Master Servant Relationships in the Eastern Cape: the 1820 Settlement

Abstract

This article is about the rebellious behavior of the servant class and the consequent threat it posed to the established social order in the 1820 settlement. There were deep anxieties amongst the higher echelons of the settlement about maintaining class distinctions. Upper and middle class settlers relied on informal and formal strategies in order to keep social hierarchies intact. The concept of social control is applied in this respect to study the troubled master-servant relationship, emphasize an obsessive preoccupation with social order, and uncover the limits of upper and middle class settlers’ control. This focus on the troubled master servant relationship in the 1820 settlement and the failed attempts to control it is a helpful correction to the celebratory reverberations of early South African settler histories.