Midwives and medical men in the Cape colony before 1860

Journal of African History

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 271-292

  Deacon, Harriet ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0347570121     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853798007191     Document Type: Article

References (134)

1. Unless otherwise indicated, all archival references are to holdings in the Cape Archives Depot in Cape Town, South Africa. Funding for the research for this paper was provided by the Oppenheimer Fund, the Wellcome Trust and The Queen's College, Oxford. Thanks for comments on this paper to Anne Digby, Helen Bradford and Steven Feierman. The standard work on midwives is C. Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing in South Africa, 1652-1960 (Cape Town, 1965), 56-8, 92-107. A useful account is P. J. Venter, 'Die eerste vroedkundeskool in Suid Afrika', South African Medical Journal, 23 March 1935, 180-90, See also M. Naude, 'The Ladies' Branch of the Free Dispensary -maternity care in Cape Town', Cabo, IV (1988), 5-10; and D. H. Edgecornbe, 'The letters of Hannah Dennison, 1820 settler, 1820-1847' (M.A. thesis, Rhodes University, 1968). Recent research includes C. Burns, 'Reproductive labors: the politics of women's health in South Africa, 1900-1960' (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1995), chs. 1, 3 and 6.
2. Unless otherwise indicated, all archival references are to holdings in the Cape Archives Depot in Cape Town, South Africa. Funding for the research for this paper was provided by the Oppenheimer Fund, the Wellcome Trust and The Queen's College, Oxford. Thanks for comments on this paper to Anne Digby, Helen Bradford and Steven Feierman. The standard work on midwives is C. Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing in South Africa, 1652-1960 (Cape Town, 1965), 56-8, 92-107. A useful account is P. J. Venter, 'Die eerste vroedkundeskool in Suid Afrika', South African Medical Journal, 23 March 1935, 180-90, See also M. Naude, 'The Ladies' Branch of the Free Dispensary -maternity care in Cape Town', Cabo, IV (1988), 5-10; and D. H. Edgecornbe, 'The letters of Hannah Dennison, 1820 settler, 1820-1847' (M.A. thesis, Rhodes University, 1968). Recent research includes C. Burns, 'Reproductive labors: the politics of women's health in South Africa, 1900-1960' (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1995), chs. 1, 3 and 6.
3. Unless otherwise indicated, all archival references are to holdings in the Cape Archives Depot in Cape Town, South Africa. Funding for the research for this paper was provided by the Oppenheimer Fund, the Wellcome Trust and The Queen's College, Oxford. Thanks for comments on this paper to Anne Digby, Helen Bradford and Steven Feierman. The standard work on midwives is C. Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing in South Africa, 1652-1960 (Cape Town, 1965), 56-8, 92-107. A useful account is P. J. Venter, 'Die eerste vroedkundeskool in Suid Afrika', South African Medical Journal, 23 March 1935, 180-90, See also M. Naude, 'The Ladies' Branch of the Free Dispensary -maternity care in Cape Town', Cabo, IV (1988), 5-10; and D. H. Edgecornbe, 'The letters of Hannah Dennison, 1820 settler, 1820-1847' (M.A. thesis, Rhodes University, 1968). Recent research includes C. Burns, 'Reproductive labors: the politics of women's health in South Africa, 1900-1960' (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1995), chs. 1, 3 and 6.
4. Unless otherwise indicated, all archival references are to holdings in the Cape Archives Depot in Cape Town, South Africa. Funding for the research for this paper was provided by the Oppenheimer Fund, the Wellcome Trust and The Queen's College, Oxford. Thanks for comments on this paper to Anne Digby, Helen Bradford and Steven Feierman. The standard work on midwives is C. Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing in South Africa, 1652-1960 (Cape Town, 1965), 56-8, 92-107. A useful account is P. J. Venter, 'Die eerste vroedkundeskool in Suid Afrika', South African Medical Journal, 23 March 1935, 180-90, See also M. Naude, 'The Ladies' Branch of the Free Dispensary -maternity care in Cape Town', Cabo, IV (1988), 5-10; and D. H. Edgecornbe, 'The letters of Hannah Dennison, 1820 settler, 1820-1847' (M.A. thesis, Rhodes University, 1968). Recent research includes C. Burns, 'Reproductive labors: the politics of women's health in South Africa, 1900-1960' (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1995), chs. 1, 3 and 6.
