Peasants, historians, and gender: A South African case study revisited, 1850-1886

History and Theory

Volumn 39, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 86-110

  Bradford, Helen ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

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EID: 4043164737     PISSN: 00182656     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/0018-2656.00147     Document Type: Review

References (213)

1. Thanks to Jane Bennett, Wayne Dooling, Ian Phimister, Pat van der Spuy, and Charles van Onselen for their help.
2. C. Bundy, The Rise & Fall of the South African Peasantry, 2nd. ed. (Cape Town, 1988), 99
3. Imperial Blue Book 969 (1847-1848), 46
4. See also N. Mostert, Frontiers (New York, 1992), 944-945
5. The Church Chronicle (Grahamstown, 1881), II, 266
6. The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, ed. G. Moore Smith (London, 1903), 764
7. J. Kimble, "Towards an Understanding of the Political Economy of Lesotho: The Origins of Commodity Production and Migrant Labour, 1830-c. 1885" (MA Thesis, University of Lesotho, 1978), 196
8. Journals of Andrew Geddes Bain, ed. M. Lister (Cape Town, 1949), 188
9. See also South African Library pamphlet, R. Niven to C. Stretch, 24 August 1837
10. R. Godlonton and E. Irving, Narrative of the Kaffir War 1850-1851-1852 (Cape Town, 1962), 32
11. C. W. de Kiewiet, The Imperial Factor in South Africa (Cambridge, Eng., 1937), 153, 151
12. See also C. W. de Kiewiet, "Social and Economic Developments in Native Tribal Life," in The Cambridge History of the British Empire, ed. A. P. Newton and E. Benians (Cambridge, Eng., 1936), 812, 820
13. De Kiewiet, Imperial Factor, 158, 156
14. de Kiewiet, "Tribal Life," 820.
15. Bundy, Rise, 3, 18, 25, 67.
16. B. Bozzoli with M. Nkotsoe, Women of Phokeng (Johannesburg, 1991), 251
17. P. Maylam, A History of the African People of South Africa (London. 1986), 108
18. see also J. Iliffe, Africans (Cambridge, Eng., 1997), 273
19. The Roots of Rural Poverty, ed. R. Palmer and N. Parsons (London, 1977)
20. Bundy, Rise, 13, 9.
21. See also W. Beinart, The Political Economy of Pondoland 1860 to 1930 (Johannesburg, 1983), 3-5
22. F. Cooper, "Peasants, Capitalists and Historians: A Review Article," Journal of Southern African Studies 7 (1981), 284-314
23. J. Lewis, 'The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry: A Critique and Reassessment, Jonrnal of Southern African Studies 11 (1984), 1-24
24. Bundy, Rise, preface to second edition
25. G. Brown, Personal Adventure in South Africa (London, 1855), 92-93
26. Bundy, Rise, 171
27. B. Magubane, The Political Economy of Race and Class in South Africa (New York, 1979), 76
28. D. D. T. Jabavu, The Black Problem (Lovedale, cl920), 114
29. see also Bundy, Rise, 94
30. R. Moyer, "A History of the Mfengu of the Eastern Cape 1815-1865" (PhD thesis, London University, 1976), 276, 349
31. Lewis, "Critique," 11.
32. Bundy, Rise, prefaces to first and second editions.
33. J. B. Peires, "The Late Great Plot: The Official Delusion Concerning the Xhosa Cattle Killing 1856-1857," History in Africa 12 (1985), 260
34. W. Beinart, Twentieth-Century South Africa (Oxford, 1994), 15
35. Mostert, Frontiers, 1244
36. W. Beinart, "Amafelandawonye (the Die-hards): Popular Protest and Women's Movements in Herschel District in the 1920s," in W. Beinart and C. Bundy. Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa (London, 1987), 223
