Record Details

Cape of storms: Surveying and rethinking popular resistance in the eighteenth-century Cape colony

New Contree

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Cape of storms: Surveying and rethinking popular resistance in the eighteenth-century Cape colony
 
Creator Ulrich, Nicole
 
Subject — Dutch East India Company; Servants; Slaves; Khoesan; Sailors; Soldiers; Popular classes; Cape of Good Hope; Direct action; Desertion; Arson; Insurgency
Description In this article I provide a broad overview of resistance at the Cape under the Dutch East India Company (VOC) undertaken by the multiracial and multiethnic popular classes (low-ranking Company servants including soldiers and sailors, slaves and indigenous Khoesan labourers). I identify and examine some of the main forms of protest including: desertion and the creation of maroon communities; arson; threats against and assault of masters; and collective insurgency comprising rebellions, mutiny and strikes. Questioning established approaches in the literature which emphasise social divisions amongst the popular classes – including along racial and ethnic lines – as well as the limits and weakness of popular protest, this article demonstrates that the popular classes at the Cape developed a rich and varied tradition of “direct action”. The discussion reveals that this was often overt and collective, and sometimes drew sections of the Cape’s popular classes together across divisions. It was also informed by alternative conceptions of morality and justice.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2015-11-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/nc.v73i0.165
 
Source New Contree; Vol 73 (2015); 24 2959-510X 0379-9867
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://newcontree.org.za/index.php/nc/article/view/165/165
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Nicole Ulrich https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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