5. Unless otherwise indicated, all archival references are to holdings in the Cape Archives Depot in Cape Town, South Africa. Funding for the research for this paper was provided by the Oppenheimer Fund, the Wellcome Trust and The Queen's College, Oxford. Thanks for comments on this paper to Anne Digby, Helen Bradford and Steven Feierman. The standard work on midwives is C. Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing in South Africa, 1652-1960 (Cape Town, 1965), 56-8, 92-107. A useful account is P. J. Venter, 'Die eerste vroedkundeskool in Suid Afrika', South African Medical Journal, 23 March 1935, 180-90, See also M. Naude, 'The Ladies' Branch of the Free Dispensary -maternity care in Cape Town', Cabo, IV (1988), 5-10; and D. H. Edgecornbe, 'The letters of Hannah Dennison, 1820 settler, 1820-1847' (M.A. thesis, Rhodes University, 1968). Recent research includes C. Burns, 'Reproductive labors: the politics of women's health in South Africa, 1900-1960' (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1995), chs. 1, 3 and 6.
6. E.g. S. Marks, Divided Sisterhood : The Nursing Profession and the Making of Apartheid in South Africa (London, 1994) and E. van Heyningen, 'The social evil in the Cape Colony 1868-1902: prostitution and the Contagious Diseases Acts', J. Southern Afr. Studies, x (1984), 170-97.
7. E.g. S. Marks, Divided Sisterhood : The Nursing Profession and the Making of Apartheid in South Africa (London, 1994) and E. van Heyningen, 'The social evil in the Cape Colony 1868-1902: prostitution and the Contagious Diseases Acts', J. Southern Afr. Studies, x (1984), 170-97.
8. For example, H. Bradford, 'Her body, her life: 150 years of abortion in South Africa', paper presented at the conference 'Women and Gender in Southern Africa', University of Natal, 1991; P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993); D, Gaitskell, 'Housewives, maids or mothers: some contradictions of domesticity for Christian women in Johannesburg, 1903-39', J- Afr. Hist. xxiv (1983), 241-56; C. Walker, 'Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth-century South Africa',. Southern Afr. Studies, XXI (1995), 417-37; P- Scully, 'Rape, race and colonial culture: the sexual politics of identity in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony, South Africa', Amer. Hist. Rev., c (1995), 335-59; S. Klausen, 'The eugenic discourse of motherhood in The South African Medical Record, 1903-1926', paper presented at the Gender and Colonialism conference, University of the Western Cape, January 1997.
9. For example, H. Bradford, 'Her body, her life: 150 years of abortion in South Africa', paper presented at the conference 'Women and Gender in Southern Africa', University of Natal, 1991; P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993); D, Gaitskell, 'Housewives, maids or mothers: some contradictions of domesticity for Christian women in Johannesburg, 1903-39', J- Afr. Hist. xxiv (1983), 241-56; C. Walker, 'Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth-century South Africa',. Southern Afr. Studies, XXI (1995), 417-37; P- Scully, 'Rape, race and colonial culture: the sexual politics of identity in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony, South Africa', Amer. Hist. Rev., c (1995), 335-59; S. Klausen, 'The eugenic discourse of motherhood in The South African Medical Record, 1903-1926', paper presented at the Gender and Colonialism conference, University of the Western Cape, January 1997.
10. For example, H. Bradford, 'Her body, her life: 150 years of abortion in South Africa', paper presented at the conference 'Women and Gender in Southern Africa', University of Natal, 1991; P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993); D, Gaitskell, 'Housewives, maids or mothers: some contradictions of domesticity for Christian women in Johannesburg, 1903-39', J- Afr. Hist. xxiv (1983), 241-56; C. Walker, 'Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth-century South Africa',. Southern Afr. Studies, XXI (1995), 417-37; P- Scully, 'Rape, race and colonial culture: the sexual politics of identity in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony, South Africa', Amer. Hist. Rev., c (1995), 335-59; S. Klausen, 'The eugenic discourse of motherhood in The South African Medical Record, 1903-1926', paper presented at the Gender and Colonialism conference, University of the Western Cape, January 1997.
