Belongings

Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa

An Exploration of Frontiers, 1725–c. 1830

Laura J. Mitchell

 

Fig. 6.8d. Hester Smit's Signature

Increased skills with quill and ink from one generation to the next suggests that the third generation of colonial settlers had time to pursue some form of education, and that their parents had more resources to devote to the family beyond the needs of immediate survival.

Courtesy of the Western Cape Archives and Records Service.
CA: MOOC 8/49.25, Estate Inventory of Schalk Willem Burger, 24 Sept. 1782

Increased skills with quill and ink from one generation to the next suggests that the third generation of colonial settlers had time to pursue some form of education, and that their parents had more resources to devote to the family beyond the needs of immediate survival.