| Slachter's Nek Rebellion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Boer rebels |  Cape Colony | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Johannes Bezuidenhout † [1] | Jacob Cuyler | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~200 [1] | ~300 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 killed 5 executed | None | ||||||
The Slachter's Nek Rebellion [a] was an uprising against the British colonial government by Boers in 1815 on the eastern border of the Cape Colony. [3]
In 1815 a farmer from the eastern border of the Cape Colony, Frederik Bezuidenhout was summoned to appear before a magistrate's court after repeated allegations of mistreating one of his Khoi labourers. Bezuidenhout resisted arrest and fled to a cave near his home, where he defended himself against the Coloured soldiers sent to capture him. When he refused to surrender, he was shot dead by one of the soldiers. [4] [1]
Hendrik Prinsloo, along with a neighbour Hans Bezuidenhout organised an uprising against the British colonial authority, which was believed, by the Boers (Afrikaner farmers) to be hostile towards themselves and to favour Blacks and Coloureds above the Afrikaner farmers. The Boers also had more than 3,600 cattle stolen and felt the British were not doing enough to protect them from the attacks by the Xhosa. [5] On 18 November a commando of rebels met an armed force sent by Colonel Jacob Cuyler, the military commander and Landdrost (magistrate) on the eastern borders, at Slachter's Nek.[ citation needed ]
Negotiations failed, and the majority of the rebels left without any shots being fired. Twenty rebels surrendered, followed by several more over the following few days. However, some of the leaders, among whom was Hans Bezuidenhout, refused to turn themselves over to the authorities. On 29 November, they were attacked by colonial troops. Everybody but Bezuidenhout and his family surrendered, and like his brother, Hans died while resisting arrest. [4]
The rebels were tried at Uitenhage.
Some were acquitted, but six of the rebels were sentenced to death, one of whom was subsequently pardoned by the Governor. On 9 March 1816, the remaining five were hanged in public at Van Aardtspos. Four of the nooses broke during the procedure and the still living convicts, together with many spectators, pleaded for their lives, but the executioner ordered them to be hanged a second time. [4]
The rebellion and the consequent executions of the rebels have acquired special significance among contemporary South African historians as the beginning of an Afrikaner struggle against British colonial rule. [10]
Boers are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch Cape Colony, which the United Kingdom incorporated into the British Empire in 1806. The name of the group is derived from Trekboer then later "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans.
The Great Trek was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial administration. The Great Trek resulted from the culmination of tensions between rural descendants of the Cape's original European settlers, known collectively as Boers, and the British. It was also reflective of an increasingly common trend among individual Boer communities to pursue an isolationist and semi-nomadic lifestyle away from the developing administrative complexities in Cape Town. Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves as voortrekkers, meaning "pioneers" or "pathfinders" in Dutch and Afrikaans.
The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, D. H. C. du Plessis and the Rev. Jozua Naudé in 1918 as Jong Zuid Afrika until 1920, when it was renamed the Broederbond. Its influence within South African political and social life came to a climax with the 1948-1994 rule of the white supremacist National Party and its policy of apartheid, which was largely developed and implemented by Broederbond members. Between 1948 and 1994, many prominent figures of Afrikaner political, cultural, and religious life, including every leader of the South African government, were members of the Afrikaner Broederbond.
The Trekboers were nomadic pastoralists descended from European colonists on the frontiers of the Dutch Cape Colony in Southern Africa. The Trekboers began migrating into the interior from the areas surrounding what is now Cape Town, such as Paarl, Stellenbosch, and Franschhoek, during the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century.
The Volksraad of the South African Republic was the parliament of the former South African Republic (ZAR), it existed from 1840 to 1877, and from 1881 to 1902 in part of what is now South Africa. The body ceased to exist after the British Empire's victory in the Second Anglo-Boer War. The Volksraad sat in session in Ou Raadsaal in Church Square, Pretoria.
Ohrigstad, formerly Andries Ohrig Stad, is a small town to the north of Lydenburg in the Limpopo province, South Africa.
Uys is the surname of a family that played a significant role in South African history during the nineteenth century and made distinguished contributions to South African culture, politics and sports during the course of the twentieth.
Many people of European heritage in South Africa are descended from Huguenots. Most of these originally settled in the Dutch Cape Colony, but were absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans-speaking population, because they had religious similarities to the Dutch colonists.
Prinsloo is an Afrikaans surname.
Cornelis Frederik Bezuidenhout as a frontier farmer in the eastern Cape Colony whose death in a skirmish with Khoi soldiers, who had been sent to arrest him, was the origin of the Slagtersnek Rebellion which reached its dramatic finale on 9 March 1816 under the gallows at Van Aardspos, twelve miles south of Slagtersnek.
The Groote Kerk is a Dutch Reformed church in Cape Town, South Africa. The church is South Africa's oldest place of Christian worship. The first church on this land was built in 1678. Willem Adriaan van der Stel laid the cornerstone for the church. It was replaced by the present building in 1841 built by Herman Schuette and the original tower was retained. The pulpit is the work of Anton Anreith and the carpenter Jacob Graaff, and was inaugurated on 29 November 1789. The Groote Kerk lays claim to housing South Africa's largest church organ, which was installed in 1954
Jacob Glen Cuyler was an American of Dutch origin who was an important character in the settlement of the British 1820 Settlers to the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Johannes Jacobus Janse van Rensburg was a leader of one of the early Voortrekker groups. His entire group of 51 people was massacred by an 'impi' of Manukosi near Inhambane. Only his two children were spared, as a result of an intervention by another Zulu warrior. Included in the party was Nicholaas Balthasar Prinsloo, who was a Slagtersnek rebel, his wife, Petronella Maria Krugel/Kruger and their family.
Bezuidenhout may refer to:
Marthinus Prinsloo was the President of the Republic of Graaff-Reinet from 1795 to 1796 when the British seized the Dutch Cape Colony.
Frederik Jacobus Potgieter was a Boer commander in the Second Boer War. He is also referred to as Frederik Johannes Potgieter.
The Burgersdorp Reformed Church is the oldest congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa, formerly the Cape Province. It was founded on 21 January 1860, about 11 months after the Church's foundation in Rustenburg on 11 February 1859.
Hendrik Frederik Prinsloo was a Second Boer War commander of the Carolina Commando for the South African Republic who fought and prevailed at the Battle of Spion Kop. His son and namesake Hendrik Frederik Prinsloo (1890–1966) served as an officer in the South African Army in both World War I and World War II.
The Dutch Reformed Church in Tarkastad is the 23rd congregationof the Dutch Reformed Church that was founded in the present Synod of Eastern Cape, but currently (2015) it is the 19th oldest congregation because the congregations Middelburg, Komga, Greykerk and Alice, which are all older if Tarkastad was, no longer exists.
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