contents

Introduction to the Resolutions
of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope


Freemen

In accordance with the commission of the Lords Seventeen, Jan van Riebeeck had to build a fort, a hospital for the sick, lay out orchards and vegetable gardens, prepare fields in order to provide the ships with grain, and obtain cattle by means of trade with the Khoi tribes in the vicinity of the settlement. He succeeded in achieving all these goals.

But already in 1652, 1653 van Riebeeck realised that there were too few VOC officials to do all the work that needed to be done, and he requested his superiors to send him some “vrije luijden” [freemen] to help cultivate the soil. Because the wheat harvest was insufficient and could not meet the demands of the ships, the VOC rulers gave permission in 1655 for a small number of officials to become free burghers in order to cultivate wheat in the Rondebosch area, which was a more suitable environment although it was further away from the Fort. They would work for a profit and farm more efficiently than the paid officials, but had to sell all their products and livestock to the Company. In February 1657 the first nine free burghers each received a farm along the Liesbeek River , which served as the formal border of the Colony. In 1659 eighty-four morgen had been cultivated and in 1662 there were 60 free burghers, most of whom were wheat-farmers. The other free burghers, some being masons, bar owners, carpenters and fishermen, lived in the vicinity of the Fort.

It was necessary for fresh meat to be delivered on a regular basis to the Company, which had to provide for the needs of the local market and those of the arriving ships. Due to the nomadic life-style of the Khoi tribes who were always on the move looking for suitable grazing for their herds, Company officials had to travel into the interior to trade with them. The livestock thus traded was cared for at cattle-posts situated at “de Schuur”, Steenberg, Saldanha Bay , Tygerberg, Eerste River and Fish Hoek. Stock farming became popular among the settlers and in 1678 four free burghers received grazing permits along the Eerste River.

During his term of office Simon van der Stel encouraged large-scale immigration of people from the Netherlands and adjacent European countries. The population sector of European descent increased and the settlement developed into a colony. In 1695 Commissioner-General van Reede tot Drakenstein recommended that, in order to defend the Cape as a VOC property, emigration from Europe should be encouraged. As a result a significant number of Dutch and German settlers immigrated to the Cape of Good Hope . In order to curb the serious shortage of women a few orphan girls from Amsterdam and Rotterdam were brought to the Cape of Good Hope . The first towns, namely Stellenbosch and the Paarl were established.

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the Catholic king of France in 1685 not only had serious consequences for France and its neighbouring countries, but also influenced the composition of the population at the Cape . For many years before and also after the revocation the Protestants (Huguenots) in France not only lost their freedom of faith but were also persecuted and even murdered. Hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled their country of birth and settled in Flanders and the Netherlands . As far as the Cape was concerned, the Lords Seventeen were mainly interested in these people as wine farmers, and later these newcomers and their descendents became masters of their trade. In 1688 the first group of “Franse vlugtelingen” [French refugees] (30.12.1693, C. 27) arrived in Table Bay . Even though there were only about 280 Huguenots that settled at the Cape , they made an important impact on the Cape community. They received farms in the “Fransse Hoek” [Franschhoek, lit. French Corner] (15.6.1717, C. 42), and through marriage and intermarriage with the Dutch and German inhabitants they merged into the community.

Because Simon van der Stel wanted to prevent any group of ‘strangers’ or ‘foreigners’ forming he ordered that the Huguenots had to “vermengd met Duijtsche natien te mogen woonen ... omtrent 150 koppen, so mannen als vrouwen” [to live intermingled with the ‘Diets’ (Dutch and German) nations ... about 150 people, men and women] (28 Nov. 1689, C. 20). One-third of the Cape Huguenots , in other words 58 people came from the historic Flanders , which included the Rijsel ( Lille ) and Calais regions in present day French-Flanders. The fact that many of the Huguenots who came from these regions spoke Flemish contributed to their easy adaptation to their new environment. Due to their bilingualism they could act as bridge-builders between the French-speaking Huguenots and the Dutch-speaking settlers. The Huguenots held their Reformed religion in the highest esteem. French played an important role in religious and church matters and therefore they demanded the service of a French-speaking minister, Reverend Simond (C. 20) who held his services and ceremonies in French. All correspondence by the French members of the consistory, however, had to be translated into Dutch before the Councillors would discuss the matters concerned.

Although the agricultural sector was in rather good form, the free burghers preferred stock farming to wheat and wine farming. Already by about 1710 there was a definite increase in the number of stock-farmers, and within one to two generations these families gradually moved eastward.

In 1750 the trek-farmers had reached the Sundays River , which was then regarded as the eastern border of the Colony. The rapid expansion of the settlers’ territory caused a long and bitter conflict between them and the San people. Ten years later the first trek-farmers entered the region in the Great Karoo where Beaufort-West is now situated. In 1770 they arrived at the Cambdebo where they met Xhosa tribes along the Fish River . During Governor van Plettenberg’s inspection tour to this region in 1778 the various parties reached an agreement regarding the border, but neither the trek-farmers nor the Xhosa tribes abided by the conditions (see van Plettenberg’s report in Godée Molsbergen IV, as well as Expeditions).

 

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