Baptism gave children of VOC-owned slaves hope

THERE was no religious tolerance during the century-and-a-half that the VOC was in charge of the Cape. Dutch Calvinism was the only form of Christianity permitted until 1780, when the German Lutherans gained some traction. Catholicism and non-Christian observances were strictly prohibited prior to 1804.

The VOC didn’t neglect the religious needs of its employees, however. Hundreds of paid DRC ministers were deployed throughout its extensive colonial empire, but it didn’t encourage missionary activity among indigenous populations.

Slaves were another matter, and the children of those employed by the Company in Cape Town were baptised within seven days of birth and had a far better religious and secular education from infancy to the age of 12 than many settler children, particularly those in the country districts.

The intake of school-going children at the Slave Lodge was never large and they were taught by intelligent slave matrons and schoolmasters who valued the privileges that went with their jobs.

There were few extra advantages for scholars, apart from the fact that, as Christian Dutch-language speakers, they were eligible for manumission, should they be lucky enough to find someone to pay for their release.

The hundreds of slave children owned by burghers and officials in their private capacities did not enjoy similar educational benefits. Decisions about baptism were left to their employers, many of whom harboured unfounded suspicions that baptised slaves could never be sold.

The number of private slave baptisms in the old Groote Kerk was therefore small (usually fewer than a dozen a year) and appears to have been limited to children belonging to the more affluent members of Cape society.

Their hopes in life probably centred on manumission following the departure or death of their owners or the generosity of free relatives – or – in the case of women – the chance of finding a marriage partner who would purchase their freedom.

A few mature slaves were given religious instruction and baptised at the behest of owners like Simon van der Stel, commander from 1679 and governor from 1691. More than 20 of his personal adult slaves were baptised during the months following his retirement in 1699, including Willem of Batavia, Bastiaan, Tobias and Rudolphus of Bengal, Jafeth of Ternate, Noach and Elonora of Madagascar and Jan of Angola.

This may have been prompted by Van der Stel’s ancestry – he was the grandson of a former Indian slave named Monica of Goa, and was therefore of mixed blood.

It’s not clear how much influence slave parents had in the choice of their infants’ names, but they tended to follow Dutch norms and were an improvement on the classical, derogatory or facetious names that were arbitrarily assigned to new slaves.

Favourites in 1714 included Rosetta, Maria, Sara, Amelia, Cornelia, Jacobus, Judocus, Willem and David, all “of the Cape”, of course.