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Counter Power and Colonial Rule in the Eighteenth- Century Cape of Good Hope: Belongings and Protest of the Labouring Poor

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Counter Power and Colonial Rule in the Eighteenth- Century Cape of Good Hope: Belongings and Protest of the Labouring Poor Counter Power and Colonial Rule in the Eighteenth- Century Cape of Good Hope: Belongings and Protest of the Labouring Poor. Nicole Ulrich Supervisory Committee: Dr. Pamila Gupta Prof. Jonathan Hyslop Prof. Michael Titlestad A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2011 1 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any other degree or examination in any other university. Nicole Ulrich 8 day of May 2011, Johannesburg. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Lucien van der Walt for his endless support in all areas of my life (from proof reading the manuscript, to washing dishes, and taking care of all the bills during the last few months). You have always believed in me and encouraged me to follow my convictions. I love you dearly. I have also received love and support from family and friends (especially Elize, Charles, Candice, Bee, Skalk, Graham, Joyce, Dirk, Bruce, Frances, Rodney, and Nina), who have allowed me to be absent from their lives. A special thanks to my sister for stepping in and taking care of family matters when I could not. I also thank Michael Schmidt, Mandy Moussouris, Jon Payne and James Pendlebury, Warren McGregor, and Sian Byrne for keeping the Red and Black flag flying. This research would not have been possible without the support of the broader research community. I learned a great deal from my supervisors, Pamila Gupta, Jon Hyslop, and Michael Titlestad. They provided gentle and patient intellectual guidance, whilst allowing me to chart my own course. I appreciate that they were always available, quick to respond to drafts, and advised me on a range of academic issues, not just the thesis. I have had the good fortune of interacting with a number of leading intellectuals who are also generous teachers. Philip Bonner taught me to love history. I also thank James Armstrong, David Featherstone, Marcus Rediker, Marcel van der Linden, and Nigel Worden for their encouragement and interest in my work. Jentina Frahm-Arp fitted me into her busy teaching schedule and patiently taught me Dutch, allowing me to access the Cape’s early colonial archive. A special thanks to Adila Deshmukh, Najhiba Deshmukh, and Josephine Mashaba for their kindness, and for negotiating the Wits bureaucracy on my behalf. Together with Dr Ashlee Neser, they helped me (and everyone else) weather the institutional storm. I appreciate the friendship of Helen Ludlow and Gerald Groenewald, who are also students of the early colonial Cape. I also learned a great deal from other WISER 3 PhD fellows: Annie Leatt, Cobi Labuscagne, Zethu Matebeni, Syned Mthatiwa, Euclides Gonçalves, and Peter Phiri. This work would not have been possible without the assistance of the Western Cape Provincial Archive, especially Mr E. Kenny, for helping me negotiate all the red-tape, and Ms E. le Roux, who ensured that I received a huge bulk of photocopies speedily. I should also thank Muareen Rall for her excellent transcription of CJ files. The staff of the British Library, and the UK National Archive were also very helpful, as was James Higgins for his photocopying from a distance. Special thanks to the staff at Wits Interlibrary-loan Department who sourced material for me from various parts of the globe. One of the most rewarding experiences during my studies was attending a SEPHIS-funded workshop on Indian Ocean Studies, organised and hosted by Dr. Lakshmi Subramanian (Jamia Milli Islamia, ATWS, Delhi). I learned from all those who participated, and I am indebted to Rupali Warke for her friendship and for showing me around the city. Last, but by no means least, this thesis would not have been possible without a fellowship funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, awarded to me by the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER). The WISER staff- Deborah Posel (previous Director), Irma du Plessis, Liz Gunner, Julia Hornberger, Achille Mbembe, Sarah Nuttall, Tom Odhiambo, and Graeme Reid- commented extensively on my work and of the work of fellow PhD students. They must be praised for pioneering an innovative interdisciplinary programme that provides PhD students with desperately needed financial, intellectual, administrative, and institutional support. Thanks to Prof. Belinda Bozzoli, Acting Director of WISER, for sustaining the programme and for her encouragement. 