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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Social and Religious Change in Southern Africa: The Decline of the Cape Gentry, 1838-1900 |
| Author: | Dooling, Wayne |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
| Volume: | 40 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Period: | July |
| Pages: | 215-242 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | South Africa The Cape |
| Subjects: | abolition of slavery farm management History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/183547 |
| Abstract: | This article examines the rural economy of the Western Cape, South Africa, in the wake of the abolition of slavery in 1838. It argues, contrary to conventional wisdom, that the abolition marked a radical break in the history of the Cape Colony. The liberated slaves could and did make use of the mobility that emancipation allowed them. This amounted to a real negotiation of the price of labour, for at various points in the 19th century the price of labour threatened the very profitability of farming. Compensation money paid out by the British Crown provided relief to the former slaveowners, but this served merely to delay the worst effects of emancipation as far as slaveowners were concerned.These conditions prompted an immediate interest in mechanization. For the greater part of the century, farming remained a highly unstable occupation and a great many former slaveowners came to experience routine insolvency. The increasing importance of English-speaking merchants in the rural political economy sealed the long-term decline of the Cape gentry. Notes, ref., sum. |
