Cape of Torments

Download or read book Cape of Torments written by Robert Ross and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-21 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cape of Torments, first published in 1983, is a detailed examination of slavery in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. It describes the reactions of the slaves to their conditions of slavery, concentrating on those aspects of their lives which their masters considered criminal, and above all on the large numbers of occasions when slaves ran away in an attempt to start a new life elsewhere. The book examines Cape society and slave organization; the complex relations between slaves and the other groups of population at the Cape – Khoisan, Xhosa, Sotho-Tswana, Dutch East India Co servants and sailors – and the opportunities for escape; major uprisings and rebellions. The major theme of the book is the extent to which the Cape slaves were able to build a culture of their own, and the legacy of slavery to their descendants in modern South Africa.