OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Worden, Nigel"

Browsing by Author "Worden, Nigel"

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A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s
(1993) Van der Spuy, Patricia; Worden, Nigel
This is a collection of discrete essays, each embodying original research and bearing on the theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope. Amelioration at the Cape profoundly altered gendered perceptions of slaves, both on the part of slaveholders, and of the slaves themselves. The amelioration regulations entailed a redefinition of the gender of female slaves, which was resisted by slaveholders and transformed by slave women, while slave men began to redefine their own gendered identities in this light. Slaveholders' traditional patriarchal self-concepts were severely threatened in this context, as they progressively lost power and authority, both to the new paternalist colonial state and to those who had formerly been subsumed within the patriarchal family. There are five papers, the first an introduction to the theoretical framework of the collection and an outline of the general argument as outlined above. The second paper provides a critique of existing Cape slave historiography from a gendered perspective. It examines the problems of this literature methodologically and theoretically, focusing on the implications of the slave sex ratio for the history of slave women. The final three papers are based on empirical research. The third paper examines the structural constraints on slave family formation in Cape Town from the perspective of slave women. The fourth and fifth papers explore issues related to infanticide and slave reproduction, and slave resistance in relation to the Bokkeveld rebellion of 1825, respectively.
Open Access
The admission of slaves and 'prize slaves' into the Cape Colony, 1797-1818
(1997) Reidy, Michael Charles; Worden, Nigel
This study supports the thesis that slaves were admitted into the Cape colony by the Cape colonial government, even though the government was opposed to slave importation in principle and law (Slave Trade Act, 1807) from 1797-1818. The colonial demand for slaves was at its height after the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie's (VOC) capitulation to the British in 1795. This demand forced the first British occupation government to forgo their anti-slave trade principles and accede to a limited importation of slaves into the colony.
Open Access
After Race and Class: Recent Trends in the Historiography of Early Colonial Cape Society
(2010) Worden, Nigel
This article reviews the recent upsurge of writing on the history of the early colonial Cape Colony from the VOC period to the early nineteenth century. It responds to important questions raised by Nicole Ulrich's review article of Contingent Lives in this issue. In particular it considers what is gained and what can be lost in the recent shift from class-based analyses characteristic of late twentieth-century revisionist South African historiography to research more influenced by the ‘cultural turn’, transnational and microhistorical approaches.
Open Access
Capitalisation and proletarianization on a Western Cape farm: Klaver Valley 1812-1898
(1992) Host, Elizabeth Anne; Worden, Nigel
This thesis is the study of a single farm, Klaver Valley in the Darling district, 1812 - 1898. Chapter One provides a physical view of Klaver Valley from 1812 to 1898 showing the changes in the landscape and production of grains, wine and wool over the period. It argues that these changes occurred as a direct result of external market forces. Chapter Two focuses on the changes which occurred in the labour process from the early 1800s to 1898, arguing that the main impetus for change came from mechanisation of harvesting in the 1820s and 1850s. Chapter Three explores the notion of a capitalist farmer and argues that Duckitt and later Ruperti can be categorised as capitalist farmers. The main thrust of their progressive capitalization occurred before the 1850s and it did so as a result of the system of informal credit which existed at farm level among farmers, allowing for re-investment and survival of cash flow. Chapter Four studies the process of proletarianisation which accompanied the capitalist development of the farm and its farmers. While taking account of the existence of a small number (3) of sharecroppers on the farm in the 1840s, 1870s and 1890s, this chapter argues that by the early 1830s, the farm was operating on the back of fully proletarianised labour. Composition of the labour force, wages and tasks, the work of women and the change from resident and permanent to casual labour from the 1820s to the 1890s, form some of the main focuses of this chapter. Chapter Five explores the nature of the relationship between the farmer and workers from 1829 - 1898, the two increasingly alienated from each other by the encroachment of the overseer. It argues that capitalist relations of production developed in the context of paternalism throughout although it was increasingly shaped by the cash-oriented relationship.
