"A vague vision of a legion of Mephistopheles": the attitudes of four women to class and race on the Eastern Cape Frontier, 1843 - 1878.

Abstract

• Opsomming: Tussen 1843 en 1878 was vier besondere Europese vroue vir kort tydperke op die Kaapse oosgrens woonagtig. Komende uit die Europese middelklas, het die vroue sekere middelklaswaardes met hulle na die oosgrens saamgebring. Hulle het veral 'n duidelike onderskeid tussen heer en diensbode gemaak en was nie bereid om onder die andersoortige oosgrensomstandighede die opvattinge te verander nie. Nou gekoppel aan hul klasse en godsdienstige opvattinge was ook hulle rassevooroordele. Teenoor die swart "heidene" het hulle 'n gevoel van blanke superioriteit openbaar, hoewel hulle voortdurende kontak met die mense meegebring het dat hul opvattinge oor ras ietwat gewysig is.• Summary: This article evaluates the class and racial attitudes of four European women who lived on the Eastern Cape frontier between 1843 and 1878. Their cultural baggage included a rigid sense of class structures which defined relationships between people and especially that of master and servant. The women came from the middle class and there is no indication that they were prepared to accept the more egalitarian conditions which they experienced on the frontier. Their racial prejudices were bound up with their class ideologies and religious beliefs. Hence they retained a sense of European superiority and bias against the "heathen", but their contact with the indigenous people did modify their views slightly.