Part 1 introduced the scheme of Benjamin Moodie, heir to the Melsetter Estate, Walls, Orkney, to transport 200 indentured Scots, skilled men, to the Cape.

When absent from the Cape, visiting England, he was replaced on a temporary basis by Sir Rufane Donkin.

Slavery was abolished in the UK by 1772 and The Slave Trade Act 1807 prohibited the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire, however, the owning of slaves was still legal. This was the case in the Cape . The Slavery Abolition Act 1833  abolished slavery in the British Empire by way of compensated emancipation. 

There shall be an officer Cape Town for the purpose of keeping exact Registers of all slaves within the colony – Commercial Chronicle, London, 20 November 1817, page 2.

All owners of slaves in the colony had to register with details of the sale of a slave with a certificate of transaction.

Slavery v Indentured Workers

The 200 men who signed an indenture agreement to go the the Cape with Benjamin Moodie did so freely. There was, however, very few prospects for skilled men in the Scotland of 1816. The ending of the wars with France had left the UK Treasury in a bad way with a soaring National Debt. There was famine, unemployment, extreme poverty, and many sought a life across the seas. The enclosing of land resulted in thousands being evicted from the small farms they had worked for generations. The Highlands Clearances have become the most infamous, but clearing the land of its people began first in the fertile lands of the South of Scotland. Many of the men who were to become indentured to Moodie had been evicted from estates in East Lothian and Midlothian.

The indentured men were bound to Benjamin Moodie in a legal contract. If they could not pay for their passage out to the Cape (£30) and their accommodation, then it would be taken out of wages they would earn when hired out. The price owed for passage would be doubled. Some men also required a cash advancement which of course had to be paid back. If they were not in the first batch who went out on the Brilliant, their accommodation as they waited transport on the Garland and the Clyde, was also taken out of any future wages they might earn.

Moodie’s scheme was not popular with many of the white settlers in the Cape because slave owning was prevalent. Although they were perfectly comfortable owning black men, women and children as slaves, they considered it wrong to use these white indentured men which to them was a kind of slavery. They also viewed it as a threat to their own businesses as slave owners if skilled men were to seek employment where once their black slaves would be used.

Nevertheless, the first batch of men who went out on the Brilliant were soon hired out by Moodie. Accounts for all the costs the men accrued were kept and there is a Ledger belonging to Benjamin Moodie in the Orkney Archives. Very few were able to buy themselves out of the indenture. Dutch was the sole official language until 1822, when the British officially replaced Dutch with English. The currency in the Cape was Dutch (Rixdollars, Rd)), and only replaced in 1825 by British £ Sterling.

John Whitelaw, a Millwright, was charged over 1Rd for his shirts being washed, and William Baxter, a Lawyer, possibly with more shirts and of a better quality, was charged 3Rd. There were charges for clothing, medicine and food. Robert Millar, a Mason, had accrued expenses for Clothing of over 139Rd, with board, lodging and passage, 120Rd. A comment about him in the Ledger states:

“the work received from him was not equal in value to the advance made him.”

Although they were not slaves, the ownership of the indentured men could be transferred and bought by another owner.

Cape Town, August 17, 1820:

This is to certify that the undersigned is agreeable that Messrs. Kilpatrick & Syme should have it in their power to purchase his indenture from B. Moodie Esqr. and no person else whatever,

David Patterson (signed)

David Paterson was a Tinsmith.

The second vessel, the Garland with 49 men on board left Gravesend on 6 May 1817 with Alexander Brown as Master. It arrived in Cape Town on 23 August 1817.

What happened next? Find out in Part 3.

Fiona Grahame

Benjamin Moodie and 200 Indentured Scots : Part 1

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