Francis William Reitz

Name: A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope
Author: Francis William Reitz

A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

Summary

“A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope”, published in 1900, is a work by Francis William Reitz. It explores elements such as the British Government, Boers and Kaffirs.

Quotes from A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (Francis William Reitz)

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ In the beautiful valleys lying between the blue mountains of the Cape of Good Hope they planted the seed-germ of liberty, which sprang up and has since developed with such startling rapidity into the giant tree of to-day – a tree which not only covers a considerable area in this part of the world, but will yet, in God's good time, we feel convinced, stretch out its leafy branches over the whole of South Africa. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ The cause for which we are about to take up arms is the same, though in somewhat different form, as that for which so many of our forefathers underwent the most painful experiences centuries ago, when they abandoned house and fatherland to settle at the Cape of Good Hope, to enjoy there that freedom of conscience which was denied them in the land of their birth. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ Under the cloak of religion British administration continued to display its hate against our people and nationality, and to conceal its self-seeking aims under cover of the most exalted principles. The aid of religion was invoked to reinforce the policy of oppression in order to deal a deeper and more fatal blow to our self-respect. Emissaries of the London Missionary Society slandered the Boers, and accused them of the most inhuman cruelties to the natives. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ In spite of the oppressive bonds of the East India Company, the young settlement, containing the noblest blood of old Europe as well as its most exalted aspirations, grew so powerfully that in 1806, when the Colony passed into the hands of England, a strong national sentiment and a spirit of liberty had already been developed. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ But they emerged from the ordeal triumphantly, and the records of the criminal courts of the Cape Colony bear indisputable witness to the fact that there were no people amongst the slave-owning classes of the world more humane than the Africander Boers. Their treatment of the natives was based on the theory that natives ought not to be considered as mature and fully developed people, but that they were in reality children who had to be won over to civilisation by just and rigid discipline ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ So, for example, the Africander Boers were forced to look with pained eyes on the scenes of their farms and property devastated by the natives without being in a position to defend themselves, because the British Government had even deprived them of their ammunition. In the same way the liberty-loving Africander burgher was coerced by a police composed of Hottentots, the lowest and most despicable class of the aborigines, whom the Africanders justly placed on a far lower social level than that of their own Malay slaves. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ Greyheads and widows who had lived in ease and comfort went down poverty-stricken to the grave, and gradually the hard fact was borne in upon us that there was no such thing as Justice for us in England. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ We despair of saving the Colony from those evils which threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants who are allowed to infest the country in every part; nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in a country thus distracted by internal commotions. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ We complain of the severe losses which we have been forced to sustain by the emancipation of our slaves, and the vexatious laws which have been enacted respecting them.
We complain of the continual system of plunder which we have for years endured from the Kaffirs and other coloured classes, and particularly by the last invasion of the Colony, which has desolated the frontier district and ruined most of the inhabitants. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ When the English obtained possession of the Cape Colony by convention, the Fish River formed the eastern boundary. The Kaffirs raided the Colony from time to time, but especially in 1834, when they murdered, plundered, and outraged the helpless Colonists in an awful and almost indescribable manner. The Governor was ultimately prevailed upon to free the strip of territory beyond the Fish River from the raids of the Kaffirs, and this was done by the aid of the Boers. But Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, reversed this policy and restored the whole territory to the natives. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis William Reitz, A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (1900)

“ We complain of the unjustifiable odium which has been cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons, under the name of religion, whose testimony is believed in England to the exclusion of all evidence in our favour ”

Francis William Reitz

Summary

Quotes from A Century of Wrong — The Cape of Good Hope (Francis William Reitz)

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