1785 Spadilje van Siam

Details
Name on Document:
Spadilje van Siam
Date:
1785-09-22
Document Type:
Sentence
Primary Charge:
theft
Secondary Charge:
runaway
Tag(s):
slave origin (1)Hangklip maroons (3)free Black slave owners (2)paper money (3)robbery (2)
Summary

Spadilje was an unusual slave for two reasons: he came from Thailand,1 and he was owned by a free black.2 He also was a deserter, and met up with other runaways in the Hangklip area3 with whom he carried out a robbery on the Company slagthuijs in Simon’s Town. He attracted suspicion of being a runaway when he tried to use some of the stolen money at a nearby tavern.

Footnotes

  1. Only a very few slaves at the Cape came from Siam (modern Thailand). The VOC had a trading post at Ayutthaya, which flourished in the seventeenth century, was closed down in 1740 but had a brief revival in 1748-65 (Gaastra 2003: 124-25; Raben & Pombejra 1997: 74-5). ↩

  2. Spadilje’s owner, Albert Isaaksz, was a free black, a term which usually referred to freed slaves, but also to the ex-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. from Asia, such as the Chinese. He was probably a former slave, since he was offered to the Council of Policy as surety by the burgher Gerrit Reijnders against the manumission of another slave in 1766 (Leibbrandt 1989: 970). Although many free blacks were too poor to own slaves, a number did so, sometimes acquiring their own relatives in order to manumit them (Elphick & Shell 1989: 221; Shell 1994: 121). Albert Isaaksz manumitted his slave Rosie and her three children in 1792, although it is not known if they were related to him (Leibbrandt 1989: 1525). For another example of slave ownership by a free black, see 1738 Pieter Coridon. ↩

  3. For the Hangklip runaway slave community, see 1737 Aron van Madagascar. ↩

CJ 795 Sententiën, 1782-1789, ff. 239-49.
Translation Dutch

Since Spadiltje, slave of the free black Albert Isaaksz, twenty five years old at a guess, currently their honours’ prisoners, has voluntarily confessed and, from the other evidence produced in the case, it has appeared evident to the honourable Council of Justice:

That the prisoner became a fugitive now fully three months ago and maintained himself both here and elsewhere in the rural areas, as well as in the region of Hanglip, where a certain runaway slave by the name of Job, belonging to the widow of the late burgher lieutenant Jan Hendrik Ekkert,1 and yet another runaway slave, whose name the prisoner says he does not know, came to join him.

That the prisoner and his aforementioned comrades set out to the mountains of False Bay2 and stayed in the region of Kalk Bay, which is where the aforesaid Job forged the plan to break into the slagthuijs3 of the honourable Company in Baaij Fals and to commit theft. So that, after the said Job had made that plan known to the prisoner and the other 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., they all went together during the night of the 22nd of the past month August, to the aforesaid Baaij Fals, when Job climbed onto the roof, which is rather low, of the said slagthuijs and made an opening in the thatch of the roof by breaking or cutting to pieces the cabled yarn, through which he went into the slagthuijs, while the prisoner and his comrade remained outside, keeping watch.

That the aforesaid Job, after having broken open a chest in the said slagthuijs, stole from it a sum of three hundred and fifty rixdollars and four schellingen, consisting both of paper money4 and a variety of silver coins, and among which there was also a guinea, as well as a black velvet jacket, a brown silk frock and a white shirt.

That the aforesaid Job came to the prisoner with these stolen goods and money, and in the dark gave part of the cash to him, as well as the black jacket; among which cash the prisoner afterwards found a piece of gold money. After this, the said Job and his comrade went from there to some other place with the rest of the money and clothes, while the prisoner remained in Baaij Fals.

That on a certain night, a day or three afterwards, the prisoner went into the tavern of Baaij Fals5 to have a drink, but that the people there, when they saw that the prisoner had some money with him, took him for a deserter and, moreover, also suspected him to have committed the aforesaid theft. So that he was taken prisoner by these people, searched, and then delivered into the hands of justice.

But since such crimes, conspiracies and robberies can under no circumstances be left unpunished in a country where justice is properly administered, and ought to be punished, according to the merits of the case, as an example to other similar malefactors.