11. For example, H. Bradford, 'Her body, her life: 150 years of abortion in South Africa', paper presented at the conference 'Women and Gender in Southern Africa', University of Natal, 1991; P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993); D, Gaitskell, 'Housewives, maids or mothers: some contradictions of domesticity for Christian women in Johannesburg, 1903-39', J- Afr. Hist. xxiv (1983), 241-56; C. Walker, 'Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth-century South Africa',. Southern Afr. Studies, XXI (1995), 417-37; P- Scully, 'Rape, race and colonial culture: the sexual politics of identity in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony, South Africa', Amer. Hist. Rev., c (1995), 335-59; S. Klausen, 'The eugenic discourse of motherhood in The South African Medical Record, 1903-1926', paper presented at the Gender and Colonialism conference, University of the Western Cape, January 1997.
12. For example, H. Bradford, 'Her body, her life: 150 years of abortion in South Africa', paper presented at the conference 'Women and Gender in Southern Africa', University of Natal, 1991; P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993); D, Gaitskell, 'Housewives, maids or mothers: some contradictions of domesticity for Christian women in Johannesburg, 1903-39', J- Afr. Hist. xxiv (1983), 241-56; C. Walker, 'Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth-century South Africa',. Southern Afr. Studies, XXI (1995), 417-37; P- Scully, 'Rape, race and colonial culture: the sexual politics of identity in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony, South Africa', Amer. Hist. Rev., c (1995), 335-59; S. Klausen, 'The eugenic discourse of motherhood in The South African Medical Record, 1903-1926', paper presented at the Gender and Colonialism conference, University of the Western Cape, January 1997.
13. For example, H. Bradford, 'Her body, her life: 150 years of abortion in South Africa', paper presented at the conference 'Women and Gender in Southern Africa', University of Natal, 1991; P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993); D, Gaitskell, 'Housewives, maids or mothers: some contradictions of domesticity for Christian women in Johannesburg, 1903-39', J- Afr. Hist. xxiv (1983), 241-56; C. Walker, 'Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth-century South Africa',. Southern Afr. Studies, XXI (1995), 417-37; P- Scully, 'Rape, race and colonial culture: the sexual politics of identity in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony, South Africa', Amer. Hist. Rev., c (1995), 335-59; S. Klausen, 'The eugenic discourse of motherhood in The South African Medical Record, 1903-1926', paper presented at the Gender and Colonialism conference, University of the Western Cape, January 1997.
14. See, for example, A. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery : Childbirth in England 1660-1770 (London, 1995); J. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men : A History of the Struggle for the Control of Childbirth (New Barnet, 1988) ; J. W. Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (Oxford, 1986); J. B. Donegan, 'Midwifery in America 1760-1860 : a study in medicine and morality ', (Ph.D. thesis, Syracuse University, 1972). See also, H. Marland and A. M. Rafferty (eds.), Midwives, Society and Childbirth : Debates and Controversies in the Modern Period (London, 1997).
15. See, for example, A. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery : Childbirth in England 1660-1770 (London, 1995); J. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men : A History of the Struggle for the Control of Childbirth (New Barnet, 1988) ; J. W. Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (Oxford, 1986); J. B. Donegan, 'Midwifery in America 1760-1860 : a study in medicine and morality ', (Ph.D. thesis, Syracuse University, 1972). See also, H. Marland and A. M. Rafferty (eds.), Midwives, Society and Childbirth : Debates and Controversies in the Modern Period (London, 1997).
16. See, for example, A. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery : Childbirth in England 1660-1770 (London, 1995); J. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men : A History of the Struggle for the Control of Childbirth (New Barnet, 1988) ; J. W. Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (Oxford, 1986); J. B. Donegan, 'Midwifery in America 1760-1860 : a study in medicine and morality ', (Ph.D. thesis, Syracuse University, 1972). See also, H. Marland and A. M. Rafferty (eds.), Midwives, Society and Childbirth : Debates and Controversies in the Modern Period (London, 1997).
17. See, for example, A. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery : Childbirth in England 1660-1770 (London, 1995); J. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men : A History of the Struggle for the Control of Childbirth (New Barnet, 1988) ; J. W. Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (Oxford, 1986); J. B. Donegan, 'Midwifery in America 1760-1860 : a study in medicine and morality ', (Ph.D. thesis, Syracuse University, 1972). See also, H. Marland and A. M. Rafferty (eds.), Midwives, Society and Childbirth : Debates and Controversies in the Modern Period (London, 1997).
