Ik mag hem slaan, ’t is mijn zoon, al stond mijn baas er bij, die zoude nog zeggen: Raak wat; zig daarop omgekeerd hebbende, had hij relatant van agteren tegen ’t hoofd zodanige slag gekreegen dat plotselings nedergevallen was, zijnde dus buijten eenige kennisse blijven leggen, totdat hij door de meijden opgenomen en in een, ter zijde de combuijs staande, kamer gebragt was geworden: als wanneer hij relatant weder bij zig zelven gekomen zijnde, nogthans onbewust was geweest waarmede ofte hoedaniger wijs hem dien slag was toegebragt geworden, waarvan hij relatant wel, als ’t vervoeren van hem in voorseijde vertrek, door voormelde Dina en Cadace was onderrigt geworden.
Anders niet relateerende, geeft den relatant voor reedenen van wetenschap als in den text, bereijd zijnde het vorenstaande, des vereischt werdende, nader te zullen gestand doen.
Aldus gerelateerd ter secretarije aan Stellenbosch, den 18e Augustus 1774, in ’t bijweesen van den bode Morits Herman Otto Woeke en den soldaat Frederik Wagener, als getuijgen.
Dit merk X heeft de slaaf Julij eigenhandig gesteld.
Als getuijgen, [get.] M.H.O. Woeke, F. Wagener.
In kennisse van mij, [get.] A. Faure, secretaris.
Footnotes
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Sic. In the other testimonies her name is spelled ‘Candace’. ↩