Abstract
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) intended the Cape of Good Hope to be a refreshment stop for ships travelling between the Netherlands and its eastern colonies. The indigenous Khoisan, however, did not constitute an adequate workforce, therefore the VOC imported slaves from East Africa, Madagascar and Asia to expand the workforce. Cape Town became a cosmopolitan settlement with different categories of people, amongst them a non-European underclass that consisted of slaves, exiles, convicts and free-blacks. This study integrated new strontium isotope data with carbon and nitrogen isotope results from an 18th-19th century burial ground at Cobern Street, Cape Town, to identify non-European forced migrants to the Cape. The aim of the study was to elucidate individual mobility patterns, the age at which the forced migration took place and, if possible, geographical provenance. Using three proxies, 87Sr/86Sr, δ13Cdentine and the presence of dental modifications, a majority (54.5%) of the individuals were found to be born non-locally. In addition, the 87Sr/86Sr data suggested that the non-locally born men came from more diverse geographic origins than the migrant women. Possible provenances were suggested for two individuals. These results contribute to an improved understanding of the dynamics of slave trading in the Indian Ocean world.
Highlights
Between the years 1652 and 1795, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) governed the Cape Colony of present day South Africa
In 1994, excavations revealed 63 intact primary burials belonging to the Cobern Street informal burial ground in Cape Town, which was used between circa 1750 and 1827 AD [21, 71]
A statistical assessment of the carbon isotope data showed that the variance in δ13Cdentine was three times as high as the variance in δ13Ccancellous (11.3 and 3.6 respectively), indicating more diverse childhood diets, which converged in later life to a narrower range
Summary
Between the years 1652 and 1795, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) governed the Cape Colony of present day South Africa. Save for a short-lived Batavian period (1803–1806), the British ruled the Cape from 1795 throughout the 19th-century. The VOC envisioned the Cape as a refreshment stop for company ships on their way to and from the East. Isotopic Insights into Indian Ocean World Slave Trade to the Cape (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Synergy grant agreement no 319209
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