The Slave Lodge is situated on the corner of Adderley and Wale Streets in Cape Town and now houses the Iziko Museums. It was built in 1679 to house slaves owned and transported by the VOC to Cape Town. The slaves lived in appalling conditions in this building. It operated as a prostitution den during certain hours of the night where some male slaves sold their partners to visitors (of European descent) for a piece of tobacco, and some of the women willingly prostituted themselves with dreams of a better life with their users. Housing 500 - 600 people at the outset it became overcrowded by 1716, and was eventually enlarged for the first time in 1732. The slave lodge provided accommodation to the VOC slaves  for 31 years. After the British seized power in 1806 the slaves were all sold off and the lodge was repurposed. The recorded names of the slaves listed in this 1714 census appear to be a truer reflection of their real names. According to James Armstrong and Nigel Worden in “The Slaves, 1652–1834,” in The Shaping of South African Society 1652–1840, on manumission from the Slave Lodge a slave had to provide a replacement. To date historians have been unable to trace how this transaction was effected.

Mandoor - slave person in charge of work team consisting of around 66 slaves (Mandoor's were either mulattos from the East or born at the Cape)

Meijden - female slave

School -  Slave Lodge créche for children deemed too young to work

Werk - In the work team

Caffer - (Imported Black slave) Fiscal's or executioner's assistant or hard labourer . Often acted as policemen and were the only slaves permitted to carry weapons. Their control of public order extended to the Burghers.

Compiled from Slave Lodge Census 31 August 1714 transcribed by Prof Robert Shell