In the 19th century, the Cape Colony displayed a seemingly insatiable appetite for cheap, unskilled labour in commercial agriculture, domestic service, mining and for public works. During the 1877–78 War of Ngcayecibi, or ninth frontier war, the colonial government captured, deported and indentured thousands of Xhosa men, women and children to address perceived labour shortages. Children as young as six years of age could be indentured for periods of up to 12 years. The policy of using the war to create a pool of cheap, exploitable labour was dressed up as ‘civilising’ Africans. This article seeks to address gaps in the historiography of the forced labour scheme by examining its scope and scale and the experiences and responses of people who were forced into servitude. I argue that forced labour was as much a political and cultural intervention as an economic one, and that it formed part of a broader colonial policy of establishing the dominance of the colonial state over Africans.

中文翻译：

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海角殖民地的历史学家，总理和强迫劳动，1878年至1879年

在19世纪，Cape Colony对在商业农业，家政服务，采矿和公共工程领域的廉价，非熟练劳动力表现出了似乎永不满足的胃口。在1877-78年的Ngcayecibi战争（或第9次边防战争）中，殖民地政府俘获，驱逐并签下了数千名科萨人，以解决人们普遍认为的劳动力短缺问题。六岁以下的儿童可签约长达12岁。用战争创造廉价，可剥削的劳动力的政策被装扮成“文明”的非洲人。本文旨在通过研究强迫劳动计划的范围和规模以及被迫奴役的人们的经验和对策，来解决强迫劳动计划史上的空白。