When the widow Elisabeth
Pieterse van de Kaap married
the German master
brick layer Gottlieb Barends
in 1758, they each had
a young son.
The boys were Fredrik Simon de Jager,
grandson of Rebecca of Bengal, and
Johan Godlieb Barends, a baptised slave
child, whose mother Filida van de Kaap
was owned by a middle-ranking VOC
official named Carel Maximilian Adleda,
bookkeeper and superintendent of the
VOC timber store and slave lodge.
Elisabeth and Gottlieb produced three
more children: Margaretha Helena, Jan
George and Anna Elisabeth, who are fairly
well documented in archival sources.
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So is Fredrik, but there is much less
information about his stepbrother, Johan
(known as Jan). The children undoubtedly
knew each other.
Jan appears in the records at the age
of about 30 as the sogesegde vader of the
illegitimate child Johannes Philippus,
who was baptised in November 1783. The
mother was Jamila van de Kaap and there
is no indication that either of them were
slaves. The witnesses were the reputed
father’s half-sister Margaretha Barendse
and her husband, Frans Jurgens.
This indicates that Jan had been
manumitted, but when and by whom
remains unclear. His circle may also have
included a number of discreet Muslims,
because he also fathered two slave sons,
one of whom achieved fame as the first
Cape-born pilgrim to visit Mecca – the
priest and teacher who was afterwards
known as Carel Pilgrim*.
Meanwhile, Fredrik gained a good
education and sufficient knowledge of
the law to operate as an agent (someone
authorised to act on behalf of another
person in binding transactions with a
third party). We don’t know whether
his stepfather taught him, but he was
obviously a bright lad.
ALSO READ: The Way We Were: How slave offspring married into top SA family [Part 2]
He was close to his half-brother and
sisters and had friends among the leaders
of Christian free black society, including
the Dirks, Sesselaar, Simonse, Isaakse,
Arendse and Jurgens families.
They supported one another and
witnessed the baptisms of their various
children, even if the parents delayed
marriage, as was the case with Fredrik
and Johanna Christoffelina Simonse. The
couple’s children Fredrika, Fortunatus
and Sara have left few archival records.
Fredrik owned a library of 138 books.
However, despite his many gifts, he never
achieved the same recognition as his
white counterparts.
In 1803, he penned a disconsolate
letter to the Batavian authorities asking
for an official appointment, alleging that
during his 18-year career he had suffered
enormous losses due to “many disasters
and non-payment by his clients” and
wishing to improve his condition for the
sake of his wife and children.
He was unsuccessful and died
insolvent in 1819, aged 65.
* Carel Pilgrim’s story is told in my
book Echoes Of Slavery (2004)
**Jackie Loos' "The Way We Were" column is published in the Cape Argus every week.
*** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.