Open Access
The Castle of Good Hope : an examination of controversies and conflicting perceptions : a case study in public history
(1994) Gilbert, Cindy Lou; Worden, Nigel
Public history as a distinct discipline emerged in America in the 1970s and by the 1980s a Committee and Council had been established aimed at promoting historical studies, broadening historical knowledge among the general public and opening up opportunities for historians to work in the private sector, rather than as purely academic historians. The discipline is broken up into a variety of aspects: archival administration, museology, publishing and editing, historic preservation, business history and the media. Historic preservation is an important aspect both in the genre of public history broadly and in South Africa today where the new government of the ANC views the historical buildings in Cape Town as elitist and portraying a narrowly white, ethnocentric view of heritage. This makes the arena of public history one in which much ongoing debate can be found around the various Historical Monuments in Cape Town. The Castle is a crucial example, being the first building in South Africa and strongly linked with colonialism through its history and present use by the army. It has been the centre of much debate and controversy recently with the Castle Management Act being passed in 1993, showing the extent of the debate which extended to parliament. It was decided to study this site and evaluate the background to the debates, considering how new, or not the debates are, and discuss the images of the Castle presented to the public over the last century. The conflicting perceptions of the Castle over, for example its restoration will also be considered. Further, as an historical discussion, it will not be focused on the physical building, as such, as an architecturally orientated discussion would be, but rather the focus will be on the symbolism present in the building, the way the Castle is portrayed in tourist guides and school textbooks, and the response to key debates such as the restoration of the Castle and the presence of an army headquarters in an historical monument by the public as shown in newspaper articles and editorial letters. This discussion will begin with a legislative overview of the Castle and lead into a discussion on the key debates as seen in newspaper articles over the last 70 years. At the same time a history of the restoration of the Castle will be outlined. The restoration itself will be the subject of the following chapter where issues surrounding the conservation of historical buildings in general as well as specific issues surrounding the restoration of the Castle will be considered. Lastly an analysis of the tourist-orientated literature and school-textbooks, influential in forming the broader public's perception of the Castle will be carried out.
Open Access
The changing landscape of the Liesbeek River valley : an investigation of the use of an environmental history approach in historical research and in classroom practice
(1996) Bottaro, Jean; Worden, Nigel
This dissertation has two components, one History and one Education, and the central unifying theme is Environmental History. The History component examines the historiography of this sub-discipline, and then applies an environmental analysis as an example of its use in historical research. The second component explores the use of Environmental History in the teaching of school history, and presents a curriculum model which uses this approach. Both components use the Liesbeek River valley in the Cape Peninsula as a case-study.
Open Access
Commemorations and conflicts in the production of South African national pasts : the 1952 Jan van Riebeeck tercentenary festival
(1997) Witz, Leslie; Worden, Nigel
This thesis investigates how the icon of Jan van Riebeeck acquired a position of prominence in South African public pasts through the government sponsored festival organised in 1952 to commemorate his landing three hundred years previously. From the seventeenth to the midtwentieth centuries van Riebeeck and the landing in 1652 had, through commemorative events, school text books and the publication of the Dutch East India Company journal for the period when he was commander at the Cape of Good Hope, acquired different meanings. These ranged from conveying Christianity to southern Africa, to initiating British colonial rule and providing the ancestry for an Afrikaner volk. tVsing material from the various planning committees for the tercentenary celebrations, newspaper reports, pamphlets, high school year books, interviews with organisers and participants, radio broadcasts and documentary film footage, this thesis argues that the festival in 1952 selected elements from these various pasts to construct a Van Riebeeck as the founder figure of a racially exclusive settler nation in South Africa. The pasts that were produced for this festival of European settler founding often resulted from negotiations between opposing groups over its constituent elements, what events and personalities should be included and excluded and how they should be represented. It was immensely difficult to produce this consensual past, particularly as local identities often clashed with the national pasts the festival was attempting to construct and the audiences viewed the exhibitions and performances in a variety of different ways. There was also a massive boycott of the proceedings by those whom the festival organisers attempted to incorporate into its displays and audiences as, separate, developing 'non-European' ethnic entities. One of the most notable aspects of the boycott campaigns against the festival was that they largely mirrored and inverted its symbols. Instead of subverting the images of the festival, they therefore unintentionally bolstered and sustained their significance in South African public pasts.
