IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rehdxx/v28y2013i2p83-111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who, Where, and When were the Cape Gentry?

Author

Listed:
  • Gavin Williams

Abstract

The "Cape gentry" has come to be conventional in descriptions and in analyses of the south-western Cape during the rule of the VOC ( Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie ). Implicit in the idea of a "Cape gentry" are ownership of land and of slaves, degrees of inequalities, tenure and exercise of political office, and recognition of status honour, which were perpetuated over generations in networks of intermarried kin. This paper emphasizes the relevance of published statistics for interpreting changes over time in economic inequalities and social relations among the districts of the Colony. It sets out Mentzel's account of the four "classes" of rural society and ends by bringing into question the deployment of the idea of "Cape gentry" in analyses of the social structure in the Cape for lacking geographic and historical specificity.

Suggested Citation

  • Gavin Williams, 2013. "Who, Where, and When were the Cape Gentry?," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 83-111, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:2:p:83-111
    DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2013.866383
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2013.866383
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/20780389.2013.866383?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johan Fourie & Dieter von Fintel, 2010. "The Fruit of the Vine? An Augmented Endowments-Inequality Hypothesis and the Rise of an Elite in the Cape Colony," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-112, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Fourie, Johan & von Fintel, Dieter, 2010. "The Fruit of the Vine? An Augmented Endowments-Inequality Hypothesis and the Rise of an Elite in the Cape Colony," WIDER Working Paper Series 112, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Piraino, Patrizio & Muller, Sean & Cilliers, Jeanne & Fourie, Johan, 2013. "The transmission of longevity across generations: The case of the settler Cape Colony," SALDRU Working Papers 113, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    2. Sophia du Plessis & Ada Jansen & Dieter von Fintel, 2014. "Slave prices and productivity at the Cape of Good Hope from 1700 to 1725: did all settler farmers profit from the trade?," Working Papers 17/2014, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics, revised 2014.
    3. Dieter von Fintel & Sophia Du Plessis & Ada Jansen, 2013. "The Wealth Of Cape Colony Widows: Inheritance Laws And Investment Responses Following Male Death In The 17th And 18th Centuries," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 87-108, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:28:y:2013:i:2:p:83-111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rehd20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.