Barend Petrus van der Merwe (1794 - 1840)

Born 7 Sep 1794 in Land van Waveren, Cabo de Goede Hoop

Ancestors

Husband of Hester Johanna Cornelia (Hugo) van der Merwe — married 20 Dec 1818 in Tulbagh, Cape Colony, South Africa

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Cape of Good Hope Project WikiTree [send private message] and Christiaan Liebenberg [send private message]

Barend Petrus van der Merwe was part of the settlement of the Dutch Cape Colony. Join: Cape of Good Hope - Kaap de Goede Hoop (1652-1806) Project Discuss: dutch_cape_colony

Biography

Name

Barend Petrus van der Merwe^[1]

Birth

Date: in 1794^[2] / about 1800^[1]

Parents: He was the son of Petrus van der Merwe and Elsje Lubbe.^[2]

Baptism

1794 Oct 19

Barend Petrus

Baptised: 1794, den 19 October

Father: Petrus van der merwe

Mother: Elsje Lubbe

Witnesses: Philippus Du Plaijsies & Maria Magdalena Heijburg Barend Pienaar & Anna Sophia van heerden Schalk Willem Du Toit & hester Sicilia burger ^[3]

Death

Date: in 1840^[2] / before 1852^[1]

Slave Revolt of Galant at Houdenbek

The 1825 slave revolt at Houdenbek^[4] was lead by Galant from Houdenbek, this farm was the flashpoint of the revolt. Adam and Claas came from Barend's farm, and were caught and and prosecuted, even executed or punished with lifelong forced labour. Barend and his wife fled just in time, to the neighbouring farm "Modder vallei" of Isaac Willem van der Merwe. (For details about his slaves involved in the revolt, or witness at the trial, see below, as they are listed in the slave register.)

The story was the basis of André Brink's novel "Houdenbek", in which he made clear parallels between the past and the times of Apartheid in the 1980's. Of course his book is not 100% factual, as that would be impossible.

Not far away, in the old Drostdy of Tulbagh, lived Thomas Heatlie, whose life is described by his great-grandson C.H. Heatlie in "The first three generations of Heatlies in South Africa"^[5]. In this book, we can read letters from Thomas to the authorities, complaining about their handling of the looming abolition of slavery, which according to him caused the slaves to become impatient and get into this rebellious state. He himself was considered a 'troublemaker', and fined, for setting up a petition to request authorities for a certain newspaper to be allowed to be distributed in Tulbagh.

Slave Ownership

In 1816, Governor Lord Charles Somerset instituted Slave Registers by District^[6]. We unambiguously find that "Barend Petrus van der Merwe, Petrus' son" with 19 slaves registered in the Tulbagh Slave Registers, Ledger M, Folio 78^[7]. Some of these slaves were implicated in the Houdenbek Slave Revolt of 1825, tried in court at Worcester, and two were punished with death, or lifelong forced labour. Here his slaves, listing registration date, name, birth estimate, sex+mother, country, occupation:

1. 1819-08-05 Cupido ~1793-08-05 male, Cape, Labourer, 1825-01-07 to Pieter Jacobus de Vos
2. 1819-08-05 Claas ~1791-08-05 male, Cape, Labourer
3. 1819-08-05 Abel ~1801-08-05 male Cape, Labourer
4. 1819-08-05 Goliath ~1801-08-05 male Cape, Labourer
5. 1819-08-05 Jannetje ~1802-08-05 female Cape, Housemaid
6. 1820-11-27 Eva ~1796-11-27 female Cape, Housemaid
7. 1823-12-02 Styn ~1804-06-02 female Cape, Housemaid
8. 1823-12-02 Joël 1822-08-12 son of Styn, Cape
9. 1825-06-06 Diana 1825-04-13 daughter of Styn, Cape
10. 1826-04-27 Jephta 1826-03-10 son of Jannetje, Cape
11. 1827-12-03 Vondeling 1827-11-29 son of Styn, Cape
12. 1829-01-24 Adonis ~1801-01-24 male, Cape, Labourer
13. 1829-03-05 September ~1776-09-05, male, Bougies, Mason
14. 1829-03-05 Jacob ~1811-04-05, male, Cape
15. 1829-06-12 Abraham ~1789-03-12, male, Mosambique, Labourer
16. 1831-06-16 Apollos ~ 1767-06-16, male, Mosambique, Labourer
17. 1832-07-18 Sina 1832-05-05 daughter of Jannetje, Cape
18. 1834-11-03 Absalon 1834-09-14 son of Jannetje, Cape
19. 1834-11-03 Victorie 1834-10-29 son of Styn, Cape

The first five slaves, Cupido, Claas, Abel, Goliath, Jannetje, where bought from his father Piet Lakenvlei at the price of 3000 Riksdaalders, which apparently was a special family deal. The register says that is Barend Petrus would die before his father, or if he would misbehave towards his father, the slaves could be requested back, at the same price of 3000.