Open Access
Contracted chattel : indentured and apprenticed labor in Cape Town, c.1808-1840
(1995) Iannini, Craig; Iannini, Craig; Worden, Nigel
This thesis examines indentured and apprenticed labor in Cape Town between the years 1808 and 1840. Through analysis of primary material such as the South African Commercial Advertiser, the Colonist, and the Mediator, as well as contemporary travel accounts, contracts of indenture and apprenticeship, and an examination of the records of the Cape Town Magistrates, this study explores the attitudes and perceptions towards indentured and apprenticed labor by both employers and indentured and apprenticed servants.This study hopes to add to the existing literature pertaining to nineteenth-century Cape Colony labor. This thesis commences with an examination of the different indenture and apprenticeship systems which existed in Cape Town between the years 1808 and 1840. It explores the issue of how employers and the government sought to maintain a constant supply of labor in the city as the prominence of urban slavery declined. It also discusses the important issue of how employers defined the terms apprentice and indenture. Chapter two explores the topic of child apprenticeship in Cape Town between the years 1812 to 1840, and illustrates that the notion of child apprenticeship was understood in different ways between employers and parents of apprenticed children. Chapter three investigates the stereotypes Cape Town's English speaking employers held towards the city's indentured and apprenticed laborers. The final chapter explores the question of status and incorporation into Cape Town society for the city's indentured and apprenticed laborers, and demonstrates that laborers did not enjoy equal status to the city's slaves.
Open Access
Council of (in)justice : crime, status, punishment and decision-makers in the 1730's Cape justice system
(2012) Bergemann, Karl J; Worden, Nigel
This dissertation provides a quantitative analysis of various fields drawn directly from the Cape's criminal records of the 1730s, from which a database was created. [It] highlights hypotheses of unequal treatment, separates out various groups according to their social status and investigates the differences in crimes and punishment methods over this period. It outlines correlational trends between status and crime as well as status and punishment and based on these findings sets out to investigate possibilities for why these trends arise. The dissertation examines the role players in the criminal procedure, most notably the Independent Fiscals, charged with overseeing all criminal investigations at the Cape. It then goes on to investigate punishment methods, the role of punishment and the implement- ation of different punishments based on certain crimes.
Open Access
Crime, community and police in Cape Town, 1825-1850
(1986) Elks, Katherine Dawn; Worden, Nigel; Bickford-Smith, Vivian
This thesis is primarily an examination of petty crime and law enforcement in Cape Town in the period 1825 -1850. This period was one of fundamental change in terms of the spatial and demographic growth of Cape Town, the diversifying economy and the changing legal status of firstly the Khoi and subsequently the slaves. These developments had significant ramifications on the level and nature of crime, and perceptions of crime and criminals. The creation of a technically 'free' population and the transition from slave to wage labour engendered a great deal of alarm among Cape Town's dominant classes. That they felt their dominance and hegemony threatened by the potentially challenging White, Khoi and Black under classes, entailed a re-assertion of their power. Control mechanisms instituted in response to this included the abortive Vagrancy Ordinance of 1834, the Masters and Servants' Ordinance of 1841, a revamped police force in 1840 and varying social control stratagems. These were all designed to bolster the power of the dominant classes and mould a pliable labour force inculcated with the morality of the dominant classes. The under classes proved very adept at side stepping the imposition of control. In this they were often unwittingly aided by the grossly unprofessional and incompetent police. The ascendancy of the dominant classes, however, was temporarily frustrated but never totally checked. Similar studies of crime and law enforcement in 19th Century Britain have greatly informed the manner in which this thesis was tackled, but the nature of the source material in Cape Town has necessitated a somewhat different approach. The incomplete nature of the Court Record Books meant that a statistical analysis was impossible. More fruitful data were the letter books of personnel and institutions involved in the running of Cape Town; the Superintendent of Police, the Attorney-General, Resident Magistrate and the Municipality. For more general attitudes letters to and editorials in the local press proved to be an invaluable key to an understanding of the mores and perceptions of the dominant classes.