37. A. Isaacman, "Peasants and Rural Social Protest in Africa," African Studies Review 33 (1990), 11
38. C. Robertson, Trouble Showed the Way (Bloomington, Ind., 1997), 7
39. Beinart, "Amafelandawonye," 222-223.
40. See also M. Wright, "The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry." International Journal of African Historical Studies 13 (1980), 338
41. S. Marks and A. Atmore, "Introduction," in Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa, ed. S. Marks and A. Atmore (London, 1980), 24
42. Bundy, Rise, 157, 160. The Case Study exists in a lightly revised form: C. Bundy, "Peasants in Herschel: A Case Study of a South African Frontier District," in Economy, ed
43. Marks and Atmore, "Introduction," 23-24
44. Cape Archives, GH (Government House) 28/53, W. Shaw to Colonial Secretary (hereafter CS), 14 May 1850
45. See also E. Eldredge, A South African Kingdom (Cambridge, Eng., 1993), 43
46. Kimble, "Lesotho," 86.
47. Cape Archives, A (Accession) 396, Wittenberg Native Reserve, Memorandum of J. Austen, member of 1869 Land Commission
48. see also Memorandum of J. Orpen
49. Imperial Blue Book 1380 (1851), 45
50. See also Report of the Select Committee on Hostilities in Basutoland, A6-79, Appendix, iii
51. GH 14/27, J. Burnet to CS, 10 August 1857
52. GH 14/26, Burnet to Secretary to High Commissioner, 1 November 1858
53. GH 28/53, J. Shepstone to H. Calderwood, 2 July 1850
54. GH 14/19, Burnet to Governor, 29 October 1856
55. see also Report of Select Committee on Native Affairs 1873, SC 12-73, 26
56. Cape Archives, CO (Colonial Office) 3123, Austen to Burnet, 3 July 1868
57. Aliwal North Standard (hereafter ANS) (31 August 1872).
58. Wright, "Review," 338
59. Beinart, South Africa, 21-22.
60. Cape Archives, CSS (Census and Statistics) 1/1/18, homestead 143.
61. See also Census of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope 1865, G20-66, 32-33
62. S. Redding, "South African Women and Migration in Umtata, Transkei, 1880-1935," in Courtyards, Markets, City Streets, ed
63. K. Sheldon (Boulder, 1996), 40
64. A. Brigg, "Sunny Fountains" and "Golden Sand" (London, 1888), 60, 66-67
65. Wesleyan Missionary Notices (hereafter WMN) (25 January 1867); Brigg, Fountains, 63-64, 135
66. See also M. Wright, "Technology, Marriage and Women's Work in the History of Maize Growers in Mazabuka, Zambia: A Reconnaissance," Journal of Southern African Studies 10 (1983), 76
67. GH 14/30, Burnet to Major Travers, 12 October 1863
68. See also Abstract of Population Returns, June 1857, A14-57, 9
69. 1865 Census, 10
70. GH 14/23, Austen to Burnet, 5 February 1858
71. See also GH 14/22, Burnet to CS, 10 August 1857
72. A. du Toit, "The Cape Frontier: A Study of Native Policy with Special Reference to the Years 1847-1866," Archives Year Book for South African History (Pretoria, 1954), 274
