Claas van Guinea1

M, #15751, b. circa 1647

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Last Edited22/07/2016
BirthOrigin*Claas was from and may have been born there circa 1647. The date is estimated.2 
(Slave) ShipVoyage On 10 September 1657 the Hasselt departed the Cape (after an earlier false start) for Angola and the coast of 'Guinea' with orders to acquire slaves for the Cape. They had been deterred from attempting to purchase slaves at the bay of Luanda de St. Paulo by the presence of four other ships anchored there, and sailed on. They went first to Cape Lopez on the Gabonese coast for water and wood, and then proceeded to Andra, a slave-trading centre on the coast of upper Guinea. The vessel arrives at the Cape with 226 or 228 [different figures recorded contemporaneously] remaining from 271 originally embarked. Forty three or 45 died enroute and some women were already pregnant according to a later account. Eighty of the best 'Guinea' slaves were sent on to Batavia, and at the Cape a few abscond and many succomb to illness — by 5 March 1659 only 41 remain. The slaves had been purchased at what is now Grand Popo in present day Benin and would have come from as far afield as Sudan. The Hasslt arrived back at the Cape on 6 May 1658 and its slave cargo was discharged the following day. The following slaves would most likely have been among those who survived at the Cape: Abraham van Guinea, Adouke van Guinea, Anna van Guinea, Claas van Guinea, Deuxsous van Guinea, Evert van Guinea, Koddo van Guinea, Louis van Guinea, Maria van Guinea, Oude Hans van Guinea, Pieter van Guinea, Regina van Rapenberg van Guinea and Gegeima van Guinea.3,4 
CivilSuit* Before 11 August 1696 Claas van Guinea and Jan Luy van Ceylon were the protagonists in a civil suit in which, on this date Claas van Guinea made a joint declaration in the case.5,6 
Slave TransactionsBetween 8 May 1658 and 1 September 1674 Claas van Guinea was sold by an unknown person to Dirck Jansz Smient, this transaction is assumed as Smiendt later sells Claes to Johannes Pretorius.
On 1 September 1674 Claas van Guinea and Nicolaas van Jafnapatnam were sold by Dirck Jansz Smient to Johannes Pretorius, for f 1 500 and a skuldbrief for f 5 750 payable in equal annual instalments over the coming four years. The transaction included a house, stables, erf and garden of 2 morgen 89 roods, 56 cattle, (34 stuks hom toebehoort?) 9 oxen, 2 cows, 6 more cows, 4 heifers, and one bull calf, 2 closed wagons, garden equipment, etc. I have assumed Niclaes to be the slave purchased by Smient in 1672.7

Citations

  1. [S607] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Kaapse notariële stukke waarin slawe van vryburgers en amptenare vermeld word (II), Die tweede Dekade 1671-1680", Kronos (Die notariële stukke II) 15 (1999): 1.9.1674     T 139      T 396          CTD 6, p. 174
    ... Claas van Guinea .... Hereinafter cited as "Die notariële stukke II."
  2. [S418] Anna J. Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700 (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1977), p.129.. Hereinafter cited as Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700.
  3. [S810] Mansell Upham 'At Earth's Extremest End… Op 't eijnde van de Aerd … The genealogical impact of the 'Angola' & 'Guinea' slaves at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century', First Fifty Years, Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), (http://e-family.co.za/ffy/ui66.htm), August 2014. "pp. 5, 22-27."
  4. [S418] Anna J. Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700, pp.10, 12.
  5. [S810] Mansell Upham 'UL 20 At Earth's Extremest End…', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "pp. 53-54. Marij van Gene and Prodo (Prede) van Gene [Koddo] sign a notarial declaration (11 August 1696). Upham cites CA: 1/STB 18/153. The two women are described as 'van Gene' - a spelling not uncommonly used for the provenance of the 'Guinea' slaves."
  6. [S665] Mansell Upham 'Johanna Kemp - An enquiry into the ancestry of the Cape-born Johanna Kemp (c. 1689-1778) - wife of Jacob Krüger (from Sadenbeck)', First Fifty Years, Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), (This article is under review), March 2012. "On 11 August 1696 Prodo and Maria van Guinea make a joint declaration tabled during a civil suit between Paaij Claes van Guinea and Jan Leeuw / Luij van Ceylon. Upham cites CA: 1/STB 18/153. The two women are described as 'van Gene' - a spelling not uncommonly used for the provenance of the 'Guinea' slaves."
  7. [S607] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Die notariële stukke II", 1.9.1674     T 139      T 396          CTD 6, p. 174
    Dircq Jansen Smient, luitenant in diens, verkoop aan Joannes Pretorius, vryburger, in skepenkennis die woonhuis, stalle, erf en tuin groot 2 morg … roeden en twee lyfeies genaamd Claas van Guinea en Niclaes, die eerste na aansien oud … en die tweede … jaar, asook 56 stuks beeste, 34 stuks hom toebehoort, 9 osse en 2 koeie, 11 stuks van die Kompanjie gekoop teen f 12 elk, verder 11 stuks, te wete 6 koeie, 4 verse en een bulkalf, wat hy van Gonnema se buit, indien hy ‘n wa sou gehad het, soos die ander dienaars en vryliede, daarvan geneem het, verkoop nog daarvan 2 hegte waens met hulle volle [?], asook al die tuingereedskap, skopgrawe, ens. soos alles op die erf en tuin gelee in Tafelvallei, begrensende … aan die tuin van burger Elbert Diemer en … die daarvoor verbylopende waweg, soos blyk uit die grondbriewe van … vir f 1 500 en ‘n skuldbrief van f 5 750 betaalbaar oor die eersvolgende vier jaar in gelyke dele. [In die skuldbrief word die grootte aangegee as 2 morg 89 roede en begrens aan die westelike sy deur Diemer, N na die fort, O Wind berg, S Tafelberg en W die tuin van Diemer].
 

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