Individual Details

Rebellie

Die Slagtersnek-rebellie verwys na ‘n boer in die Oos-Kaap, Johannes Bezuidenhout, se kortstondige opstand teen die Britse bewind in die tydperk 1815–1816. Dit word ook as een van die redes vir die ontstaan van die Groot Trek beskou. Die naam Slagtersnek, waar die rebelle gevang is, is ontleen aan die Britse handelaars van Grahamstad wat hier bymekaar gekom het om die boere in die omgewing se slagdiere te koop.
Op 'n plaas naby wat vandag as Somerset-Oos bekend is, het Frederik Bezuidenhout ‘n Khoikhoi-werker met die naam van Booi van diefstal verdink en sy loon teruggehou. Booi het Bezuidenhout gaan verkla van aanranding by die landdros op Graaff-Reinet. Bezuidenhout het twee keer geweier om voor die hof te verskyn en hy is op 5 Oktober 1815 in absentia tot een maand gevangenisstraf gevonnis. Die Britse regering wou graag hul gesag oor die boere in die verre oosgrens vertoon, en het ‘n mag van 12 Khoi-Khoi soldate, destyds Pandoere genoem, met ‘n blanke offisier op 16 Oktober 1815 na Bezuidenhout se plaas gestuur om hom in hegtenis te neem.
Bezuidenhout het hom verset en is deur een van die Khoikhoi soldate in ‘n skuiling tussen rotse op sy plaas doodgeskiet. Op sy begrafnis het sy broer Johannes Bezuidenhout wraak gesweer en saam met ‘n groep vriende (waaronder Frans Johannes van Dyk) het hy ‘n opstand teen die Britse regering in die Kaap beplan. Hulle wou die Britse regering en die Khoikhoi uit die Oos-Kaap verdryf. Hulle het die Xhosa hoofman Gaika (ook Ngqika genoem) vir hulp genader en aangebied dat hy die hele Zuurveld as betaling sou ontvang. Gaika het nie belang gestel nie.

Hendrik Prinsloo is kort daarna deur ‘n mag van 70, wat 40 Engelse soldate en 30 kommando lede ingesluit het, in hegtenis geneem. Die rebelle het onsuksesvol probeer om hom te ontset en ander boere in die omgewing gevra om by die opstand aan te sluit. Die rebelle het op 18 November 1815 aan die Britse mag by Slagtersnek oorgegee. Johannes Bezuidenhout het hom teen inhegtenisname verset en is ook doodgeskiet. ‘n Paar het verder oos na die Xhosas se land gevlug. Die ander is in hegtenis geneem en voor die hof gedaag.

32 rebelle is uit die Oos-Kaap verban en ses van die rebelle leiers word op 20 Januarie 1816 ter dood veroordeel op ‘n klag van hoogverraad. Een, Willem Krugel, word later deur die Kaapse goewerneur, lord Charles Somerset, begenadig. Op 9 Maart 1816 word Hendrik Frederik Prinsloo, Stephanus Cornelis Bothma, Cornelis Johannes Faber, Theunis Christiaan de Klerk en Abraham Carel Bothma in die openbaar gehang.

Frans Johannes van Dyk was een van 16 rebelle wat nie aan die gewapende deel van die opstand deelgeneem het nie en wie se vonnis was om die doodsvonnis toe te kyk.