18. See, for example, A. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery : Childbirth in England 1660-1770 (London, 1995); J. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men : A History of the Struggle for the Control of Childbirth (New Barnet, 1988) ; J. W. Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (Oxford, 1986); J. B. Donegan, 'Midwifery in America 1760-1860 : a study in medicine and morality ', (Ph.D. thesis, Syracuse University, 1972). See also, H. Marland and A. M. Rafferty (eds.), Midwives, Society and Childbirth : Debates and Controversies in the Modern Period (London, 1997).
19. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men, 45.
20. C. Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (London, 1844), 302.
21. L. T. Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale : The Life of Martha Ballard, based on her Diary, 1785-1812 (New York, 1991), 47-8.
22. M. Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic (New York, 1973).
23. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery, 3-4.
24. Ibid.
25. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men, 21.
26. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery, 4, 97-8.
27. H. Marland (ed.), The Art of Midwifery : Early Modern Midwives in Europe (London, 1993), 6.
28. See, for example, the Chiappini case records mentioned below.
29. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery, 185.
30. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men, 22.
31. On regional diversity within Britain, see also Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery, 200.
32. Donegan, 'Midwifery in America', 116.
33. M. J. van Lieburg and H. Marland, 'Midwife regulation, education, and practice in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century', Medical History, XXXIII (1989), 296-317, esp. 301, 305, 316.
34. The most recent work on colonial midwifery in Africa includes C. Summers, 'The intimate colonialism: the imperial production of reproduction in Uganda, 1907-1925', Signs, XVI (1991), 787-807; H. Bell, 'Medical research and medical practice in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1899-1940' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford, 1996), ch. 6; and M. Malowany, 'Midwives at the coast of Kenya, 1919-1948: neither contested space nor contested bodies', paper presented at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association, San Francisco, 1996.
35. The most recent work on colonial midwifery in Africa includes C. Summers, 'The intimate colonialism: the imperial production of reproduction in Uganda, 1907-1925', Signs, XVI (1991), 787-807; H. Bell, 'Medical research and medical practice in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1899-1940' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford, 1996), ch. 6; and M. Malowany, 'Midwives at the coast of Kenya, 1919-1948: neither contested space nor contested bodies', paper presented at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association, San Francisco, 1996.
36. The most recent work on colonial midwifery in Africa includes C. Summers, 'The intimate colonialism: the imperial production of reproduction in Uganda, 1907-1925', Signs, XVI (1991), 787-807; H. Bell, 'Medical research and medical practice in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1899-1940' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford, 1996), ch. 6; and M. Malowany, 'Midwives at the coast of Kenya, 1919-1948: neither contested space nor contested bodies', paper presented at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association, San Francisco, 1996.
37. H. Marland, 'Introduction', in Marland (ed.), The Art of Midwifery, 4.
38. The Cape regulations of 1810 set midwives' fees at 15 Rixdollars (or Rds) (£2 12s 6d) for attending a (white) mistress and 5 Rds (173 6d) for attending a slave. This was much higher than the then current rate of fees for a visit by a physician, which was 1 Rd (33 6d) and exceeded the lowest rate for man-mid wives in 1830 (£2).
39. J. Jenkinson, Scottish Medical Societies 1731-1939 : Their History and Records (Edinburgh, 1993), 82.
40. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men, 45.
41. Negative stereotypes of Khoisan and slave women were different in some ways, too. See R. Elphick, Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa (Johannesburg, 1985), 197.
42. 'Hottentot' is a derogatory term that was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for those now termed 'Khoisan'.
43. R. Viljoen, 'Disease and society: VOC Cape Town, its people and the smallpox epidemics of 1713, 1755 and 1767', Kleio, XXVII (1995), 22-45, esp. 42.
44. C. Coetzee, 'Visions of disorder and profit: the Khoikhoi and the first years of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape', Social Dynamics, xx (1994), 35-66, see 53-4.
45. Z. Magubane, 'The body of the savage : humanitarian narratives, 1800-1827', paper presented at the Gender and Colonialism conference, University of the Western Cape, January 1997.
46. C. G. Botha, 'The French refugees and the medical profession at the Cape of Good Hope', South African Medical Record, XII (14 March 1914), 80-2.
47. P. Kolbe, The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London, 1731), ii, 336.
48. Ibid, i, 88.
49. Ibid, i, 142-43, and ii, 340.
50. Ibid, i, 142-43, and ii, 340.
51. These were the duties of an eighteenth-century midwife: C, G. Botha, A History of Law, Medicine and Place Names at the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town, 1962), 186.
52. O. Mentzel, A Geographical and Topographical Description of the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town, 1944), ii, 113.
