Dry official prose hides a slave’s intriguing tale The way we were

GIVEN that they are 200 to 350 years old, the records of the VOC at the Cape are in reasonable condition and have escaped the irreparable damage that sometimes ruins old documents in tropical countries.

The proceedings of the local Council of Policy and the resolutions it passed have all been transcribed and digitised and are available at the website www.tanap.net/ in the original Dutch.

Intriguing stories sometimes pulsate beneath the dry official prose, but no coherent narrative emerges, despite further research. This is the case with an old slave named August of Bengal, who had been provisionally banished to Robben Island in chains in 1778 and brought back to the mainland when the Island was evacuated in the face of a possible British invasion in 1781.

Britain had declared war on the Netherlands in 1780 for showing sympathy to the Americans during their struggle for independence, and a large fleet was on its way to seize the Cape.

White convicts were allowed to redeem themselves through military service or by signing on as crew on foreign ships, but black criminals and exiles were seen as security risks and quartered in the rundown old VOC hospital in the Heerengracht under close guard.

The planned attack was thwarted by the fortunate arrival of a rival French fleet, and the burgher militia was allowed to go home in August 1781, although the war continued elsewhere until 1784. Robben Island was not immediately reoccupied, however, and the convicts were put to work in chains on fortifications and public works.

Among those labouring was August of Bengal, a slave belonging to Johanna Walters, a widow with several children who had married a younger man in 1778. This was common practice at the time, as it allowed bachelors to obtain control of the widow’s share of her deceased husband’s property and get ahead.

The bridegroom, Johannes Krynauw, (12 years her junior) did not obtain August, for he had been charged with assaulting a white man who had subsequently died, a crime that was punishable by death. The Court of Justice hesitated to pass the sentence, however, as it appeared that August had merely tried to defend himself against a vicious attack from a man who had a bad reputation. Hence his provisional banishment to Robben Island – out of sight, out of mind.

Back in town, he was far more visible, prompting Krynauw to petition the Council of Policy for his return, citing the details given above and ending with the observation that August, “being an old slave who has always in every other respect conducted himself faithfully and properly, has had sufficient punishment by having been riveted in chains for four years as a convict”.

August was released back into bondage in the winter of 1782 – hopefully (but not necessarily) a change for the better.