Thus it is, that the aforementioned honourable Council of Justice, having read and considered the written crimineelen eijsch ende conclusiecrimineelen eijsch ende conclusieLiterally ‘criminal demand and conclusion.’ The document drawn up by the prosecutor based on the evidence he collected and delivered in court against an accused. The conclusie is the final part of the document in which the prosecutor suggested an appropriate punishment for the crime. drawn up and delivered for and against the prisoner by the interim fiscal, Sieur Gabriel Exter, in his official capacity, as well as having noted everything that served in the case and could have moved their honours, practising justice in the name and on behalf of the high and mighty Lords States General of the United Netherlands, and having judged the prisoner, Spadilje van Siam, is sentencing him with this: to be taken to the usual place of execution, there to be handed over to the executioner, to be exposed with the rope around his neck under the gallows, further to be tied to a stake and to be severely scourged with rods on his bare back, as well as to be branded, then to be riveted in chains in which to labour without payment on the public works of the honourable Company on Robben Island for the duration of his life, with sentencing to the costs and expenditure of justice.6

Thus done and sentenced at the Cape of Good Hope on 22 September 1785, as also pronounced and executed on the 1st of the following month October and executed on the same day.7

Let the execution be done, [signed] C.J. van de Graaff.

[signed] P. Hacker, R.J. Gordon, A. van Schoor, O.G. de Wet, L.C. Warneck, Gs. Hk. Cruijwagen, S. v. Echten, J. Munnik, Johs. Smuts, Jn. Cd. Gie.

In my presence, [signed] C.L. Neethling, secretary.

Footnotes

  1. This was Job van Madagascar, who was a deserter for about two years before he was eventually captured in December 1786 and sentenced; see 1786 Job van Madagascar et al. He also features in 1786 October van Madagascar et al. ↩

  2. In this case ‘False Bay’ refer to the region, while the name ‘Baaij Fals’ denotes the settlement around the outpost at Simon’s Bay (see 1755 Patientie van Manacabo). ↩

  3. In order to provide fresh meat for ships anchoring at Simon’s Bay, the Company was provided with live sheep on a monthly basis by the meat pachter. These were kept, and slaughtered as needed, at a purpose-built building, close to the shore (Sleigh 1993: 310, 315). ↩

  4. On the recent introduction of paper money into the colony, see 1791 Baatjoe, n. 1. ↩

  5. According to a description of Baaij Fals three years later, there was a ‘wine house’ there which also served as a brothel (Dawe 2003: 110; see also Sleigh 1993: 306-7). ↩

  6. Spadilje was charged on 22 August and confessed his guilt. The case was held over while the documentation was circulated among the members of the Council of Justice until 22 September, when this sentence was passed, CJ 67, ff. 82 and 88. The sentence was that 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 421, ff. 168-69. Documentation for this case also includes the interrogation of Spadilje and the testimony of Willem Bergh, who was in charge of the Company slagthuijs, CJ 421, ff. 171-83. ↩

  7. The last part of this sentence (from ‘den 1e ...’ onwards) was added later in a different handwriting, hence the repitition of information. ↩

Nademaal Spadilje, slaaf van den vrijswart Albert Isaaksz, oud na gissing vijf en twintig jaaren, thans ’s heeren gevange vrijwillig beleeden heeft, en den edelagtbaare Raad van Justitie uijt de verdere, ten processe gevoegde, stucken evident gebleeken is:

Dat den gevangen zig, nu ruijm drie maanden voorleeden, fugitief gesteld, en hem seedert opgehouden hebbende, zoo hier als elders ten plattenlande, mitsgaders omstreex de Hanglip, alwaar bij hem bekoomen heeft, seekeren drossenden slaven jongen, in naame Job, toebehoorend de weduwe wijlen den burger lieutenant Jan Hendrik Ekkert, en nog een ander drossenden slaaff, wiens naam den gevangen segt nie te weeten.

Dat den gevangen en zijne eevengemelde mackers, hun na de gebergtens van de Baaij Fals begeeven, en hun dus ook omtrend de Kalkbaaij opgehouden hebbende, voorseijde Job aldaar ’t voorneemen gesmeed had, om in ’t edele Compagnies slagthuijs van de Baaij Fals in te breeken, en in ’tselve diefte te pleegen; invoegen gemelde Job dat voorneemen aan hem gevangen en den anderen jongen bekend gemaakt hebbende, zijlieden dus gesamentlijk, in de nagt van den 22e der jongst afgeweekene maand Augustus, na de voorseijde Baaij Fals gegaan waren, hebbende Job alstoen het, maar laag zijnde, dak van ’t gemelde slagthuijs beklommen, in ’tselve, door ’t stukken breeken of snijden van ’t kabelgaarn, in ’t rietdak een opening gebrooken en zig daardoor in ’t slagthuijs begeeven, middelerewijl dat den gevangen en zijn macker buijten waaren blijven oppassen.