53. J. F, Haszner, 'Huislijk Geneeskundig Handboek voor de ingezetenen van Nederlands Afrika' (1793), this excerpt translated by the author from the Afrikaans tss. by L. C. van Oordt (1961) : Haszner Collection, South African Public Library (SAPL), Cape Town, MSB 240, 130-1. For a more in-depth study of Haszner, see J. C. Pretorius, 'Johann F. Haszner (1764-1820): Duitse sjirurgyn aan die Kaap', Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrift vir Kultuurgeskiedenis, VI (1992), 124-33.
54. J. F, Haszner, 'Huislijk Geneeskundig Handboek voor de ingezetenen van Nederlands Afrika' (1793), this excerpt translated by the author from the Afrikaans tss. by L. C. van Oordt (1961) : Haszner Collection, South African Public Library (SAPL), Cape Town, MSB 240, 130-1. For a more in-depth study of Haszner, see J. C. Pretorius, 'Johann F. Haszner (1764-1820): Duitse sjirurgyn aan die Kaap', Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrift vir Kultuurgeskiedenis, VI (1992), 124-33.
55. J. F, Haszner, 'Huislijk Geneeskundig Handboek voor de ingezetenen van Nederlands Afrika' (1793), this excerpt translated by the author from the Afrikaans tss. by L. C. van Oordt (1961) : Haszner Collection, South African Public Library (SAPL), Cape Town, MSB 240, 130-1. For a more in-depth study of Haszner, see J. C. Pretorius, 'Johann F. Haszner (1764-1820): Duitse sjirurgyn aan die Kaap', Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrift vir Kultuurgeskiedenis, VI (1992), 124-33.
56. Medical Committee (MC) to Colonial Secretary, Letters received by Colonial Office (CO) 1812, CO 36, 30 Jan. 1812.
57. Haszner, 'Huislijk Geneeskundig Handboek', 132.
58. E. Burrows, A History of Medicine in South Africa up to the end of the Nineteenth Century (Cape Town, 1958), 106.
59. Secretary to Government to Supreme MC, 14 July 1808, Medical Committee Miscellaneous 1807-21, MC 14. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, 106.
60. Declaration of Burgher Senate, 6 July 1808, MC Miscellaneous 1807-21, MC 14.
61. This was a group of doctors appointed by the Governor which advised the colonial government on medical matters.
62. Secretary to Government to Landdrosts of Cape, Stellenbosch, Tulbach, Swellendam, Graaff Reinet and Uitenhague, 31 Oct. 1810, Proclamations for the country districts 1806-20, CO 5881.
63. Secretary to Government to Supreme MC, 14 July 1808, MC Miscellaneous 1807-21, MC 14. See also E. Burrows, A History of Medicine, 106. His salary was equivalent to £87 10s at the time.
64. Wehr to Plasket, 12 Mar. 1827, MC Minutes 1825-31, MC 1.
65. Liesching to Bell, 25 Mar. 1829, Letters from MC to Colonial Office 1829, CO 361.
66. Memorial of John Wehr, 5 Sept. 1849, Memorials 1849, CO 4051, doc. 84; for Instructors of Midwifery at the Cape, 1810-1850, see Burrows, A History of Medicine, 107.
67. Ibid.
68. Although at least one of those deemed 'white' did have slave ancestry, as family records show (see below).
69. Venter, 'Die eerste vroedkundeskool in Suid Afrika', 190.
70. Memorial of Lovell, 1825, Memorials 1825, CO 3929, doc. 736.
71. See for example the case studies in Marland (ed.), The Art of Midwifery.
72. Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing, 99.
73. Samuel Ungerer was a surgeon in the DEIC who remained at the Cape in 1795 (Letters requesting permission to remain in the Colony 1795-1801, BO 232, p. 4).
74. No stench of wine, brandy or suchlike ['geen stank van wyn, brandewyn en diergelyken '] should be evident. See Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing, 96.
75. Venter, 'Die eerste vroedkundeskool in Suid Afrika', 190.
76. John Hall to Sec to Govt, 20 Nov. 1849, Enclosure to Memorials 1849, CO 4051, doc. 83: Memorial of Dr John Wehr, 9 Nov. 1849.
77. 'A bill for amending the laws relating to the practice and sale of medicine in the colony...', Drafts of bills 1856, CCP 6/4/2, 237.
