The VOC establishes a settlement at the Cape

Abraham arrived aboard the Malacca after escaping his enslaver in Batavia. His arrival illustrates that enslaved people were present before the first large VOC slave shipments.

The Amersfoort anchored in Table Bay with 174 surviving captives taken from a Portuguese slave ship. This shipment entrenched chattel slavery in the developing Cape Colony.

The VOC slaver Hasselt arrived with 228 enslaved people taken from the West African coast. Together with the Amersfoort shipment, their arrival expanded forced labour at the Cape.

The colonial administration organized free settlers into an armed commando shortly before open conflict with Khoikhoi communities. The militia strengthened settler control over land and livestock.

Khoikhoi fighters led by Doman raided settler herds in an attempt to recover cattle and land appropriated along the Liesbeeck River. The raids opened the first sustained anti-colonial war at the Cape.