Today in Kimberley's History
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Piet Retief’s Great Trek manifesto is completed - 1837
Piet Retief completes the manifesto that sets out the reasons why the Voortrekkers are leaving the Cape Colony. It is published in English in the Graham's Town Journal on 2 February 1937. To understand the mass emigration of the Afrikaans frontier farmers (Afrikaners) out of the Cape Colony it is important to look at the circumstances in the Cape at that time.
On the one hand, there was an ongoing conflict between these farmers and the Xhosa inhabitants on the frontier, as well as growing resentment between the farmers and the British colonial authorities. The farmers argued that because the colonial government limited the activities of the Boer commandos, and refused to let them handle the law and order on the frontier themselves, they could not protect themselves from Xhosa attacks. Furthermore, they blamed the government of not giving them any financial support in the frontier wars and other confrontations with the Xhosa.
The conflict on the frontier was an indication of how important land conflict had become in the region. Both the Xhosa and Afrikaner farmers needed land to support themselves and their livestock. Land prices had also increased considerably during the 1820s and 1830s. This meant that the younger generation could not afford their own pieces of land, and this problem would only grow. Another reason for the Great Trek was a lack of labour because of the government passing the 1828 Ordinance 50, which outlawed slavery.
This Ordinance has been called 'The Magna Carta of the Khoikhoi', as it determined that the "Khoikhoi" was equal to White people and did not need to carry passes anymore. Not many of these farmers owned slaves, but some did suffer losses with the emancipation of slaves, like Trek leader Gert Maritz. For the frontier farmers, the Ordinance meant less strict control over their servants and farm labourers. It also meant that many labourers left the farms, and many of them formed moving gangs. These plundering gangs were the first grievance Retief mentioned in his manifesto.
Many farmers believed that in the country's interior, there was land in abundance (and therefore cheap land), and most importantly, no British government. Between 1834 and 1840 about 15 000 Afrikaners left the Cape Colony permanently. They called themselves 'emigrants' and their mass-trek an 'emigration', but in the late 19th century this mass-movement became known as the Great Trek and the emigrants Voortrekkers.
Source: SA History Online
Piet Retief completes the manifesto that sets out the reasons why the Voortrekkers are leaving the Cape Colony. It is published in English in the Graham's Town Journal on 2 February 1937. To understand the mass emigration of the Afrikaans frontier farmers (Afrikaners) out of the Cape Colony it is important to look at the circumstances in the Cape at that time.
On the one hand, there was an ongoing conflict between these farmers and the Xhosa inhabitants on the frontier, as well as growing resentment between the farmers and the British colonial authorities. The farmers argued that because the colonial government limited the activities of the Boer commandos, and refused to let them handle the law and order on the frontier themselves, they could not protect themselves from Xhosa attacks. Furthermore, they blamed the government of not giving them any financial support in the frontier wars and other confrontations with the Xhosa.
The conflict on the frontier was an indication of how important land conflict had become in the region. Both the Xhosa and Afrikaner farmers needed land to support themselves and their livestock. Land prices had also increased considerably during the 1820s and 1830s. This meant that the younger generation could not afford their own pieces of land, and this problem would only grow. Another reason for the Great Trek was a lack of labour because of the government passing the 1828 Ordinance 50, which outlawed slavery.
This Ordinance has been called 'The Magna Carta of the Khoikhoi', as it determined that the "Khoikhoi" was equal to White people and did not need to carry passes anymore. Not many of these farmers owned slaves, but some did suffer losses with the emancipation of slaves, like Trek leader Gert Maritz. For the frontier farmers, the Ordinance meant less strict control over their servants and farm labourers. It also meant that many labourers left the farms, and many of them formed moving gangs. These plundering gangs were the first grievance Retief mentioned in his manifesto.
Many farmers believed that in the country's interior, there was land in abundance (and therefore cheap land), and most importantly, no British government. Between 1834 and 1840 about 15 000 Afrikaners left the Cape Colony permanently. They called themselves 'emigrants' and their mass-trek an 'emigration', but in the late 19th century this mass-movement became known as the Great Trek and the emigrants Voortrekkers.
Source: SA History Online
99 days since beginning of the Siege of Kimberley, 1900
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
At 3 this morning about 50 men under Colonel Peakman took up a position at the Lazaretto. Jack, with his well-known 'beach bag' was there, with one of the ambulance Corps in case of casualties. A few of our men were posted on Taylor's Kopje, close to which the Boers had been several times lately stealing iron roofing off outlying houses to make themselves splinter-proof shelters on Carter's Ridge. About 7 o'clock they discovered our movement and a very hot rifle fire ensued, one of the hottest since the night Colonel Scott-Turner was killed. However, we luckily had no casualties, but our men had to return without capturing that thieving Boer.
To console us, however, that afternoon a Boer dispatch rider on his way to Kamfersdam was caught by some of the Otto's Kopje men, and a number of letters found on him. The one about our new gun ran as follows: 'I am very glad to have been transferred here, because the day before yesterday we were still at the waterworks and were enjoying a meal when the big gun shot right in where they have never shot before. You should have seen our people run. I was busy with my sweet pap and had to leave everything behind and run. It is better here.'
There is now a new arrangement with Reuters for receiving daily or nightly messages by means of sun or flash light of at least 40 words.
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
At 3 this morning about 50 men under Colonel Peakman took up a position at the Lazaretto. Jack, with his well-known 'beach bag' was there, with one of the ambulance Corps in case of casualties. A few of our men were posted on Taylor's Kopje, close to which the Boers had been several times lately stealing iron roofing off outlying houses to make themselves splinter-proof shelters on Carter's Ridge. About 7 o'clock they discovered our movement and a very hot rifle fire ensued, one of the hottest since the night Colonel Scott-Turner was killed. However, we luckily had no casualties, but our men had to return without capturing that thieving Boer.
To console us, however, that afternoon a Boer dispatch rider on his way to Kamfersdam was caught by some of the Otto's Kopje men, and a number of letters found on him. The one about our new gun ran as follows: 'I am very glad to have been transferred here, because the day before yesterday we were still at the waterworks and were enjoying a meal when the big gun shot right in where they have never shot before. You should have seen our people run. I was busy with my sweet pap and had to leave everything behind and run. It is better here.'
There is now a new arrangement with Reuters for receiving daily or nightly messages by means of sun or flash light of at least 40 words.