Education in Africa 
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| Title: | In Onegt Verwekt: Law, Custom and Illegitimacy in Cape Town, 1800-1840 |
| Author: | Malherbe, V.C. |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
| Volume: | 31 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Period: | March |
| Pages: | 163-185 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | South Africa The Cape |
| Subjects: | illegitimate children slaves family law social history 1800-1849 Women's Issues Urbanization and Migration History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Ethnic and Race Relations Religion and Witchcraft Law, Human Rights and Violence Historical/Biographical urbanization Health, Nutrition, and Medicine Marital Relations and Nuptiality Education and Training Cultural Roles |
| External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070500035844 |
| Abstract: | The first four decades of the nineteenth century were momentous for Cape Town, South Africa, which passed from Dutch to British rule and from a long history as a slave society to one adjusting to emancipation. This article examines these years though the prism of out-of-wedlock births - an appropriate perspective on a society in which concubinage and casual sex were rife, and where (until late in that period) the men and women of the large slave population could not contract lawful marriages. Both Church and State attempted to impose order and promote morality in the expanding colony of which Cape Town was the chief entrepôt and busy port. The churches exhorted members to observe Christian precepts, censured defaulters, and pressed government to enact and enforce measures deemed to be supportive of their aims. While the government was initially bound by the Statutes of India, as amended from time to time during the span of Dutch East India Company rule (1652 to 1795), the Roman-Dutch law of the Cape differed in some respects from British common law regarding, for example, marriage, inheritance and the legitimation of out-of-wedlock births. Hence, after Britain took control in 1806, following a period of transition, certain aspects of the law and justice system were made to conform more closely to British jurisprudence. The influx of Britons had a cumulative impact both on attitudes and social life, as did successive slavery edicts issued by the metropole. In seeking to contribute to the comparative history of illegitimacy, this study of a particular locality and period opens a society to view in a new way, and uncovers a pivotal moment of legal and attitudinal change in family and sexual relations. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