78. Examples are Johanna Daniels, Antje Coens-Broekhuisen, Dorothea Maria Steyl-Ungerer, Deborah van Boom and Catherine Staal-Zezars.
79. Examples are Widow Pieter Lambert, Widow Dirk Kotzee, Widow Helena Paulse(n).
80. Notarial Protocol, 20 Oct. 1797, NCD 1/18, doc. 240.
81. African Court Calendar and Directory for 1820 (Cape Town, 1820), 17.
82. See Johanna's Wills and Inventory, 1818-25, MOOC 7/1/95, docs. 125, 126 and 129.
83. Wills deposited in 1812, MOOC 7/1/76, doc. 99.
84. The Cape of Good Hope Almanac and Annual Register for 1845 (Cape Town, 1845), Directory; Liquidation and Distribution Accounts of John Locke, 1816-28, MOIC 2/266.
85. S. Judges, 'Poverty, living conditions and social relations -aspects of life in Cape Town in the 1830s' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1977), 3.
86. The Cape Calendar and Annual Register for 1840 (Cape Town, 1840), Directory.
87. 'Breach of promise of marriage', South African Commercial Advertiser, 19 March 1829: case of a young French naturalist, De Vages, and Miss Greef, of Cape Town.
88. Judges, 'Poverty, living conditions and social relations', 10.
89. Account book of Dr Peter Chiappini, 1842-6, University of Cape Town Medical School Library, Cape Town, MHA 610.6 SOU, 1842, 6.
90. Ibid. 1844, 16.
91. Ibid. 1842, 35.
92. Insolvent state of Robert Locke 1853, MOIB 2/792, doc. 96.
93. N. Erlank, 'Letters home: the experiences and perceptions of middle-class British women at the Cape, 1820-1850' (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1995), 23O-
94. The only other occupation to increase its share of women's work over the period was retail, although women were now described as grocers and haberdashers while men retained the title 'retailer'.
95. Erlank, 'Letters home', 229.
96. Census of 1865, G2o-1866, CCP 4/11/1, 84, 87.
97. Although not compulsory, nearly 40 percent of Edinburgh M.D. graduates between 1763 and 1826 had taken midwifery courses (L. Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement : Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 [Edinburgh, 1991], 70-1). Local practitioners fought successfully for a chair in midwifery at the university in 1840 and founded the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society to raise their profile (Jenkinson, Scottish Medical Societies, 40-1).
98. Although not compulsory, nearly 40 percent of Edinburgh M.D. graduates between 1763 and 1826 had taken midwifery courses (L. Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement : Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 [Edinburgh, 1991], 70-1). Local practitioners fought successfully for a chair in midwifery at the university in 1840 and founded the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society to raise their profile (Jenkinson, Scottish Medical Societies, 40-1).
99. Minutes of the South African Society, UCT Medical School Library, MHA 610.6.SOU.
100. Cape Town itself had seven white and twelve black midwives.
101. Although not Grahamstown, perhaps because of undercounting.
102. Census of 1865, G2o-1866, CCP 4/II/I, 84-7.
103. Edgecombe, 'The letters of Hannah Dennison', 128.
104. These midwifery clients represented about 5 per cent of his total clientele during the year. Rates of man-midwifery attendance by comparison, were 22 cases for a case load of 650 per annum (3-4 per cent of cases) for William Parker in America (A. M. Kass, '"Called to her at three o'clock a.m.": obstetrical practice in physician case notes', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, L (1995), 202). It should be remembered however that the 5 per cent figure for Chiappini represents a proportion of clients rather than visits.
105. Account book of Dr Peter Chiappini, 1845, 14.
106. Ibid. 1845, 81. Although Chiappini had many black clients, only four other midwifery cases throughout the account book involved black women, all probably Muslim, and in none of these was Chiappini present at the birth itself. They suggest that doctors occupied a particular niche in midwifery services for Muslim clients - that of removing the afterbirth after a midwife had assisted at the birth.
107. Dr C. J. Borcherds to Resident Magistrate of Malmesbury, 15 Feb. 1855, Colonial Office Correspondence, CA, CO 4642.
108. H. A. Hammerschmidt, A Narrative of Two Years' Medical Practice at Stellenbosch (Cape Town, 1860), Errata page.
109. J. Brown, 'Some reminiscences of practice in the Cape half a century ago', South African Medical Record, XIV (1916), 249.