Dat voorseijde Job, na in ’t gemelde slagthuijs eene kist opengebrooken te hebben, uijt deselve had gestoolen: eene somma van drie hondert en vijftig rijxdaalders en vier schellingen, bestaan hebbende, zoo in papier munt als verscheijde zilvere specien, en daaronder ook eene guinje, mitsgaders nog een swart fluweele baatje, een bruijne zeijde rok, en een wit hembd.

Dat voorseijde Job met dat gestoolen goed en geld bij hem gekomen zijnde, denzelven aan hem gevangen van de contanten, in den donkeren, een gedeelte had overgegeeven, en voorts ook een swart baatje, onder welke contanten, den gevangen vervolgens een stuk goud geld gevonden had, waarna gemelde Job en zijn makker hun met het overige geld en kleederen, daarvandaan na elders heen begeeven hebbende, hij gevangen in de Baaij Fals gebleeven was.

Dat den gevangen zig, een dag off drie daarna, op een zeekeren avond, in ’t taphuijs der Baaij Fals hebbende begeeven om een soopje te drinken, de daarin zijnde menschen op ’t ontwaaren dat den gevangen eenig geld bij hem hadde, hem voor een drosser aangesien hadden, en teffens verdagt gehouden de voorseijde diefte te hebben gepleegt. Invoegens den gevangen door die menschen gevangen genoomen, gevisiteerd, en wijders in handen van justitie overgeleevert geworden was.

Maar nademaal diergelijken misdaden, complotterijen en dievereijen in een land alwaar de justitie behoorlijk gehandhaafd word, geensints ongestraft kunnen worden gelaaten, en dus ten exempel van andere zulke quaaddoenders, na exigentie van zaaken, moeten worden gepunieert.

Soo is ’t, dat den edelagtbaare Raad van Justitie, voormeld, geleesen en overwoogen hebbende den schriftelijken crimineelen eijsch ende conclusie door den pro interim Fiscaal, sieur Gabriel Exter, nomine officii, op ende jeegens den gevangen gedaan ende genoomen, mitsgaders gelet op alles wat ter zaake dienende was ende haar edelagtbaarens konde doen moveeren, regt doende uijt naame ende van weegens de hoogmoogende Heeren Staaten Generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden, den gevangen Spadilje van Siam hebben gecondemneert gelijk haar edelagtbaarens denselven condemneeren mits deesen: omme gebragt te worden ter ordinaire justitie plaatse, aldaar den scherpregter overgeleevert, met een strop om den hals onder den galg ten pronk gesteld, voorts aan een paal gebonden, met roeden op de bloote rugge strengelijk gegeesselt, mitsgaders daarop gebrandmerkt zijnde, voorts in de ketting geklonken te worden, om daarin den tijd zijn ’s leevens op ’t Robben Eijland aan ’s edele Compagnies gemeene werken zonder loon te arbeijden, met condemnatie in de kosten en misen van justitie.

Aldus gedaan en gesententieerd aan Cabo de Goede Hoop den 22e September 1785, mitsgaders gepronuntieerd en g’executeerd den 1e der daaraanvolgende maand October en geëxecuteerd ten selven dage.1

Fiat Executie, [get.] C.J. van de Graaff.

[get.] P. Hacker, R.J. Gordon, A. van Schoor, O.G. de Wet, L.C. Warneck, Gs. Hk. Cruijwagen, S. v. Echten, J. Munnik, Johs. Smuts, Jn. Cd. Gie.

Mij present, [get.] C.L. Neethling, secretaris.

Footnotes

  1. The last part of this sentence (from ‘den 1e ...’ onwards) was added later in a different handwriting, hence the repitition of information. ↩

Places
Simon's Town where Spadilje carried out a robbery with other runaways on the Company slagthuijs
Hangklip where Spadilje met up with other runaways
Kalk Bay where Spadilje and Job hung around and Job made a plan to break into the slagthuijs
Baaij Fals where Spadilje went to a tavern and was captured