Khoikhoi resistance begins the First Khoikhoi-Dutch War

Jan van Riebeeck arrived at Table Bay to establish a Dutch East India Company refreshment station. The settlement occupied land used by Khoikhoi communities and became the base of settler colonial...

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.

British forces attacked the Cape during the French Revolutionary Wars. The battle began Britain's first occupation and transferred colonial power without consulting the indigenous or enslaved...

Dutch colonial authorities surrendered the Cape to Britain. Indigenous communities and enslaved people remained subjected to colonial rule under a new imperial power.

The missionary Johannes van der Kemp arrived and later worked with Khoikhoi and Xhosa communities. His activities included criticism of settler abuses, although they also formed part of the missionary...

A British invasion defeated Batavian troops near Cape Town and began the second British occupation. Colonial rule over the Cape's African and enslaved population changed hands again.

More than 300 enslaved people and Khoikhoi labourers, led by Louis of Mauritius and others, attempted to end slavery and marched toward Cape Town. Colonial forces defeated the uprising and executed...