The slaves Claas and Abel were active in the Houdenbek revolt, and actually attacked their master. Abel was even executed, and his head was exposed at Kopjeshoogte along the road from Ceres via Elandshoogte uitspan to Citrusdal.

On 7 Jan 1825, Cupido, the first slave was sold to Pieter Jacobus de Vos of the farm "De Doorns" in the Hex River valley. Barend Petrus mentions this as witness at the Houdenbek trial in Worcester, talking about his other slave, the prisoner Abel: Everything which the prisoner states is false. I treat my people well, and if I did not do so they would no doubt have complained. Goliath once did so, but could not shew any mark as was noted down. Another of my Slaves, named Cupido, I sold because he always vexed me. The Landdrost would have given him a flogging, but I did not wish it, because he was not right well, besides I believed that he had been instigated. I had only one Hottentot, of the name of Uit- haalder, who made a complaint to the Landdrost, and the Landdrost sent him away, but he did not come back to me. One of the children may perhaps have run away from me, but I never took any trouble to go in search of him, because it was too troublesome and cost me too much time. Once, I think it is about three years ago, the prisoner Abel, the above- mentioned Cupido, and three others ran away through mere wantonness they were not far off, but would not come near the house, on which I frightened them with my gun that I just then had with me, in order to make them come back, but I did not take aim at them. They had reaped the corn badly that day, and because I reproved them for it, they would not come to the house.

Research Notes

• Barend Petrus says as witness at the Houdenbek Trial in Worcester that a farm nearby is owned by his uncle Piet van der Merwe^[8]:

When we came to the height between Wm. van der Merwe’s place and mine, we saw the villains riding over my land in the direction to the place of my uncle Petrus van der Merwe.

Since the farm survey diagrams of many farms nearby list "Piet van der Merwe Senior", ie. Piet Lakenvlei, his father, as owner .. some explanation is needed. What did he mean by uncle? Was there a misunderstanding with the clerk writing down what Barend said? If one of these farms was owned by an uncle called Piet ... van der Merwe, who was it, and which farm is it? A first step would be to get clear which of the farms was operated (owned?) by Barend Petrus himself. His farm is quite likely one of the many with a survey diagram indicating "Piet van der Merwe senior" as owner, and this may also be true for his 'uncle Piet'.

An interesting possibility would be that this 'uncle Piet' might coincide with the mysterious 'Piet Corporal' mentioned a few times in the trial's report, likely without his proper surname.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} WikiTree profile Van_der_Merwe-3641 created by Salome (Smit) Truter 20 Apr 2019. Source:
   • Death Notice of spouse - "South Africa, Cape Province, Probate Records of the Master of the High Court, 1834-1989," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DB5S-Z44?cc=2517051&wc=WVWM-9J3%3A1598032348 : 11 October 2018), 004433417 > image 1431 of 2173; Pietermaritzburg Archives (Formerly Natal State Archives), South Africa.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Unsourced family tree handed down to Christiaan Liebenberg.
3. ↑ Source: The Genealogical Society of South Africa: eGSSA branch, South African Records Transcribed. A selection of historical records transcriptions (http://www.eggsa.org/sarecords/ : accessed 31 Aug 2018), Source: Nederduits Gereformeerde Gemeente (NGK), Tulbagh, Baptism register, 1743 to 2 Feb 1800, page 321, entry number 103. Repository: NG Kerkargief, Noordwal-Wes, Stellenbosch, G4 7/1. Transcribed by Lynn Couperthwaite, Trysie Joubert, Richard Ball as part of the eGGSA Project, from VC 657, Cape Archives Repository Seen and added by Gordon Mac Rae 13 Jan, 2019.
4. ↑ Houdenbek Slave Revolt
5. ↑ Space:C.H. Heatlie: The first three generations of Heatlies in South Africa
6. ↑ Slavery at the Cape, and how to access the Slave Registers of 1816-38. Slave Owners and Slaves in South Africa
7. ↑ Slave Register of Tulbagh, ledger M(erwe), Folio 78, Barend Petrus van der Merwe, Petrus' son
8. ↑ p 263 in the report as passed down in vol 20 of George McCall Theal's series of administrative documents