Slavery in Dutch South Africa

This comprehensive study analyses slavery in early colonial South Africa under the Dutch East India Company (1652–1795).

Nigel Worden (Author)

9780521152662, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 August 2010

222 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.33 kg

This was the first comprehensive analysis of slavery in early colonial South Africa under the Dutch East India Company (1652–1795) when it was published in 1985. Based on archival research in Britain, the Netherlands and South Africa, it examines the nature of Cape slavery with reference to the literature on other slave societies. Dr Worden shows how the slave economy developed in town and countryside, and discusses the dynamics of the slave market, the growth of land concentration, the harsh life on the farm, and the developing polarisation of rural race relations. He analyses the relation of fear and brutality in small farming communities and demonstrates that, contrary to previous assumptions, small-scale slavery produced conditions as severe as those experienced in the large-scale slave-holding systems of the Deep South. This important study contributes to an understanding of the development of South African colonial society and to comparative slave studies.

List of illustrations, map and figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1. The study of Cape slavery
2. The creation and growth of a slave society
3. Slave labour and the Cape economy
4. Slave trading
5. Slave demography
6. Prices and profits
7. Slave life and labour
8. Slave discipline and Company law
9. The slave response
10. Slavery and Cape society
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]