Slaves, Workers, and Wine: The ‘Dop System’ in the History of the Cape Wine Industry, 1658–1894

Abstract

The ‘dop [tot] system’ refers to the practice of giving wine to male farm workers at regular intervals during the working day, which was general throughout the Cape winelands by 1890. How do we explain its emergence and ubiquity? To understand the system, we must interpret it historically. This article traces the history of the dop system from the establishment of a slave society at the Cape of Good Hope by 1658 to the Liquor Laws Commission of 1890, and the Labour Commission of 1893/1894. It introduces the system, and its official misrepresentations. The article is chronological and thematic. It identifies continuities and variations, and the nature and significance of moments of change. The interpretation of the system requires attention to forms of rule; free and unfree labour; markets for and consumption of liquor; vagrancy, slavery and emancipation; relations of masters and servants; subordination of free labour and its limitations; advances and debts; diamonds and railways; giving wine to workers. The dop system is not at the centre of the story. None of these phenomena can derive explanations from one another. They are always at pluralities of moving intersections.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Alison Wiblin, Ulandi du Plessis, Nimi Hoffmann, Bridget Wright, and Elizabeth de Wet for their assistance in my research. The determination and editorial skills of Maxim Bolt and Rosa Williams made it possible for me to bring the project to completion.

Notes

¹ Changed in 1993 to the Afrikaans from the Nederlands (Ko-operatieve Wijnbouwers Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika).

² L. Jonker, Wynboer (a monthly KWV publication), Paarl, June 1996, pp. 14–16.

³ H. Hopkins, editorial, Wynboer, August 1996, p. 3.

⁴ State Archives Deposit (S.A.D.), Pretoria, K301, 5/3, Kaapse Landbou-Unie, ‘Memorandum vir Voorlegging aan Die Interdepartementele Komitee van Ondersoek na die Beskikbaarheid van Kleurlingsarbeid in Wes-Kaapland’, 6 July 1973 pp. 7–13. K301, 6/2, Tweede en Finale Verslag van die Interdepartementale Komitee van Ondersoek, Bylaë A, September 1973. ‘“Die Voorsiening van Wyn aan Plaasarbeiders deur hul Werkgewers”, Memorandum vir Voorlegging aan die [Theron] Komissie van Ondersoek’, University of Stellenbosch Library, Africana Section, Evidence to Theron Commission, Boxfile 15, pp. 6–13. G. Williams, ‘Free and Unfree Labour in the Cape Wine Industry, 1938–1988’, in J. Heyer and B. Harriss-White (eds), The Comparative Political Economy of Development: Africa and South Asia (London, Routledge, 2012), pp. 186–90, 194–7.

⁵ M. Pothier, ‘An Investigation into “Progressive” Farming in the Western Cape’, BA (hons) Industrial Sociology dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1987, esp. pp. 55–60. J. Ewert and A. du Toit, ‘A Deepening Divide in the Countryside: Restructuring and Rural Livelihoods in the South African Wine Industry’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 31, 2 (1995), pp. 315–32.

⁶ Frans Malan, Chairman of the Rural Foundation, cited in Die Burger, Cape Town, 11 July 1988.

⁷ ‘Madiba by die wynboere’, Wynboer, June 1986, pp. 14–16.

⁸ Cape of Good Hope (hereafter CGH), House of Assembly Papers, Appendices, Report of the Liquor Laws Commission, G.1–’90 [’90 = 1890].

⁹ CGH, Report of the Labour Commission, vol. 1, G.39–’93 and vols. 2, 3, G.3–’94.

¹⁰ Evidence of Robert Frater to CGH, Labour Commission, G.39–’93, p. 248.

¹¹ G. Schutte, ‘Company and Colonists at the Cape, 1652–1795’, in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds), The Shaping of South African Society, 1652–1840 (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1989), pp. 243–323.

¹² Batavia is present-day Jakarta and was the headquarters of the VOC’s administration in the East Indies.