73. GH 14/34, Austen to Burnet, 13 July 1867
74. Proceedings of and Evidence Taken by, the Commission on Native Affairs (Grahamstown, 1865), Appendix I, 110
75. see also 105
76. R. Germond, Chronicles of Basutoland (Morija, 1967), 536
77. Brigg, Fountains, 60
78. see also 55
79. See also CSS 1/1/24, homesteads 2, 30, 70
80. 1865 Census, 32-3, 150
81. 1865 Commission, Appendix I, 59
82. Bundy, "Peasants," 211
83. Aliwal Observer (5 November 1870).
84. WMN (25 January 1867).
85. M. Wilson, "The Growth of Peasant Communities," in Oxford History of South Africa, ed. M. Wilson and L. Thompson (Oxford, 1971), II, 71
86. WMN (25 January 1867)
87. see also CSS 1/1/17, homestead 260 and CSS 1/1/18, homesteads 50, 152
88. Iliffe, Africans, 179
89. Brigg, Fountains, 67, 146
90. F. Pryor, "The Invention of the Plow," Comparative Studies in Society and History 27 (1985), 732
91. See also CSS 1/1/17, homestead 177
92. See also 1865 Census, 180
93. 1865 Commission, Appendix 1,105 (my emphasis)
94. see also 59. Only ten blacks possessed an allotment; only three had paid any rent: 7865 Commission, Appendix I, 57-8
95. 1/ALN 8/1/1, Land Rent Book
96. Marks and Atmore, "Introduction," 24
97. See also Cape of Good Hope 1865 (CapeTown, 1866), JJ45
98. GH 14/37, Austen to P. Wodehouse, 12 March 1870
99. See also CO 3141, J. Hudson to CS, 15 December 1869
100. ANS (31 January 1874, 14 February 1874)
101. GH 14/34, Austen to Burnet, 4 May 1867
102. See also Austen to Burnet, 13 July 1867
103. CO 3105, Austen to Burnet, 30 November 1867. Austen reckoned he could sell a sorghum/maize bag in Aliwal for 6s.- 7s.6d
104. some 1.5-2 bags seem necessary for tax
105. GH 14/37, Austen to Wodehouse, 12 March 1870
106. ANS (31 January 1874)
107. Cape of Good Hope 1869 (Cape Town, 1870), JJ41
108. Cape Archives, 1/SPT (Herschel) 4/1/1/1, H. Halse to Under CS (hereafter UCS), 26 March 1875. and "Reply to Census," 7 September 1875
109. Herschel had 38 people per square mile in 1873
110. East London had 13 in 1875
111. 1873 Select Committee, 27
112. J. Noble, Descriptive Handbook of the Cape Colony (Cape Town, 1875), 224
113. See also 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to Commissioner of Crown Lands, 2 April 1873
114. and Halse to Secretary of Native Affairs (hereafter SNA), lOApril 1873
115. CO 3206, Halse to CS, 4 July 1873
116. ANS (16 May 1874)
117. See also 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to UCS. 27 January 1875
118. Blue-Book on Native Affairs (hereafter BBNA) 1873, G27-74, 10
119. ANS (9 May 1874)
120. E.J. to Ed., ANS (17 May 1873)
121. ANS (11 April 1874)
122. see also 15 March 1873
123. Brigg, Fountains, 178
124. BBNA 1877, G12-77, 143: 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse, "Reply to Census," 7 September 1875
125. See alsoANS (7 March 1874): Noble, Handbook, 315
126. BBNA 1875, G21-75, 64
127. ANS (27 December 1873), (3 January 1874)
128. L. Switzer, Power and Resistance in an African Society (Pietermaritzburg, 1993), 208
129. Colonist to Ed., Aliwal Observer, 9 July 1870
130. 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to SNA, 19 December 1873
131. See also correspondence in ANS (20 December 1873-7 March 1874)
132. Bundy, "Peasants," 220, 224.
133. Cape Archives, NA (Native Affairs) 172, Halse to SNA, 12 March 1874
134. See also P. Novick, That Noble Dream (Cambridge, 1988), 23
135. 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to SNA, 15 May 1873
136. R. Evans, In Defence of History (London, 1997), 115
137. E. Jacobson, An Illustrated World History of the Sheep and Wool Industry (Pretoria, 1970), 212, 215
138. 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to UCS, 27 January 1875
139. Noble, Handbook, 315.
140. ANS (13 December 1873).
141. See also 6 December 1873, 24 January 1874, and 28 February 1874
142. see also BBNA 1873, 11. W. M. Macmillan, Complex South Africa (London, 1930), 166, estimates hides and skins at 10 percent of stock numbers. Nineteenth century rates were lower; I have used those from the 1895-6 census, and applied them to stock enumerated in 1875
143. BBNA 1876, G16-76, 91
144. BBNA 1875, 64. The estimate for livestock value uses Aliwal average prices, and Noble, Handbook, 315
145. 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to Superintendent General of Education, 18 September 1875.
