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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Robben Island Rebellion of 1751: A Study of Convict Experience at the Cape of Good Hope
Author:Truter, PaulISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:Kronos: Journal of Cape History
Issue:31
Pages:34-49
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
The Cape
Subjects:rebellions
1751
prisoners
trading companies
social history
Indonesians
History and Exploration
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Urbanization and Migration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/41056534
Abstract:This paper examines the role of convicts in the system of forced migration to the Cape (South Africa) during the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) period. It reconstructs the events of a convict rebellion, planned by certain East Indian convicts in order to escape to the East Indies, that took place on Robben Island in 1751, in order to shed light on issues of identity, status and the imposition of and reaction to the Company's attempts to assert its authority. It explores convicts' social relations on the island by comparing their experiences with those of slaves at the Cape. The convicts on Robben Island - of European as well as East Indian and Chinese origin - embodied the manner in which the island and the Cape were woven into the VOC's realm inasmuch as they themselves were the links between the colonies and polities of the VOC empire. As a result of this exchange of knowledge and mixing of status and race, the conventional categories of colonial society were often obscured. Furthermore, the convicts on Robben Island demonstrated that convict status was more fluid than that of slaves. Convicts were able to transcend the boundaries between freedom and bondage more easily and their status was not always determined by race. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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