¹³ W. Blommaert, ‘Het Invoeren van de Slavernij aan de Kaap’, Argief-Jaarboek vir Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis (AJB), 1 (1938), p. 19. J. Armstrong and N. Worden, ‘The Slaves, 1652–1834’, in Elphick and Giliomee (eds), The Shaping, p. 111.

¹⁴ H.B. Thom (ed.), The Journal of Jan van Riebeeck, III, (Cape Town, A.A. Balkema, 1958), p. 10 (2 February 1659). J. Janse van Rensburg, Die Geskiedenis van die Wingerdkultuur in Suid-Afrika, Tydens die Eerste Eeu, 1652–1752, 2e serie, 17, 2 (1954), pp. xiv–xv.

¹⁵ Van Rensburg, Geskiedenis, p. xv. Also L. Guelke, ‘Freehold Farmers and Frontier Settlers’, in Elphick and Giliomee (eds), The Shaping, pp. 69–84.

¹⁶ Thom, Journal, III, pp. 250–70 (26–28 March, 17 April, 6–9 May, 1658). Van Rensburg, Geskiedenis, p. 32. N. Worden, Slavery in Dutch South Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985) pp. 6–7.

¹⁷ Thom, Journal, III, p. 288 (21 June 1658).

¹⁸ Thom, Journal, III, p. 293 (28 June 1658).

¹⁹ Guelke, ‘Freehold Farmers’, Figures 2.2, 2.3, pp. 72–9.

²⁰ R. Ross and P. van Duin, The Economy of the Cape Colony in the Eighteenth Century (Leiden, Centre for the History of European Expansion, 1987), Appendix, Tables 2 and 6.

²¹ ‘Request van Hendrik Cloete op den 22 Desember 1788’, pp. 90/91, in G.J. Schutte, (ed.) Hendrik Cloete, Groot Constantia and the VOC, 1778–1799 (Cape Town, Van Riebeeck Society, 2003), 2nd series, no. 34, pp. 90–91. Peter Lawrence Cloete to Parliamentary Commission, 1826, cited J. E. Mason, Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa (Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 2003) Table 3.4, p. 35.

²² R. Elphick and V. Malherbe, ‘The Khoisan to 1828’, in Elphick and GiIliomee (eds), The Shaping, p. 31.

²³ M.K. Jeffreys (ed.), Kaapse Plakkaatboek (Cape Ordinances). Deel 1, Cape Times, Cape Town, 1944, pp. 37–8, 213–14 (Resolusies pp. 20 July 1686, 28 August 1658). R. Ross, Cape of Torments: Slavery and Resistance in South Africa (London, Routledge, 1983), p. 64, and pp. 54–72. Worden, Slavery, pp. 120–35.

²⁴ Ross, Cape of Torments, esp. pp. 29–37; ‘The Origins of Capitalistic Agriculture in the Cape Colony: A Survey’, in W. Beinart, P. Delius and S. Trapido (eds), Putting a Plough to the Ground: Accumulation and Dispossession in Rural South Africa, 1850–1930 (Braamfontein, Ravan Press, 1986), p. 77. See also Worden, Slavery, pp. 101–18.

²⁵ ‘Memorie’ Punt 3, Art 6, in C. Beyers, Die Kaapse Patriotte Gedurende die Laaste Kwart van die Agtiende Eeu en die Voortlewing van Hulle Denke (Pretoria, J.L. van Schaik, 1967), p. 51, and in A. du Toit and H. Giliomee (eds), Afrikaner Political Thought (Cape Town, David Philip, 1983), Doc. 2.1a, p. 39.

²⁶ Ross, Cape of Torments, pp. 29–37. Worden, Slavery, esp. pp. 101–18. R. C-H. Shell, Children of Bondage: A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1838 (Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 2001), pp. 207–21.

²⁷ Elphick and Malherbe, ‘The Khoisan’, p. 31.

²⁸ Ibid., pp. 32–3. N. Penn, ‘Land, Labour and Livestock in the Western Cape during the Nineteenth Century’, in W.G. James, and M. Simons (eds), The Angry Divide: Social and Economic History of the Western Cape (Cape Town, David Philip, 1989), p. 17. H. Giliomee, ‘The Eastern Frontier, 1770–1912’, in Elphick and Giliomee (eds), The Shaping, pp. 450–51.