4 ABSTRACT Framed by an anarchist reading of Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker’s The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (2000), this study examines the dynamic nature of colonial and class rule in the eighteenth-century Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, and the forms of belonging and traditions of political protest developed by the labouring poor. This study draws on archival material from national and international repositories, focusing on government records, criminal court trials, and travellers’ accounts. Colonial rule, the under-class, and resistance in the Cape are located in a global context, with special attention being paid to changes associated with the ‘Age of Revolution and War’ and rise of the modern world. Breaking with the tendency to treat different sections of the motley (many-hued) labouring poor in the Cape as discreet, often racially defined, and nationally bounded population groups, segmented also by legal status, this study provides a comprehensive study of labour in the Cape that includes an examination of slaves, servants, sailors, and soldiers recruited, or imported from, Asia, Europe, and other parts of Africa. I contest the established approaches to under-class resistance. In place of a socially fragmented labouring poor, solely engaged in ‘informal’, individualized, and uncoordinated resistance, this study reveals the spatially stretched and inclusive connections created by the labouring poor across gender, nation, race and status, which underpinned modes of protest that were confrontational, and often collective, in nature, including desertion, insurrection, mutiny, strikes, and arson. In spite of the harsh regime of class and colonial control developed under VOC rule, the labouring poor forged notable class solidarities. The Cape Colony was influenced by two interrelated political processes unleashed by the Age of Revolution and War, including the global spread of radical political ideas, and the modernisation and strengthening of the European imperial states. The labouring poor in the Cape was also infected by and contributed to a radical consciousness of freedom and rights, leading to the 1797 naval mutinies, the (1799-1803) Servant Rebellion, and the 1808 Revolt. New political strategies and 5 identities emerged, and under-class struggles contributed both to the decline of the VOC, and to the adoption of reforms and a new ethos of governance that altered relations between masters, the labouring poor, and the state. This study is critical of ‘new cultural history’, which entrenches an economistic understanding of class, and detaches the study of identities from larger social structures and processes. To deepen our understanding of class, this study draws on left critiques of Marxism, especially anarchist ideas, which highlight the links between class and state-making, citizenship, and the law. This helps contest the often false distinctions drawn between the ‘economic’ and ‘cultural’ elements of class and inequality. 6 CONTENTS Introduction 10 Consciousness and Transformation 13 The Many Headed Hydra as a Model 16 The Eighteenth-Century Cape Colony in a Changing World 18 Class, the State, and Resistance 21 Critiquing Class 22 Direct Action 24 Rule and Resistance in the Cape Colony 27 Methodology 31 Along and Against the Archival Grain 32 Courts Records 34 Travel Accounts 38 A Note on Interpretation 44 Chapter Outline 46 Chapter One: Merchant Colonialism: Colonial and Class Rule 48 The Political Economy of Merchant Colonialism 51 A Flat and Open Society 58 The VOC and Regimes of Violence 63 Formation and Character 63 The VOC Empire 66 Regimes of Labour 67 African Conquest 72 Refreshment Station 73 Ideologies of Conquest 76 Early forms of Labour 79 7 The Cape Colony 81 Economies, Labour, and Colonial Expansion 82 Political Institutions and Labour Relations 91 Summary 96 Chapter Two: Counter Culture: Belongings and Community of the Labouring Poor 100 Class, Belongings, and Community 102 Autonomy and Mobility 108 Family Ties 111 Fellowship 123 Alternative Social Networks and Communities 132 Mutual Aid 136 Summary 140 Chapter Three: Direct Action: Surveying the Protest of the Labouring Poor 142 Teleology and Binaries of Resistance 143 Resistance in the Cape 148 Towards a New Approach 151 The Limits of Reform 155 Withholding Labour 157 Desertion 159 Arson 164 Threats of Violence and Attack 168 Insurgency 175 The Barbier Rebellion 176 Armed Anti-Colonial Rebellion 177 8 Mass Desertion and Mutiny 179 Strikes 182 Summary 184 Chapter Four: The Making of Modern Imperialism: Reconfiguring Colonial and Class Rule during the ‘Age of Revolution and War’. 187 Global Transformation 189 Local Change 191 Decline of Merchant Colonialism 194 Global Crisis and Dutch Decline 195 Reform and Labour at the Cape 197 Enlightenment, Free Trade and Republicanism 199 The Labouring
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