Cape Slave Lodge Census 1714

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. I speculate that the slaves first brought to the Cape by Van Riebeeck were from southern India and were intended to work in the VOC rice paddies planned for the new Colony. However, these attempts to grow rice were unsuccessful.

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 to house administrative buildings. From 1811 to 1814 the building was extensively revamped to house the Supreme Court of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. 

After the creation of the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910, the court was named Cape of Good Hope Division (CPD). 

South Africa’s original constitution protected Coloured voting rights by requiring a two-thirds parliamentary majority to change the law. However, unification indirectly sparked a major constitutional crisis when politicians argued that the Statute of Westminster abolished this requirement. The legal battle highlighted a stark divide between the courts: the regional Cape Provincial Division (CPD) initially yielded to Parliament, while the top Appellate Division (AD) consistently struck down the government's illegal maneuvers.

• Separate Representation of Voters Act (1951): After Parliament used a simple majority to strip Coloured voting rights, the CPD first validated the law. However, the AD overturned that ruling on appeal (Harris v Minister of the Interior), invalidating the Act for lacking the constitutionally required two-thirds majority.

• High Court of Parliament Act (1952): When Parliament invented a fake legislative "High Court" to override the AD, voters challenged it again. This time, both the CPD and the AD (Minister of the Interior v Harris) stood aligned, declaring Parliament's court illegal and shutting down the government's bypass scheme.

Though defeated in court in 1952, the government successfully disenfranchised Coloured voters in 1956 through legal manipulation. By expanding (literally doubling the number of senatorial seats) and "packing" the Senate with loyal allies (hand picked National Party members), they artificially manufactured the necessary two-thirds majority to officially pass the amendment.

By manipulating the constitution to strip Coloured people of their voting rights, the state further dehumanized them—relegating descendants of the enslaved to second-class status, an institutionalized marginalization whose socioeconomic legacy persists long after 1994.

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 section "The Slaves, 1652–1834", in their book 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 with certainty how this transaction was effected, although it has been suggested that the manumitted slave would purchase another slave for this purpose.

Source: https://www.iziko.org.za

Frans Rautenbach Cape Bar : The History of the Cape Provincial Division, Advocate April 2010 

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 crèche 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 over the Free-Burghers.

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

Image: Layout of Cape Town showing the Slave Lodge  -  Wikimedia Commons - Cape Town 1798. 

Usage Terms for Website Content

This applies to all databases on this website.

You are welcome to copy facts, names, and dates for your own use, subject to the terms of our license. Please click on the link provided to view the full terms.

However, please be aware that you may not copy and paste sentences from my histories or introductions, and Blog, onto your own website, as these are protected by copyright.

All images and photographs on this site are either AI-generated, open source, or copyright protected.

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.