" The sentences," says Theal, " were in accordance with the letter of the law; but it was generally supposed that the Governor would use his power of mitigation to prevent the penalty of death being inflicted, as no blood had actually been shed by any of the prisoners. Banishment would have been equally effective as a warning to others, and it seemed to most people, then as now, that something was due to the burghers who aided the Government, and who were afterwards horrified at the thought that they had helped to pursue their deluded countrymen to death. There was an opportunity for the English Government to secure the affections of these people by granting to them the lives—though not the liberty—of the chief culprits." That opportunity was lost through the vindictiveness of the rule of Lord Charles Somerset, and the insatiable thirst for vengeance displayed by the Government of King George. The victims were deemed guilty of rebellion '' against their king, a sovereign so eminently distinguished in always tempering justice with mercy." These are the very words used by the authorities, and preserved in the annals of those days.
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It is the morning of the fateful 9th March, 1816. On the heights of Slachtersnek, where the oath of fidelity to the soil of South Africa had been taken, stands the scaffold for those who have sworn it. The English Lieutenant-Colonel, Cuyler—the officer who had been in chief command in subduing the insurrection —had also been the prosecuting magistrate at the trial in Uitenhage. He is now the superintendent of the executioners. Three hundred British troops guard the gallows. Calm, and resigned to their fate, the five condemned men approach. (Krugel's sentence has, in consideration of his having meritoriously distinguished himself in the last war with the Kaffirs, and also because he and the burghers under his command had taken no actual part in any armed resistance, been altered to banishment for life. A royal, an Imperial Mercy, truly !) Hendrik Prinsloo, Cornelis Faber, Stefanus Bothma, Abraham Bothma, and Theunis de Klerk advance to meet their cruel destiny. Around the scaffold stand their friends and relatives, and, ranged in a separate small circle, are the thirty-two men sentenced to witness the execution of their leaders. Tied to the gallows - pole by a rope round his throat is Frans Marais. As the leaders of the insurrection step forward, they request that, before dying, they may be allowed to join in singing a hymn with their relatives and former companions - in - arms. Their request is granted (more Imperial Mercy, surely !) ; then, with fil-m tread, they ascend the scaffold. Sobbing, and with tearful eyes, the friends of the condemned men see the executioner arrange the cords round the necks of his victims. Then louder sobs are heard. Mothers and wives, who have come to be with their loved ones even in this awful moment of sorrow, to be near them to the last—weeping and sobbing women—cover their faces with their hands, and shriek aloud to Heaven in their agony and distress. But, calm as when they faced the foemen's ranks, the doomed men submit to their fate. The executioner is now completing his task, and their bodies hang sus- pended in mid-air. Only for a moment. In the next, the scaffold, clumsily arranged, and not strong enough to bear the weight, gives way, a'nd tumbles to the ground. " Heaven intervenes for them ! Let them live ! Give them back to us!" cry the bystanders, as they rush towards the foot of the gallows, where the senseless bodies of the unhappy victims are lying on the ground. The soldiers who are ranged in line on the place of execution are unable, or have not the heart, to keep back the crowd of sympathisers. Men and women, on their knees before Colonel Cuyler, beg for mercy for their brothers, for their husbands, for their sons. Slowly consciousness returns to the five unhappy men. "Mercy?" Ask it not of a British officer. He must obey his instructions. Again the scaffold is erected, and again the executioners do their work—this time more thoroughly. Pitiful wailing cries burst from the lips of the women who are there to witness the cruel scene; but the men condemned to look on and see their leaders done to death utter loud and angry murmurs, even in the very presence of the majesty of the law, as the spirits of the five sufferers leave the poor tortured bodies. The execution is over. British justice has triumphed.Colonel Cuyler is now again approached by the friends England. and relatives of Hendrik Prinsloo and the four men who had died with him. " Give us their bodies," is the humble request. " We desire to let them have honourable and Christian burial." No: not even that small mercy. The sentence has been that the bodies should hang at the scaffold, and then be buried at the place of execution. This is done. " God save the King "—the " sovereign so eminently distinguished for tempering justice with mercy."
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The men and women who stood and wept by that scaffold never forgot their dead companions. Memories of Slachtersnek have done more to give birth to the Republic, and, in after days, to consolidate it, than perhaps anything else in the history of South Africa.

Death

Die Bloukransmoorde was die slagtig van groepe voortrekkers by Bloukrans, Moordspruit, Rensburgspruit en 'n paar ander kampe. Na die moord op Piet Retief en sy gevolg, het die Zoeloe-koning Dingaan sy impi's gestuur om die res van die Voortrekkers uit te wis. Alhoewel 'n hele aantal ontsnap het, is daar op daardie dag, tussen die Voortrekkers, 41 mans, 57 vroue en 97 kinders vermoor. Van die Khoikhoi- en Basoetoes wat hulle vergesel het, is ongeveer 250 mense vermoor.

Die nabygeleë dorpie Weenen, is so genoem ter herdenking aan die treurspel. Daar staan vandag 'n monument ter nagedagtenis aan hierdie gebeurtenis

https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloukransmoorde
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weenen_massacre