Caesar van Madagascar
Caesar van Madagascar told his owner that he had a ‘right to speak’ his own mind on how best to do his farm work and organise his time – a rare indication in the Cape records of the overt assertion of psychological independence by a slave.1 Caesar’s owner retaliated with blows, which Caesar finally resisted, not by attacking his master, but by breaking the sjambok. This was sufficient to ensure his sentence of 25 years’ hard labour in chains. Caesar’s refusal to be totally subservient was a threat to the hierarchy of control in a slave society.2
Footnotes
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The documentation for this case also includes 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., the testimony of Daniel Malan Davidsz and the interrogation of Caesar van Madgascar, CJ 447, ff. 569-90. What is unusual about this case is Caesar’s repeated statement that he had a ‘right’ to dispute his owner’s orders. The North American historian Genovese has argued that this kind of resistance was more revolutionary in its nature than that of escaping from the slave system by desertion, and that it became more evident in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It is striking that this case takes place in the 1790s, when news of revolutionary developments in the Americas (including the successful Haitian slave uprising) was circulating in the Cape. These few years saw several other cases of slaves verbally challenging their owners, compare 1792 Mentor van Mosambique and 1794 Abraham van Macassar, but there is also an earlier example, 1759 Slammat van Bougies. ↩
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This was somewhat less severe than the life sentence 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 447, f. 575. ↩
CJ 796 Sententiën, 1790-1794, ff. 279-284.
Since Caesar van Madagascar, bondsman of the burgher Daniel Malan, 30 years old at a guess, currently their honours’ prisoner, has voluntarily confessed, and since, from the documents furnished in the case, it has appeared evident to the honourable Council of Justice:
That on Friday, the 14th of the month June of this current year, at about half past eight in the evening, the prisoner’s owner went to the kitchen on his farm, situated behind Groenberg, and found there the prisoner, together with two of his fellow slaves by the names of Adam and Pedro, whom he asked, in essence, why they had not gone to bed, as they would have to get up again early in the morning to help plough the fields.
That the prisoner, who according to the testimony of his owner has already on several occasions employed outrageous and improper expressions with regard to him, answered him in an impudent way, and indeed, according to the prisoner’s own confession, with these words: “I am going to make my bed just now, there is enough time, I will inspan the cattle early tomorrow”. The prisoner’s owner hereupon ordered the prisoner to be silent; without this order, however, making even the least impression upon the prisoner, since the prisoner, instead of obeying this, continued on the contrary in an insolent fashion: “I was awake early enough, but because the weather was bad, I did not want to get up, and I must have my right to speak”.
That the prisoner’s owner got angry over this answer and gave the prisoner a blow with, as the prisoner expresses himself, a broomstick, and again ordered him to be silent; to which the prisoner said that he did not want to be silent and would preserve his right to speak. The prisoner’s owner then gave him two more blows, which did not have any better result, since the prisoner, on receiving these blows, expressed himself, in no uncertain terms, in this manner: “I do not want to be silent, and I must retain my right to speak”, while adding: “Baas must stop beating me like this”.
That hereupon the prisoner’s owner fetched a so-called hind oxen sjamboksjambokThis word entered seventeenth-century Dutch via Malay (tjambok) or Javanese (sambok) from Persian (châbuk). It is a whip cut from thick animal skin, usually hippopotamus or rhinoceros, and was already known in the Dutch East Indies as an instrument for punishing slaves. At the Cape it was also used to beat draught animals with.1 and gave the prisoner a lash with it. That finally the prisoner did not scruple to give such free rein to his disobedient behaviour as to hold the sjamboksjambokThis word entered seventeenth-century Dutch via Malay (tjambok) or Javanese (sambok) from Persian (châbuk). It is a whip cut from thick animal skin, usually hippopotamus or rhinoceros, and was already known in the Dutch East Indies as an instrument for punishing slaves. At the Cape it was also used to beat draught animals with. tight with his left hand and then to cut it with a knife, which he claimed to have taken off his bed, yet, according to the evidence of his owner, to have taken from his pocket. This made the prisoner’s owner decide to leave the kitchen and to have the prisoner tied up the following morning and to hand him over to the veldwagtmeesterveldwagtmeesterLiterally ‘field guarding master,’ this was often shortened to veldwagter (‘field guard’). This person was in effect the representative of the landdrost (magistrate) in the different parts of a district, and had to act on his orders, making arrests, reporting any criminal activities and transgression of plakkaten, and inspecting the bodies of deceased persons. of the district, through which the prisoner came into the hands of justice.
