Oppression, sexuality and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope.

During the c igh tecn th Century the Cape was a malc-dominatcd society, at least in numcrica! terms. In 1749, for inslaucc, the i:iuif l ist s revcal that among thosc taxed \vcrc 4,871 a d u l t nialcs (made up of 1.243 hu r^hc r s , scvcnty-fivc frcc blacks, c i y h t y t h r e e kiicïhis. w h o wcrc soldier* and sailors relcascd hy the Dutch Hast Ind ia Company t o \u i rk for hurplicrs. and .1.-Ï70 slavcs). In add i t ion , t l icrc were 1.067 Company .scrvants. r ang ing in s t a t u s froni the (iovcnior. l l c n d r i c k Swcllcnjjrebel . to M c i u l r i c k l ' ictcrs \ a n ( Ja lc . \vlio had a l i c a d y spcnl e ightecn ycars as a p r i soner on Robben I s l a n d , rccorded in the mus tc r rolls of the samc ycar.' Asaj ' .a inst t h i s . t h c i-f>t;iui/ l ists rccordcd 1.72S a d u l t woincn. made up of 774 hi i i j ; l iers ' wivcs or widows, sevcn unmarr ied a d u l t w l i i t c s ( a l t h o u g h :it least one of these w.is u n m a r r i c d only in law), n inety-one I ree black womcn, of whom i w c n t y t h r e c uerc married and th r ec widows. and K57 slaves. If on ly the rccordcd popcla t ion is t aken in io account , then t l i c rc ucrc 344 men toevery l iundrcd womcn. Nor was t h i s ycar cxcep l iona l . H s s c n t i a l l y s imi lar l i^ures could hc givcn f o r a n y ycar in the e i^hiccnth C e n t u r y .