The runaways : a study of enslaved, apprenticed and indentured labour flight at the Cape in the emancipation era, 1830-42

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorFourie, Johanen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorFourie, Johan, 1982-en_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorEkama, Kateen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorMitchell, Lauraen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorBergemann, Karl Jasonen_ZA
dc.contributor.otherStellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.en_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2024-02-07T14:15:58Z
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-27T00:56:03Z
dc.date.available2024-02-07T14:15:58Z
dc.date.available2024-04-27T00:56:03Z
dc.date.issued2024-03
dc.descriptionThesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractENGLISH ABSTRACT: Desertion at the Cape is a “tradition” that spanned centuries and encompassed scores of runaways from different social strata. This thesis uncovers the lived experiences of enslaved, apprenticed and indentured labourers in one of the colony’s most crucial defining moments: the emancipations of the enslaved in the 1830s. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods to tell their stories, it creates a further nuanced landscape of desertion by placing these actors at the centre of the study and showing both individual and collective biographies of labourers at the very lowest end of the hierarchical scale. Using two primary sources, the Government Gazette, the mouthpiece of the colonial government, and De Zuid Afrikaan, the first Dutch colonial newspaper in the colony, runaway advertisements have been extracted and collated into two unique datasets. From these advertisements a collection of variables has been deduced and grouped to provide investigations of broad themes within runaway advertisement. These offer insight into themes of demography and personal description; sightings, advertiser supposition and runaway skillsets; information about whereabouts and possible avenues of pursuit; flight cycles, advertising trends and advertorial lag; and finally, information on advertisers themselves, including the locations from where runaways escaped, the rewards offered for their recapture and the masters who advertised for their return. The thesis frames an investigation into the motivations of escape as well as the mechanisms that allowed escapees to create new lives on the run, suggesting a new mode of flight in the form of “assimilation marronage”, where, unlike runaways in earlier periods of the colony’s history, escapees lived within the framework of colonial society rather than escaped it outright. Further questions concerning who the runaways were, when they chose to run, where they ran to and from, what they did while on the run, as well as who placed the advertisements and what rewards were offered were asked of the sources. Overall, the thesis adds to a global narrative of disaffection and reformulation of social existence, positing that runaways at the Cape took necessary steps to alleviate their social deaths and showed that life in the colony was more porous in this state of legal transition than it had ever been before. en_ZA
dc.description.abstractAFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Drostering aan die Kaap is ’n “tradisie” wat oor eeue strek en talle drosters uit verskillende sosiale strata ingesluit het. Hierdie tesis ontbloot die ervaringe van slawe, vakleerlinge en ingeboekte arbeiders in een van die kolonie se mees deurslaggewende oomblikke: die vrystelling van die slawe in die 1830s. Deur beide kwantitatiewe en kwalitatiewe metodes te gebruik, plaas dit hierdie akteurs in die middel van ’n studie wat dieindividuele en kollektiewe biografieë van arbeiders aan die onderpunt van die koloniale hiërargie ontleed. Deur gebruik te maak van twee primêre bronne, die Kaap die Goeie Hoop Staatskoerant (Cape of Good Hope Governement Gazette), die mondstuk van die koloniale regering, en De Zuid Afrikaan, die eerste Nederlandse koloniale koerant in die kolonie, is droster advertensies getranskribeer en in twee unieke datastelle saamgestel. Uit hierdie advertensies, is ’n versameling veranderlikes geskep en gegroepeer om van die breë temas binne droster advertensies te ondersoek. Hierdie data bied insigte in terme van demografie en persoonlike beskrywing; waarnemings van drosters, adverteerder vermoedens en droster vaardighede; inligting oor die liggings en moontlike rigtings van vlugtelinge; dros siklusse, advertensieneigings en advertensievertraging; en laastens, inligting oor adverteerders self, insluitend die plekke waar drosters ontsnap het, die belonings wat aangebied word vir hul hervangs en die meesters wat vir hul terugkeer geadverteer het. Die tesis skep ’n raamwerk om die motiverings van drostering, sowel as die meganismes wat drosters toegelaat het om nuwe lewens op vlug te skep, te ondersoek. Dit stel ook ’n nuwe manier van vlug voor in die vorm van “assimilasie-marronage”, waar, anders as drosters in vroër tydperke van die kolonie se geskiedenis, drosters eerder binne die raamwerk van die koloniale samelewing geleef het, eerder as om hulself heeltemal daaruit te onttrek. Verdere vrae oor wie die drosters was, wanneer hulle gekies het om te hardloop, waarheen hulle gehardloop het, wat hulle gedoen het terwyl hulle op die vlug geslaan het, asook wie die advertensies geplaas het en watter belonings aangebied is, is aan die bronne gevra. Oor die algemeen, dra die tesis by tot ’n wêreldwye vertelling van ontevredenheid en herformulering van sosiale bestaan, deur te stel dat drosters aan die Kaap stappe geneem het om hulle “sosiale sterfte” te verlig en getoon het dat die lewe in die kolonie meer onseker was in hierdie staat van regsoorgang as wat dit ooit tevore was.af_ZA
dc.description.versionDoctoralen_ZA
dc.format.extentiii, 220 pagesen_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttps://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/130639
dc.language.isoen_ZA
dc.publisherStellenbosch : Stellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.rights.holderStellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshEnslaved persons -- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- Social conditionsen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshLabor -- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- Historyen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshEnslaved persons -- Emancipation -- South Africa -- 19th century.en_ZA
dc.subject.lcshSlavery -- Economic aspects -- South Africaen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshFugitive slaves -- South Africa -- History -- 19th centuryen_ZA
dc.subject.nameUCTD
dc.subject.otherDesertionen_ZA
dc.subject.otherAssimilation marronageen_ZA
dc.titleThe runaways : a study of enslaved, apprenticed and indentured labour flight at the Cape in the emancipation era, 1830-42en_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
bergemann_runaways_2024.pdf
Size:
3.59 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Doctoral Degrees (History)