ABSTRACT
As the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie refreshment station at the Cape developed into a colony, it produced a diverse number of fugitives whose greatest desire was to remove themselves from the strictures of its laws. At the level of lived experience, however, there was increasingly little to distinguish their lives from those of other unfree laborers on colonial farms. One of the most important factors in determining their subservient status was the influence on labor relations exerted by the struggle occurring within the frontier zone. The 1739 victory of colonial commandos had resulted in the subjugation of all the Khoisan south of Namaqualand and west of the Roggeveld. Oude Rooij, a Khoikhoi, was known to his mother, Griet, as Jantjie. He was commonly known nevertheless as Oude Rooij, in order to distinguish him from his two sons, Klyn Jantjie Rooi and Rooi Rooi.
