The Voortrekkers of this time were highly threatened by the liberalism of the new colonial administration and so they hoped to gain independence from Britain by restoring their economic, cultural and …show more content…
In order to be successful the trekkers knew they had to be heavily armed because of the fact that the trekkers were invading and conquering African lands and peoples . Armed with rifles, kruithoring and bandolier, the trekkers were fully prepared for a full force battle with the determination to overthrow African chiefdoms . During these commandos, and particularly in the eastern Transvaal, thousands of young children were captured.
These children that were captured were known as inboekelinge and became part of a slavery system known as the inboekeling system. These children were indentured to their masters until the age of 25, and 21 for women, and this system mimicked a slavery system . The origin of this slavery system started when Dutch settlers began to capture Khoi and San children and used them an indentured labourers . Inboekelinge were captured by the Dutch, bartered for or bought for cash . The majority of these children were in some way obtained by Boers through some form of …show more content…
The lead to the emergence and development of the sugar industry in Natal meant that there was a huge demand in mass production . This meant that it was essential for the Boer farmers to be able to supply mass sugar in order to remain competitive, and the expansion of their farms along with this meant there was a need for more workers . This increased the inboekeling system greatly.
Prior to the sugar demand, one of the driving forces into introducing slavery into the interior was the need for labour on the Dutch sheep and cattle farms. The children that were captured were used most commonly to manufacture soap, using sheep fat . This pattern of slave raiding across the Cape frontier continued into the early decades of the 19th century, without actually becoming a slave-trade system . Until the late 1820s, few of the communities that were being traded were actually strong enough to control any portion of the southern Highveld