Rogues, rebels, and runaways : eighteenthb-scentury Cape characters

by Nigel Penn

The dissolute Cape Town beer brewer, Willem Menssink, whose ‘fatal passion’ for a young slave woman brought about his downfall; Carel Buijtendag, the ‘beast of the Bokkeveld’; and Estienne Barbier, the quixotic champion of the oppressed and leader of a rebellion against the VOC government: these, as well as an assortment of runaway slaves and Company deserters, are some of the lesser-known characters from eighteenth-century Dutch Cape whom the historian Nigel Penn has brought to life in a series of hugely enjoyable and historically revealing stories.

Genres: History

195 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Nigel Penn has a PhD from the University of Cape Town. He has written about the impact of colonialism on the Khoisan societies of southern Africa and on the nature of early colonial society in both the Dutch and British periods. He has been awarded the UCT Book Award three times and won a Choice Award from the American Library Association in 2007. He is interested in using the techniques of microhistory and cultural history to illuminate the contacts that occurred between different societies and individuals in the colonial context of southern Africa and Australia.