110. Memorial of Endres, 2 Dec. 1811, CO 3885, doc. 101.
111. Brown, 'Some reminiscences', 250.
112. Edgecombe, 'The letters of Hannah Dennison', 134.
113. Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery, 185-8.
114. M. du Toit, '"Dangerous motherhood": maternity care and the gendered construction of Afrikaner identity, 1904-1939', in V. Fildes, L.Marks and H. Marland (eds.), Women and Children First : International Maternal and Infant Welfare, 1870-1945 (London, 1992), 206.
115. For a more extended argument on this topic, see P. van der Spuy, 'What, then was the sexual outlet for black males ? A feminist critique of quantitative representations of women slaves at the Cape of Good Hope in the eighteenth century', Kronos, XXIII (Nov. 1996), 43-56.
116. J. E. Mason, 'Paternalism under siege', in N. Worden and C. Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains : Slavery and its Legacy in the Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony (Johannesburg, 1994), 65. While I disagree with R. Shell, Children of Bondage : A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1838 (London, 1994), 56-7, that the incorporation of female slaves into the household made them less likely to resist slavery, it did allow cultural exchange with the mistress and encouraged the stereotyping of female slaves as domestic labour (ibid. 52).
117. J. E. Mason, 'Paternalism under siege', in N. Worden and C. Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains : Slavery and its Legacy in the Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony (Johannesburg, 1994), 65. While I disagree with R. Shell, Children of Bondage : A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1838 (London, 1994), 56-7, that the incorporation of female slaves into the household made them less likely to resist slavery, it did allow cultural exchange with the mistress and encouraged the stereotyping of female slaves as domestic labour (ibid. 52).
118. J. E. Mason, 'Paternalism under siege', in N. Worden and C. Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains : Slavery and its Legacy in the Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony (Johannesburg, 1994), 65. While I disagree with R. Shell, Children of Bondage : A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1838 (London, 1994), 56-7, that the incorporation of female slaves into the household made them less likely to resist slavery, it did allow cultural exchange with the mistress and encouraged the stereotyping of female slaves as domestic labour (ibid. 52).
119. See C. Walker, 'Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth-century South Africa', for a discussion of the possible problems in assuming that racial differences are paramount in conceptualizing motherhood.
120. This belies Mentzel's claim (A Geographical and Topographical Description, 113) that the Dutch-Afrikaans mother and the Khoisan midwife would not 'understand one another'.
121. Haszner, 'Huislijk Geneeskundig Handboek', 133. Authors translation from the Afrikaans.
122. Tobacco replaced the traditional use of dagga or marijuana.
123. Kolbe, The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope, i, 140.
124. Ibid, ii, 337.
125. Commonly called Roode rabassum, Rabass or Rooi wortel.
126. See L. Pappe, Florae Capensis Medicae Prodromus, or An Ennumeration of South African Plants used as Remedies by the Colonists of the Cape of Good Hope (3rd ed., Cape Town, 1868), 5; and P. W. Laidler, 'Manners, medicine and magic of the Cape Hottentots', tss. (n.d.), UCT Manuscripts Collection, 808401, 162. Drug use in difficult deliveries and willingness to aid abortion were some of the characteristic features of the 'Sairey Gamp' figure (Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men, 45), and it is not surprising that these were linked to slave and Khoisan influence in critical accounts.
127. See L. Pappe, Florae Capensis Medicae Prodromus, or An Ennumeration of South African Plants used as Remedies by the Colonists of the Cape of Good Hope (3rd ed., Cape Town, 1868), 5; and P. W. Laidler, 'Manners, medicine and magic of the Cape Hottentots', tss. (n.d.), UCT Manuscripts Collection, 808401, 162. Drug use in difficult deliveries and willingness to aid abortion were some of the characteristic features of the 'Sairey Gamp' figure (Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men, 45), and it is not surprising that these were linked to slave and Khoisan influence in critical accounts.
128. Census of 1865, G20-1866, CCP 4/11/1, 84-7.
129. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays', 170.
130. Ibid. 174-5.
131. Botha, A History of Law, Medicine and Place Names, 186.
132. Searle, A History of the Development of Nursing, 93. This clearly excluded Khoisan and slave woman who were forbidden from giving sworn testimony in court (J. Campbell, Travels in South Africa undertaken at the Request of the Missionary Society [2nd ed., London, 1815], 344).
133. Van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays', 158-9.
134. Du Toit, '"Dangerous motherhood'", 203-9.