146. A new tax register compiled in 1873 uncovered 5,400 wives; in Halse's terms, 54,000 bags were needed for subsistence
147. ANS (14 June 1873)
148. BBNA 1873, 11.1 have divided the sheep and goats into the ratio evident in 1875, and used Aliwal average prices
149. 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to UCS, l0April 1878, Halse to Civil Commissioner (hereafter CQAliwal North, 1 August 1877
150. BBNA 1878, G17-78, 56
151. See also 1/SPT 1/3/1, case heard 7 November 1877
152. BBNA 1879, G33-79, 191
153. see also 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to UCS, 10 April 1878
154. 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to illegible, 25 October 1878
155. see also Halse to SNA, 15 March 1878
156. Halse to UCS, 10 April 1878
157. BBNA 1881, G20-81, 115
158. 1/SPT 2/1/1/3, case heard 2 October 1884
159. NA 189, D. Hook to SNA, 11 May 1882
160. 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to SNA, 7 March 1878
161. NA 202, Magistrate to Under SNA (hereafter USNA), 10 September 1885
162. J. Lewis, "An Economic History of the Ciskei, c 1848-1900" (PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 1984), 654
163. NA 202, Magistrate to USNA, 10 September 1885
164. W. Worger, South Africa's City of Diamonds (New Haven, 1987), 106-107
165. NA 202, Konco et al. to Magistrate, 3 September 1885
166. See also BBNA 1886, G5-86, 23
167. Cape of Good Hope Census 5/4/1891, G6-92, 130-131
168. See also BBNA 1873, 11
169. BBNA 1890, G4-90, 13
170. NA 210, CC to USNA, 20 December 1892
171. see also BBNA 1889, G8-89, 16
172. 1891 Census, 486
173. 1891 Census, 378-381, 462-463
174. Ubu to Ed., ANS (6 December 1873)
175. Estimates for 1887-1891 averaged 48, 919 bushels of sorghum, 96,089 of maize and 99,655 of wheat a year
176. Report and Proceedings, with Appendices, of the Government Commission on Native Laws and Customs, G4-83, 319
177. See also 7865 Census, 150
178. 1891 Census, 62-63, 438, 463
179. Beinart, Pondoland, 26
180. J. Lambert, Betrayed Trust (Pietermaritzburg, 1995), 108
181. Lewis, "History," 558.
182. Commission on Laws, 319
183. M. Churche, "A Social History of the Domestic Community in the Ciskei and Western Transkei 1877-1910" (PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 1986), 364
184. Commission on Laws, 318. See also 1/SPT 4/1/1/1, Halse to SNA, 15 May 1873
185. 1/SPT 4/1/1/2, Halse to SNA, 12 September 1877
186. 1/SPT 3/1/2/1, Report by Hook, 1 May 1884
187. USNA to CC, 31 July 1885
188. NA 217, CC to USNA, 13 October 1893
189. Commission on Laws, 318
190. NA 182, Part II, CC to SNA, 2 July 1880
191. De Kiewiet, Imperial Factor, 264.
192. Commission on Laws, 319. See also E. Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, and Wives (Portsmouth, 1992), 68
193. E. Eldredge, "Women in Production: The Economic Role of Women in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho," Signs 16 (1991), 715, 724
194. 1/SPT 2/1/1/3, case heard 15 September 1884
195. NA 199, Acting CC to SNA, 11 April 1884
196. 1/SPT 2/1/1/5, case heard 4 March 1886
197. BBNA 1883, G8-83, 11
198. Commission on Laws, 317
199. 1/SPT 2/1/1/1, case heard 25 September 1879
200. BBNA 1886, 25
201. 1/SPT 4/1/1/3, Magistrate to UCS, 5 October 1887
202. 1891 Census, 452
203. 1/SPT 2/1/1/4, case heard 9 April 1885
204. 1/SPT 2/1/1/4, case heard 6 July 1885
205. BBNA 1881, 114
206. NA 259, Hook to J. Sauer, 31 July 1899
207. 1/SPT 2/1/1/4, case heard 22 June 1885
208. BBNA 1885, G2-85, 26
209. BBNA 1887, G12-87, 31
210. Macmillan, South Africa. 149, 157-158, 168, 181.
211. H. Sussman, Victorian Masculinities (Cambridge, Eng., 1995), 81
212. Sunday Independent (26 March 2000)
213. Lewis, "Critique."