Murder of the slave Joris
2008-07-31
Lise Beyers
THIS year is an important historical landmark for the area. It is the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Cape Colony. And the Drakenstein area has a rich heritage of slaves, with their blood still running deep in this valley which they helped build. Slaves were mainly imported to South Africa from India, Mozambique, West Africa and Madgascar by the Dutch and English colonisers of the Cape, because the local population was found to be unwilling to succumb to their demands. A dark reminder of the plight of the slaves is hidden in the Paarl Museum, in the form of a grey slate tombstone, decorated only by three skulls and crossbones. This is the headstone of a church minister’s son, Wilhelm Gebhart, who was hang- ed for the murder of a slave. Wilhelm and his family lived on Simons-vlei farm, on the edges of Paarl South. Simonsvlei was one of the largest and most productive farms of the time, and thus also owned an abundance of slaves. Wilhelm (22) was according to reports master of the slaves and had a staunch approach to them. On 10 September 1822 Wilhelm went to inspect the work of a group of slaves on the farm close to the Simonsberg. On arrival he was informed that a slave known as Joris of Mozambique had not been performing his tasks satisfactorily. Joris had already been beaten by the foreman and Wilhelm took it upon himself to continue the punishment. He ordered fellow slaves to hold Joris down, while he continued to flog him with bundles of quince branches. Hereafter the slaves were instructed to carry Joris home, at times dragging him on the ground, as he had been so badly beaten that he could not walk. Once back at the homestead, Wilhelm commanded a slave to continue with the beating of Joris, which carried on throughout the night under his merciless eye. Joris eventually succumbed to his painful injuries and died the next morning. A fellow slave reported the murder to a magistrate, and Wilhelm was charged with murder. He was tried and found guilty in Cape Town, and sentenced to death. Wilhelm’s death sentence was one of very few cases of a white man being hanged for the death of a slave. It was evident that the British rulers of the Colony wanted to make an example of Wilhelm to landowners that this type of behaviour will no longer be tolerated. On the other hand, the local legend of Wilhelm Gebhart tells a different story. Wilhelm’s mother was the daughter of a wealthy Dutch businessman. When she fell pregnant with an illegitimate child in Holland, he convinced a junior church minister, JWL Gebhart, to marry her and thus escape embarrassment for the family. Part of this deal included financial remuneration and promotion, as well as a handsome inheritance for the businessman’s grandson once he reached twenty-one. Shortly hereafter the Gebhart family was transferred from Holland to the Cape Colony, where he became Dutch Reformed Minister in Paarl. Gebhart’s wife later died during childbirth and the reverend then married the widow of Simonsvlei. According to legend, the pastor was a money grabber. Once at the helm of the successful farm, his duties as churchman went out the back door. Wilhelm on the other hand, was a popular, soft hearted man. On the fateful day in September 1822, it was reportedly the minister that gave Wilhelm the task of beating Joris. He reluctantly followed his stepfather’s orders. That evening he told his stepmother that he detested these actions and wanted to leave the farm. Joris was found dead the next day and the blame was put on Wilhelm’s shoulders. Gebhart immediately distanced himself from his stepson. The court case divided the Colony and the eventual hanging of Wilhelm saw hundreds of sympathisers lining the streets of Cape Town singing hymns in support of Wilhelm. The legend ends in a conspiracy theory. The pastor had to hand over Wilhelm’s inheritance, and it was in fact he that orchestrated the killing of Joris. Many years later, Wilhelm’s forgotten tombstone was discovered on the slope of Paarl Mountain in the Mill Street area, where it was being used as a footbridge over a stream. Wilhelm’s innocence has been widely argued, but the fact remains that this story emphasises the conditions which slaves were subjected to during the early years of the colony. Joris was just one slave who fell victim to the whip, but many more also fell, whose stories remain unwritten.
More
News
|