And since offences like these cannot be allowed to pass unpunished in a country where justice is administered as it should be, but, on the contrary, ought to be punished most severely as an example and deterrent to other malefactors.
Thus it is, that the honourable Council of Justice, aforementioned, serving today, having read and considered with attention 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 landdrost of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, the koopmankoopmanThe administrative or civil sector of the VOC was divided into six categories of rank, with the governor-general at the head of the first one. Most of the titles used for these ranks were derived from the merchant origins of the VOC, but in practice a rank did not equate with a person’s function. Koopman, literally meaning ‘merchant,’ was a rank in the third category, senior to onderkoopman (‘junior merchant’), but below an opperkoopman (‘chief merchant’). Hendrik Lodewijk Bletterman, in his official capacity, as well as having noted the voluntary confession of the prisoner, as also everything which further served 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 Caesar van Madagascar, their honours are sentencing the same with this: to be taken to the place where criminal sentences are usually executed here and there to be handed over to the executioner, to be tied to the stake, to be severely scourged with rods on his bare back, and afterwards to be branded, as also to be riveted in chains and thus to serve for the period of 25 successive years without wages on the honourable Company’s public works on Robben Island, or elsewhere, with sentencing of the prisoner to the costs and expenditure of justice, and denying the further or otherwise drawn-up 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. or delivered conclusie of the officer.2
Thus done and sentenced at the Cape of Good Hope on 7 October 1793, as also published on 9 November and executed on the same day.
Let the sentence be done, [signed] A.J. Sluijsken.
[signed] O.G. de Wet, Johs. Smuts, R.J. v.d. Riet, G.H. Meijer, W.S. v. Rijneveld, Cl. Matthiessen, Am. Fleck, J. Baumgardt, H.A. Truter, L.C. Warneck.
In my presence, [signed] J.A. Truter, secretary.
Footnotes
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See 1791 Petrus Joubert, n. 4. ↩
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This sentence was recorded in the regtsrollenregtsrollenLiterally ‘rolls of justice’, the minutes of the proceedings of the Council of Justice., CJ 75, ff. 211-12. In response to the charge, Caesar stated that his owner had attacked him with a broomstick and then with a sjamboksjambokThis word entered seventeenth-century Dutch via Malay (tjambok) or Javanese (sambok) from Persian (châbuk). It is a whip cut from thick animal skin, usually hippopotamus or rhinoceros, and was already known in the Dutch East Indies as an instrument for punishing slaves. At the Cape it was also used to beat draught animals with., and that he had only stated that he would inspan oxen early the following morning and had done no wrong, CJ 75, f. 204. ↩
Alzoo Caesar van Madagscar, lijfeijgen van den burger Daniel Malan, oud naar gissing derthig jaren, thans ’s heeren gevangen, vrijwillig heeft beleeden, en het den edelachtbaare Raade van Justitie, uit de ten processe gefurneerde [sic] stukken, evident is komen te blijken:
Dat des gevangens lijfheer op desselfs plaats ofte hofsteede, geleegen agter de Groeneberg, op Vrijdag, den 14e der maand Junij deezes loopenden jaars, ’s avonds de klocke omtrend half negen uuren, zich na de combuijs begeeven hebbende, in dezelve heeft aangetroffen den gevangen, beneevens nog twee zijner meede slaven, in naame Adam en Pedro, welken hij in substantie heeft afgevraagd waarom zijlieden zich niet ter ruste begaven, daar zij in den vroegen morgenstond wederom zouden moeten opstaan om het land te helpen beploegen.
Dat deeze vraage door den gevangen, die volgens ’t getuijgenis van deszelfs lijfheer, zich reeds te meermaalen ten zijnen opzichte van buitenspoorige en onbetamelijke uitdrukkingen had bedient, wederom op eene brutaale wijze beantwoord zijnde, en wel, naar luijd van zijn gevangens eigen confessie, met te zeggen: Ik gaa zoo mijn kooij opmaaken, ’t is tijds genoeg, ik zal morgen vroeg de beesten inspannen; des gevangens lijfheer daarop hem gevangen heeft geordonneert stille te zijn, zonder dat deeze ordre egter eenige de minste ingressie bij den gevangen heeft mogen vinden, als hebbende de gevangen in stede van daaraan te gehoorzaamen, integendeel op eene insolente wijze in substantie hervat: Ik ben vroeg genoeg wakker geweest, maar om dat het troebel weer was, heb ik niet willen opstaan, en ik moet mijn recht van spreken hebben.
