Slave Hospital 1831

! Sensitivity : It is crucial to handle this database with care and a strong sense of responsibility. Many of the terms used were originally assigned by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and often do not reflect how individuals and groups identified themselves. The terms themselves can be misleading, as they oversimplify the complex social realities experienced by people at the time.

This database may also contains terms that are considered derogatory, offensive, or harmful. The concepts within it are deeply connected to a history of colonial violence, enslavement, and racism that persisted both during and after the VOC's existence.

This register provides a glimpse into the physical, emotional, and mental health trauma that the slaves endured and speaks to the endurance of the captives. Free Blacks included slaves manumitted by the Government but who willingly returned due to hardship or poor health, and slaves captured at sea and who were placed in apprenticed bondage. Manumitted slaves were at liberty to return to the Government Hospital for the Aged and Infirm Government Slaves and Apprentices. Presumably this was not the Slave Lodge Hospital which treated female slaves for venereal diseases, but a section of the Old Somerset Hospital reserved for the slaves . Established by Dr Samuel Bailey in 1818 it was the first facility of its kind for civilians and was named for Lord Charles Somerset who supported the idea. Previous hospitals serviced sailors and soldiers. The hospital was a financial failure and by 1821 it was handed over to the Burgher Council who renamed it the Town Somerset Hospital. After falling into disrepair in 1839 a new hospital was designated to take its place (New Somerset Hospital in Portswood Road), and the mentally unstable, lepers, and chronically sick were left behind and later relocated to Robben Island. The chronically ill were returned to the Old Somerset Hospital in 1892, and in 1894 it was extensively remodeled and a new infirmary wing was added. The facility eventually became known as the Cape Town Infirmary, a hospital providing care for the chronically ill and indigent. On 23 March 1938 all patients were moved to the new Conradie Hospital which provided health care and accommodation to chronically ill, aged persons. At the end of 1938 the Cape Town Infirmary was demolished. (Info on Somerset Hospital: Lost Hospitals of the Cape Colony - JC de Villers and AL Keyser)

National Archives of South Africa

Transcribed by Lara Seaward

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