²⁹ The Political Council was the council appointed by the VOC to the Governor at the Cape. ‘Minutes of Landdrost O.G. de Wet and Heemraden of Stellenbosch’, 7 August 1780, in du Toit and Giliomee (eds), Afrikaner Political Thought, doc. 2.c, pp. 45–6.

³⁰ From W.S. van Ryneveld, Replies to Governor Macartney’s Questionnaire, 29 November 1797,in du Toit and Giliomee (eds), Afrikaner Political Thought, doc. 2.3, p. 49.

³¹ From van Ryneveld, ‘A Sketch of the Condition of the Colony in 1805’, in du Toit and Giliomee (eds), Afrikaner Political Thought, doc. 2.5, p. 52.

³² Janssens, cited in P.J. Idenburg, The Cape of Good Hope at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century (Leiden, Universitaire Pers, 1963), p. 91.

³³ Thom, Journal, I (Cape Town, A.A. Balkema, 1956), 17 April 1658, p. 266.

³⁴ P.J. Venter, ‘Landdros en Heemraden, 1682–1827’, Argief-Jaarboek, 3, 2 (1940). pp. 131–2. The meaning of debauches/debaucheries may be closer to ‘ridicule’ (cf. Portuguese debocha) than to the English ‘debauch/debauchery’.

³⁵ M.P. de Chavonnes, quoted in M. Balling (ed.), Reports of De Chavonnes and his Council, and van Imhoff at the Cape (Cape Town, van Riebeeck Society, first series, no. 1, 2006), p. 87 (p. 8, Ned.).

³⁶ O.F. Mentzel, A Complete and Authentic Geographical and Topographical Description of the … African Cape of Good Hope; translation of Vollständige und Zuverlässige Geographische und Topographische Beschreibung des ... Africanischen Borgebirges der Guten Hoffnung (Cape Town, Van Riebeeck Society, 2006) II [1785], p. 82. Mentzel’s is the most valuable and widely cited account of society at the Cape in the 18th century.

³⁷ Jeffreys (ed.), Kaapse Plakkaatboek, I (11/12 December 1670), p. 108.

³⁸ Jeffreys (ed.), Kaapse Plakkaatboek, I, pp. 265, 295–7, II, pp. 84, 176 (21/22 January 1692 to 25 November 1721).

³⁹ Worden, Slavery, p. 99.

⁴⁰ Mentzel, Cape of Good Hope, p. 86. Until 1795, 48 stuivers = 1 Riksdaalder (Rd) = 3s. (UK).

⁴¹ Venter, ‘Landdros en Heemraden’, p. 132.

⁴² Ross, Cape of Torments, p. 8.

⁴³ S.D. Naudé and P.J. Venter (eds), Kaapse Plakkaatboek, Deel 3 (Cape Times, Cape Town, 1949), p. 62 (29 April/ 1 May, 1765).

⁴⁴ Worden, Slavery, p. 99.

⁴⁵ Venter, ‘Landdros en Heemraden’, p. 133, also p. 132.

⁴⁶ R. Elphick, Kraal and Castle: Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1977), p. 165, also p. 176.

⁴⁷ H. van der Meer Pieterszoon, cited in Balling (ed.), Reports of De Chavonnes, First Series, I, p. 126.

⁴⁸ Van Rensburg, Geskiedenis, p. 49 (my emphasis). See also Shell, Children of Bondage, p. 280.

⁴⁹ Worden, Slavery, p. 99, and p. 167 n. 47 (referring to an example from 1750). Armstrong and Worden, ‘The Slaves’, p.146 and p. 170 n. 158.