Open Access
The Enslaved people of Simons Town 1743-1843
(2013) Young, Joline; Worden, Nigel
This thesis is a study of slavery and emancipation in Simon's Town for the period 1743 to 1843.Through the compilation of a slave database derived from VOC era wills and British colonial era slave registers, quantitative details pertaining to slave demography, religion, mortality, occupation, gender and levels of creolisation were recorded to monitor how the experience of slavery in Simon's Town changed over time. These details are attached in the form of a Slave Database CD. The use of magisterial and slave office correspondence afforded a qualitative enquiry of the society that existed in Simon's Town during this period and offered insights into how this was experienced by slaves. Two oral history interviews were also conducted. Significantly the data shows that slaveholders exerted their power through a combination of violence and differential treatment, intended to cause fear and division amongst slaves. Conversely, the data suggests that slaves derived agency through religion, ethnic group strength and random acts of 'slave justice'.Furthermore, it shows that the landscape of Simon's Town district provided unique opportunities for escape both by land and sea. In addition it shows that the arrival of the British Navy created opportunities for some slaves to transcend slavery by becoming wage earning crew members on its fleets. Significantly too it shows that the arrival of many working class British seamen into Simon's Town impacted on both male and female slaves in Simon's Town in ways that would see them re-evaluate and reject the institution of slavery. Pertinent findings are suggestions of ethnic awareness and ethnic spatial separation that existed in Simon's Town. These findings imply that theories derived by historians of Cape slavery that are informed by quantitative studies based on the Cape as a whole, do not necessarily match data within specific urban areas of the Western Cape.
Open Access
Fighting for the spoils : Cape burgerschap and faction disputes in Cape Town in the 1770s
(2011) Baartman, Teunis; Worden, Nigel
The Cape of Good Hope was rocked by a period of political turmoil at the end of the 1770s and beginning of 1780s. Coenraad Beyers published an extensive study about this period and labelled the protesters: Cape Patriots ("Die Kaapse Patriotte"). In his view they were pre-Afrikaner burghers who, driven by ideological arguments, opposed a colonial VOC tyranny. This thesis aims to revise this analysis, while seeking to demonstrate that late eighteenth century Cape society was marked by a complex and intertwined network of status groups. The burgher protests are used as a case study to illustrate that the Cape settlement was part and parcel of the Dutch empire. The protesters emphasised that their burgerschap was on par with that in cities in the Dutch Republic. The first part of the thesis compares Cape and Dutch burgerschap and argues that the Cape burghers were justified in stating that they were burghers of a city belonging to the United Netherlands. It furthermore becomes clear that the Cape burghers had developed a robust burgher identity. This certainly contributed to the outbreak of the conflict, but was not the determining factor. Because the Cape settlement was essentially a Dutch city, many elements many elements of political and social life derived from the Dutch Republic. One of these was that at the Cape a ruling elite consisting of higher VOC officials and prominent burghers had developed with close familial and entrepreneurial links between them.
Open Access
"Good citizens and gentlemen" : public and private space at the South African College, 1880-1918
(2011) Swartz, Rebecca; Worden, Nigel
This thesis examines the nature of the distinction between public and private space at the South African College (SAC) between 1880 and 1918. By viewing the College within increasingly wide lenses of analysis, examining the micro-level of student experience, to situating the College within its immediate, national and imperial location, the thesis indicates the ways in which institutions should be seen as products of, and permeable to, their historical contexts. Chapter one begins by examining the gendered identity formation of the College students. This is followed by an in-depth examination of the role of the College Council, in particular, in the "public" life of the Cape, and also in the "private" decision making processes within the College.
