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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | The Slaves and Their Protectors: Reforming Resistance in a Slave Society, the Cape Colony, 1826-1834 |
| Author: | Mason, John E. |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
| Volume: | 17 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Period: | March |
| Pages: | 103-128 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | South Africa The Cape |
| Subjects: | slaves abolition of slavery History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637288 |
| Abstract: | The office of the Guardian of Slaves, as it was then known, was established in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1826. The first thing the slaves did when the Guardian and Assistant Guardians opened their doors was to sue for freedom. During the first four years of the office's existence, 682 Cape Town slaves were manumitted. A second category of complaints slaves brought to the Guardian involved attempts to keep their families whole, or to protect their right to marry. A third category concerned charges of illegal or unjust punishment. One of the most remarkable of the customary rights that the slaves defended was their practice of pasturing livestock of their own on their master's land. There is no doubt that abolitionists and the government sincerely wanted to ease the slaves' physical suffering. But they also wanted to transform the slaves into subordinate wage labourers. However, as the cases described in this article show, the slaves rejected any form of subjugation, whether involuntary or not. The office was abolished in the same years as slavery, 1834. The years following the abolition of slavery would see the former slaves and former slaveowners, and the colonial government as well, locked in battle over the meaning of freedom. Notes, ref. |
