South African War - Flogging Book

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 161 MSS. Afr. s. 2323
  • Dates of Creation
      1901-1902
  • Language of Material
      English.
  • Physical Description
      12 ff. The book is in a fragile condition.

Scope and Content

Natives' flogging book, recording names, details of offences and punishmentsgiven at Provost Prison, November 1901-June 1902.

Administrative / Biographical History

The South African War, 1899-1902 had its origins in the rivalry between DutchAfrikaner (Boer) and British settlers in southern Africa which led by the middle of the 19th century to the emergence of four separate colonial territories - Cape Colony and Natal, under British rule, and Orange Free State and the South African Republic (later Transvaal), under Afrikaner control. Despite British refusal to officially recognise the Boer states, and the Boers' unwillingness to join a wider, Cape-governed Federation of South Africa, the four states managed an uneasy co-existence, though it was this basic difference of outlook and politics which was the eventual cause of the war.

From the outset, the co-existence of the two sides was often threatened. A British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 led to their decisive defeat at the hands of Boer forces at the Battle of Majuba Hill in 1881. There were minor conflicts in the 1880s and 1890s over neighbouring Bechuanaland, and influence over the Ndebele to the north. Gold was discovered in both the Boer republics, increasing their attraction to the British; and it was the perceived mistreatment of British residents in the Transvaal (many of them goldminers) which led to the ill-fated Jameson Raid on the Transvaal in 1897. It was an increasing nationalism on both sides, though, which helped spark a declaration of war on 11th October 1899.

It was the Boers who launched the initial offensives - against Mafeking, Kimberley, Nataland Eastern Cape, using Bloemfontein as a focal point, but, after lengthy sieges of Ladysmith, Mafeking,etc., they eventually surrendered their advantage. The British relieved the besiegedtowns, then took Bloemfonteinon 13th March 1900, and Pretoria in June. At thispoint, the British themselves allowed the Boers to regroup and change tactics, mountingan effective guerilla war. This the British countered by the use of a scorchedearth policy, the initiation of a concentration camp system, etc.. Eventually,the Boers were forced to concede defeat and on 31st May 1902 a peace treatywas signed at Vereeniging, removing the independence of the Boer territories.

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Note

Collection level description created by Paul Davidson, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

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