⁵⁰ P. Scully, Liberating the Family? Gender and British Slave Emancipation in the Rural Western Cape, South Africa, 1823–1853 (Oxford, James Currey, 1997), pp. 91–2; P. Scully, The Bouquet of Freedom: Social and Economic Relations in the Stellenbosch District, c. 1870–1900 (Cape Town, Centre for African Studies, UCT, 1990), p. 55; M. Rayner, ‘Wine and Slaves: The Failure of an Export Economy and the Ending of Slavery in the Cape Province, South Africa’, PhD thesis, Duke University, 1986.

⁵¹ Scully, Liberating the Family?, p. 92.

⁵² J.S. Marais, The Cape Coloured People, 1652–1937 (London, Witwatersrand University Press 1968 [1957]), p. 166.

⁵³ Jeffreys (ed.), Kaapse Plakkaatboek, I, p. 264 (January 2/22, 1692).

⁵⁴ Mentzel, Cape of Good Hope, p. 59.

⁵⁵ D.J. Van Zyl, Kaapse Wyn en Brandewyn 1795–1860 (Cape Town, HAUM, 1975), pp. 104–25, 135–63. Rayner, ‘Wine and Slaves’, T.1.2, 1.5, pp. 14a, 23a. These series and their archival sources are not consistent with one another.

⁵⁶ J. Banaji, ‘Historical Arguments for a “Logic of Deployment” in Pre-Capitalist Agriculture’, in Theory as History: Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation (Chicago, Haymarket Books, 2010), pp. 104–16.

⁵⁷ ‘Proclamation. The Earl of Caledon’ 1 Nov. 1809, in G.M. Theal (ed.), Records of the Cape Colony (London, Printed for the Government of the Cape Colony,1897), VII, 211–16. See W. Dooling, Slavery, Emancipation and Colonial Rule in South Africa (Athens, Ohio University Press, 2007) pp. 61–70, and W. Dooling, ‘The Origin and Aftermath of the Cape Colony’s “Hottentot Code” of 1809’, Kronos, 31, 1 (2005), pp. 50–61.

⁵⁸ ‘Proclamation. The Earl of Caledon’, §1. For its precedents under the rule of the VOC and the authority of the First British Occupation, see Elphick and Malherbe, ‘The Khoisan’, pp. 32–3. Giliomee, Die Kaaptydens die Eerste Britse Bewind, 1795–1803 (Cape Town, HAUM, 1975) pp. 258–9.

⁵⁹ ‘Proclamation. The Earl of Caledon’, §13.

⁶⁰ E. Walker, A History of Southern Africa (London, Longman, Green and Co., 1957), p. 149.

⁶¹ ‘Proclamation. The Earl of Caledon’, §§4,15. The italicised text is almost the same as the proposal by the Landdrost and heemraden of Stellenbosch in 1780, cited in du Toit and Giliomee, Afrikaner Political Thought, doc. 2c, pp. 45–6.

⁶² ‘Proclamation. The Earl of Caledon’, §§3, 8.

⁶³ Walker, A History of Southern Africa, p. 149.

⁶⁴ Marais, The Cape Coloured People, p. 152.

⁶⁵ Ordinance 50 of 1828, §2. Quoted in W.M. Macmillan, The Cape Colour Question (London, Faber and Gwyer, 1927), pp. 211 n. 1.

⁶⁶ Dr John Philip to Thomas Fowell Buxton, 4 May 1827, quoted in Macmillan, Cape Colour Question. p. 217.

⁶⁷ Ordinance 50, 1828, §7 (VII), §§8–18.

⁶⁸ Ordinance 50, 1828, §5.

⁶⁹ Ordinance 49, 1828, §2, §12.

⁷⁰ Macmillan, The Cape Colour Question, p. 238.

⁷¹ Sir Lowry Cole, Governor to Colonial Secretary, January 1831, and also Circular from Acting Governor, Col. Wade, to ‘The Proprietors’, cited in Macmillan, The Cape Colour Question, p. 234.

⁷² R.L. Watson, The Slave Question: Liberty and Property in South Africa (Hanover, University Press of New England, 2001), see pp. 182–95.

⁷³ Ordinance 19, 1926, superseded by Order in Council 1930. Rayner, ‘Wine and Slaves’, pp. 259–94; Mason, Social Death, pp. 49–51.