Open Access
Grappling with grapes : wine tourism of the Western Cape
(2004) Randle, Tracey; Worden, Nigel
This thesis acts as a series of 'snapshots' into the meaning of 'wine tourism'. Each chapter of my main body of work looks at a different segment of wine tourism in the Western Cape: a fast growing industry that inherits attributes from both the wine and tourism industries. Themes of landscape and the tourist experience track through these separate snapshots, linking them together. A passion for wine and the drinking of wine would seem to have been an enjoyable pastime passed down from epochs of wine lovers and producers that stood before us in the 'winescapes' of time. While this conception of the wine drinking tradition may be presented to us today, it should be remembered that this might not have been the case in times gone by. Looking back to South Africa and the wine industry in the 1950s where 'wine consciousness' was a real concern for the marketers and makers of wine, we find no such traditions in place. Obstacles to the integration of wine into everyday living came in the form of an avid temperance movement concerned with drunkenness and alcoholism. Over time these obstacles heeded to the power of the wine industry so that increasing emphasis was placed on the role of publicity and marketing of wine. It was perhaps a natural development that wine tourism came to hold particular potential and interest for South African wine producers. The history of wine tourism of the Western Cape is inherently connected to the establishment of our first wine route in Stellenbosch. With a concern for the superiority of the European wine making tradition and landscape, it was only in 1970 that we saw a change in interest to the wine regions and heritage landscapes of our own country. The SteHenbosch wine route was a concept inspired by European example but grounded in local landscape. The significance of the mapping out of this landscape of space into place was a real concern for the wine makers of the regions whose freedom to market and export their wine overseas was severely restricted by legal prohibitions established by the KWV in the 1960s. With the defining of distinct wine regions, came the emphasis of difference of place within the winelands of the Western Cape. Each region has a formula for difference based on some combination of breathtaking scenery, quality wines, first class cuisine, and with increasing frequency the heritage of European roots. The construction of place and landscape identities gives us a sense of the perspective of the marketer and promoter of the wine region. I found it important to explore how this construction of identity of place came to be experienced by and presented to tourists in the present day.
Open Access
"A journal among them" : colonial discourse and the creation of an imaginary community in the Graham's Town Journal, 1831-36
(1997) McKend, Robert Andrew; Worden, Nigel
This dissertation is a study of the discourse of the Graham's Town Journal in the years 1831 to 1836. An example of early Cape journalism, the Journal was established in the eastern Cape by L.H. Meurant, and owned and operated soon thereafter by R. Godlonton. The Journal was a means to represent and order a changing colonial world for an emerging middle-class merchant elite during the period of the emergence of colonial order in the eastern Cape. Through investigation of the major themes of the newspaper's discourse in this early period of its history, the dissertation highlights the imaginary sense of community and corresponding body of colonial knowledge that evolved on a weekly basis in its pages, and by which its readers projected their dreams and aspirations as to how the eastern Cape should be colonized.
Open Access
Law and community in a slave society : Stellenbosch district, c.1760-1820
(1991) Dooling, Wayne; Worden, Nigel
This dissertation is primarily concerned with the functioning of the law in the Cape Colony in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as it pertained to slaves and masters (and to a lesser extent Khoi servants). It examines the operation of the law in one particular rural district, namely, Stellenbosch in the years c.1760-1820. The chief primary sources include criminal -- and on a smaller scale civil -- records of the local and central courts of the colony. Travellers' accounts have also been utilised. The study of one particular rural district reveals the extent to which the law was intricately woven into the fabric of the settler 'community'. Despite differentials of wealth, the settlers in Stellenbosch district were essentially part of a community of slaveholders. The contours of the settler community fundamentally influenced every step of the legal process. Members of the settler community were in a situation of face-to-face interaction. This meant that often, in conflicts between settlers, recourse to the law was seen as a last resort and mo.re emphasis was placed on the maintenance of personal social relationships. However, this community, of which a landed elite stood in the forefront, had discordant features and domination of the poor by the rich did not go without any struggle. The features of the settler community also fundamentally influenced the position of slaves in the law. Access to the courts for the slaves for complaints against their masters was very significantly determined by conflicts which existed amongst slaveholders. In court the extent of solidarity amongst members of the community could ultimately determine the chances of success for slaves. Another way in which concerns of community influenced the legal process was by the importance which was attached to the reputations of individual slaveowners. Often such concerns overrode strictly legal ones. Even in determining the severity of sentences in criminal cases reputations of individuals were of primary importance. The VOC not only served to bolster the authority of slaveowners but also to keep the wider society in control. Therefore, it could not allow slaveholder tyranny over their labourers to go unchecked. Moreover, the legal system had to be more than simply an instrument in the hands of the master class. At the local level, the VOC could be seen to be acting in the interests of the wider society by listening to the complaints of slaves and prosecuting individual masters. Roman common law, as opposed to statutory law, was the law most commonly used in criminal cases involving slaves. This had two important implications. Firstly, Roman law did not deny the slave any personality and prosecutors constantly reminded slaveowners that slaves were persons. Secondly, Roman law had an apparent universality in that its dictates were made applicable to all in society. These factors combined to make the law perform a hegemonic function.
