Slavery and Ideology: The South African Case

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Periodical article

Title:	Slavery and Ideology: The South African Case
Author:	Watson, R.L.
Year:	1987
Periodical:	International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:	20
Issue:	1
Pages:	27-43
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	The Cape South Africa
Subjects:	abolition of slavery History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/219276
Abstract:	Analysis of antislavery in the Cape Colony in the early 19th century, dealing primarily with the English-speaking community, and focusing on Cape Town. There had been occasional criticism of slavery before the 1820s, but antislavery apparently took organized form only in July 1828, with the founding of the Cape of Good Hope Philanthropic Society for Aiding Deserving Slaves to Purchase their Freedom. The Cape Philanthropic Society's liberals began with the assumption of the sanctity of property and the rationality of free labour and then assumed, or hoped, that the 'enlightened sentiments' of the Colony's citizens would carry the day and end slavery. This preeminence of the right of property made an effective antislavery movement impossible and undermined the possibility of an abolitionist tradition that declared freedom as a fundamental right for all humans. Notes, ref.