⁷⁴ ‘Memorial from Stellenbosch burghers to the Burgher Senate against the provisions of the Ordinance 19,10 July 1826’, cited in du Toit and Giliomee, Afrikaner Political Thought, doc. 2.8a, Cape Town, pp. 61–3. Rayner, ‘Wine and Slaves’, pp. 274–9. Mason, Social Death, pp. 42–58.

⁷⁵ ‘Report of J.T. Bigge, Esquire, upon the Hottentot and Bushman of the Cape of Good Hope and of the Missionary Institutions, 28 Jan. 1830’, Records of the Colony, XXV, p. 330.

⁷⁶ Cited in Mason, Social Death, p. 103.

⁷⁷ Armstrong and Worden, ‘The Slaves’, p. 167.

⁷⁸ Lord Glenelg, Colonial Secretary, quoted in Ross, Cape of Torments, p. 82.

⁷⁹ Ross, Cape of Torments, p. 32.

⁸⁰ Mason, Social Death, pp. 250–51.

⁸¹ Scully, Liberating the Family? pp. 81–113.

⁸² ‘Editorial’, De Zuid-Afrikaan, cited in van Zyl, Kaapse Wyn, p. 14.

⁸³ ‘Letter’ to De Zuid-Afrikaan, 21 May 1849, cited in Dooling, Slavery, p. 123.

⁸⁴ Mason, Social Death, p. 270.

⁸⁵ Dooling, Slavery, p. 117.

⁸⁶ Scully, Liberating the Family?, pp. 93–7.

⁸⁷ Marais, The Cape Coloured People, pp. 191–2. Scully, Liberating the Family?, p. 71. Dooling, Slavery, p. 25.

⁸⁸ Marais, The Cape Coloured People, p. 182. Mason, Social Death, pp. 136–8.

⁸⁹ Zuid-Afrikaan, 8 March 1839, quoted in Mason, Social Death, p. 263.

⁹⁰ Mason, Social Death, pp. 273–5.

⁹¹ Marais, The Cape Coloured People, p. 201.

⁹² The Masters and Servants Acts (and as Amended) 15/1856. Amended 18/1873, 28/1874, 7/1875, 80/1881, 28/1884, 38/1885, 8 and 30/1889, 25/1891, 4/1892, 24/ 95, 38/95, in H. Tennant, Laws Regulating the Relative Rights and Duties of Masters, Servants, and Apprentices (Cape Town, Juta, 1996). C. Bundy, ‘The Abolition of the Masters and Servants Act, South African Labour Bulletin, 2, 1 (1975), pp. 27–46.

⁹³ The Vagrancy Act (The Law for the Prevention of Vagrancy and Squatting) 23/1879, Amended by Acts 27/1889, 20/1891. In Tennant, Masters, Servants, Apprentices.

⁹⁴ Act 15/1856.

⁹⁵ The provisions and implicit principles are laid out in Act 18/1873, as amended in Act 7/1875. See Select Committee on the Masters and Servants Act Amendment Bill, CGH, A.23–’71, with App. B, ‘Memorial from Certain Inhabitants of Genadendal on the Subject of the Masters and Servants Law’.

⁹⁶ Act 18/1873, §§10–18.

⁹⁷ Marais, Cape Coloured People, p. 196, citing Masters and Servants Blue Book, 1849, pp. 38, 64, 68, 113, 115, 152, 164.

⁹⁸ Dooling, Slavery, p. 128. Banaji, ‘Historical Arguments’.

⁹⁹ Banaji, ‘Historical Arguments’, pp. 111–16.

¹⁰⁰ Act 23/1879 §3.

¹⁰¹ CGH, G.1–’90.

¹⁰² CGH, I, (G.39–’93) and II, III, (G.3–’94).

¹⁰³ CGH, G.1–’90, G.39–’93.

¹⁰⁴ CGH, G.39–’93, §5137, §7509, §8426.