Dat des gevangens lijfheer over dit antwoord toornig geworden zijnde, den gevangen met een bezemstok, zoals de gevangen zich uitdrukt, een slag toegebracht, en andermaal geordonneert heeft te zwijgen; waarop de gevangen gezegt hebbende, niet te willen zwijgen en zijn recht van spreeken te zullen behouden, heeft des gevangens lijfheer hem nog twee slagen toegebragt; welke van geen betere uitwerking zijn geweest, alzoo de gevangen op ’t ontfangen dier slagen zich zonder bewimpeling in deezer voegen uitdrukte: Ik wil niet zwijgen, en moet mijn recht van spreeken behouden; met bijvoeging: Baas moet onderlaaten mij zoo te slaan.
Dat hierop des gevangens lijfheer een zogenaamde agteros sjambok gehaald, en daarmeede aan den gevangen een slag toegebragt hebbende, de gevangen zich eindelijk niet ontzien heeft aan zijn disobedient gedrag in zoo verre den teugel te vieren, om met zijn linkerhand den sjambok vast te houden en voorts met een mes, welk hij zegt van zijn kooij te hebben genomen, dog volgens getuijgenis zijns lijfheers, uit zijn zak had gehaald, daar in te snijden; ’tgeen des gevangens lijfheer heeft doen besluijten om zich uit de combuijs te begeven en den gevangen den volgenden morgen te doen vastbinden en aan den veldwagtmeester van ’t district overleeveren, waardoor de gevangen in handen der justitie is komen te geraaken.
En dewijl dergelijke misdrijven, in een land alwaar de justitie naar behooren word geadministreerd, niet straffeloos kunnen worden gepasseerd, maar in tegendeel, ten spiegel en afschrik van andere boosdoenders, ten strengsten behooren te worden gestraft.
Zoo is ’t, dat de edelachtbaare Raad van Justitie, voormeld, ten dage dienende, met aandag geleezen en overwogen hebbende den schriftelijken crimineelen eijsch ende conclusie door ofte van weegens den koopman en landdrost van Stellenbosch en Drakenstein, Hendrik Lodewijk Bletterman, nomine officii, op ende jeegens den gevangen gedaan en genoomen, mitsgaders gelet op des gevangens vrijwillige confessie, zoo wel als op ’tgeen verder ter zaake dienende was en hun edelchtbaarens konde doen moveeren, recht doende uit naam ende van weegens de hoogmogende Heeren Staten Generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden, den gevangen Caesar van Madagascar heeft gecondemneert, zoo als hun edelachtbaarens denzelven condemneeren bij deezen; omme gebragt te worden ter plaatze alwaar men gewoon is crimineele sententiën ter executie te brengen, en aldaar aan den scherpregter overgeleeverd zijnde, aan een paal gebonden, met roeden op de bloote rugge strengelijk gegeesseld en daarna gebrandmerkt, mitsgaders wijders in de ketting geklonken te worden, om alzoo den tijd van vijf en twintig agtereenvolgende jaaren op het Robben Eijland, dan wel elders, zonder loon aan ’s edele Compagnies gemeene werken te arbeiden; met condemnatie van den gevangen in de kosten en misen van justitie, en ontzegging van den verdere, of anders gedaanen, eijsch en genomen conclusie van den Officier.
Aldus gedaan en gesententieerd aan Cabo de Goede Hoop, den 7e October 1793, mitsgaders gepubliceerd den 9e November daaraanvolgende en geëxecuteerd ten zelven dage.
Fiat executie, [get.] A.J. Sluijsken.
[get.] O.G. de Wet, Johs. Smuts, R.J. v.d. Riet, G.H. Meijer, W.S. v. Rijneveld, Cl. Matthiessen, Am. Fleck, J. Baumgardt, H.A. Truter, L.C. Warneck.
Mij present, [get.] J.A. Truter, secretaris.