Open Access
Manumission in Isle de France during the revolutionary and post revolutionary years from 1789 to 1810
(2002) Rosunee, Pritilah; Worden, Nigel; Teelock, Vijaya
This research work is an analysis of the whole 'institution' of manumission as it existed in Isle de France during the period between the French Revolution of 1789 and the post-revolutionary years up to British rule in 1810. In his study of 'The Free Population of Colour in Mauritius', Richard Allen emphasizes the fact that "a comprehensive study of manumission in the colony remains to be undertaken, but we do have reliable information on manumisson practices and patterns during the last two decades of the Ancien Régime". Indeed, Muslim Jumeer reports that between 1768- 1789, a total of 785 slaves consisting of 347 women, 173 men, 133 boys and 132 girls were freed according to the acts of manumission. But the existing works do not reveal any manumission figure for the years after 1789, during the revolutionary period up to British rule. As Allen notes, "information on the composition of the manumitted population and on the pattern of manumissions between 1789-1820 is scarce, but only because research on this period remains to be done". This present work has attempted to 'fill the gap' in the study of manumission for the years 1789 to 1803, by a 'comprehensive study' of manumission acts found at the Mauritius Archives.
Open Access
Missions and emancipation in the South Western Cape : a case study of Groenekloof (Mamre), 1838-1852
(1992) Ludlow, Helen; Worden, Nigel
While the past decade has seen a proliferation of studies of Cape slavery, there has been very little research directed at the immediate post-emancipation period. This study seeks to examine the consequences of emancipation for the former slaves who settled at the Moravian mission at Groenekloof. This was situated in the wheat-producing Malmesbury district of the Cape Colony. The dissertation takes the form of a case study of nearly 700 people and focusses on the period from December 1838 to December 1852. Mission records are used as a way of identifying the origins of newcomers to the mission as well as of the social groups in which they arrived. The structure and ethos of the mission is explored as a context of the new lives constructed by the former slaves, and aspirations of ex-slaves concerning marriage and family life are examined.
Open Access
The mutiny on the Meermin
(2003) Alexander, Andrew; Worden, Nigel
During February and March of the year 1766, Dutch slaving vessel, the Meermin, be the site of an act of violent resistance, murder and an abortive bid for freedom. Approximately 140 Madagascan slaves revolted against the VOC crew manning the vessel and assume control of the ship; they were subsequently deceived by a Dutch crew desperate for their lives, transported to a region far from the island kingdoms that they regarded as home, and ultimately violently defeated on the coast of a foreign land, a land where many were to remain and die, recaptured by those over whom they had, for a brief moment, won such a devastating victory. Their grasp for liberty thwarted by an almost fantastic mixture of cunning, firepower and luck, they were ultimately to submit to the authority of the cause of their oppression, and to remain in the land from which their attempts at flight had been directed.
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New approaches to VOC history in South Africa
(2007) Worden, Nigel
This special feature of eight articles represents a new wave of writing about the history of the Cape under Dutch East India Company (VOC) rule. This period lasted for almost 150 years (1652-1795), but it has hitherto remained something of a Cinderella in recent South African historiography, paling in comparison with the rich writing on early settler societies in North and Latin America and Australia.