¹⁰⁵ The figures are derived from the Appendices to the Annual Reports of the Legislative Assemblies: CGH, Report of the Select Committee on the Supply of the Labour Market (A.26–’79), CGH, Report of the Select Committee on the Labour Question (A.12–’90), CGH, Report of the Select Committee on the Labour Question (C.2–’92). Scully, Bouquet of Freedom, Tables 4, 7, pp. 41, 60. Minutes of the Legislative Council (LC), 6 August 1890 (van Rhijn). The quote is taken from A.12–’90.

¹⁰⁶ CGH, G.8–’76, Report on Immigration and Labour Supply for the Year 1875.

¹⁰⁷ CGH, A.12–’90, D.F. du Toit, Chairman, Municipality Paarl, (App. B).

¹⁰⁸ CGH, C.2–’92, App. B.

¹⁰⁹ CGH, A.12–’90.

¹¹⁰ CGH, A.26–’79, §§ 449–50 (Hon. P.L.van der Bijl, MLC), CGH Legislative Council, 6 August 1890 (Van Rhijn).

¹¹¹ CGH, G.36–’87, G.41–’88, G.37–’90, Reports of the Inspector of Vineyards. C.2–’92. App. (Stellenbosch).

¹¹² CGH, A.26–’79; –’90; C.2–’92; G.39–’93 and G.3–’94.

¹¹³ CGH, G.8–’76; A.26–’79 (Evidence of W.T. Hertzog and others); CGH, A.42–’79 ‘Return showing the Number of Native Men, Women, Boys and Girls, Respectively, Applied for by the Inhabitants and Contracted by Government’ (W. Ayliff, Government Notice No. 222, 5 Aug. 1879).

¹¹⁴ CGH, A.26–’79; C.2–’92; G.39–’93.

¹¹⁵ CGH, G.39–’93: witnesses from all the wine-producing districts.

¹¹⁶ Marais, The Cape Coloured People, pp. 196–7.

¹¹⁷ Evidence, Robert Hare, wine farmer, Paarl, A.26–’79 §392.

¹¹⁸ This account is my own overview from the evidence to and the reports of select committees and of the Labour Commission. See Scully, The Bouquet of Freedom, pp. 52–79 (I do not share her account and reading of the economic analysis of ‘capitalising farmers’ in her informed interpretation of capital, labour and the state).

¹¹⁹ Scully, The Bouquet of Freedom, pp. 58–9.

¹²⁰ CGH, G.1–’90, G.39–’93.

¹²¹ W.E.G. Solomon, Saul Solomon: The Member for Cape Town (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 140.

¹²² P. van Breda, Die Geskiedenis van die Zuid-Afrkaansche-Beschermingsbond in die Kaapkolonie, 1778, AJB, 49/1 (1986). R. Davenport, The Afrikanerbond: The History of a South African Political Party, 1886–1911 (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1966); Giliomee, Die Afrikaners: ‘n Biografie, (Cape Town, Tafelberg, 2004), pp. 181–6. In 1883, Hofmeyr amalgamated the Vereeniging with the Bond, which was founded in 1882.

¹²³ CGH, G.1–’90. p. 353.

¹²⁴ CGH, G.1–’90: pp. xxix–xxx, Minutes, 26 March 1890.

¹²⁵ CGH, G.1–’90. p. 22. Emphasis in original.

¹²⁶ E. Durkheim, Rules of Sociological Method (New York, Free Press, 1982), p. 35.

¹²⁷ M. Weber, ‘Politics as a Vocation’, in H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (London, Routledge, 1998), p. 78.

¹²⁸ Scully, The Bouquet of Freedom, p. 59.

¹²⁹ Ibid., p. 62.

¹³⁰ K. Atkins, cited in J. Crush and C. Ambler (eds), ‘Introduction’, in Liquor and Labor in Southern Africa (Athens, Ohio University Press, 1992), p. 21.

¹³¹ Andries Du Toit ‘The Micro-Politics of Paternalism: The Discourses of Management and Resistance on South African Fruit and Wine Farms’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 19, 2 (1993), pp. 314–36.