Christian Jacobus Groepe: Oosgrenspionier en veldkommandant van Katrivier

Abstract

Christian Jacobus Groepe: Eastern Frontier pioneer and Field-Commandant of Kat
River:
The father of Christian Jacobus Groepe (1789-1886) was the German H.C.A. Groepe who came to the Cape in 1775 from Rüssingen. It has been established that his mother, Maria, was of slave descent and was born in the Cape Colony. As tenant farmers in the area of Swagershoek, Uitenhage, the Groepe family prospered and moved in the 1820s to the Baviaans River area which is immediately to the north of the present day Bedford where they rented a farm from the Pringles. Christian Groepe soon met his white neighbours and apparently there existed mutual respect between them in spite of the colour divide. From 1829 the Groepes were landowners in the Kat River settlement where Christian soon progressed from being field-cornet to the high rank of “veldkommandant” (field-commandant) of the area. In this article his important role in the settlement and in the frontier wars is discussed as well as the respect that he enjoyed from both the inhabitants and the government

Keywords: C.J. Groepe, Field-commandant, Kat River Settlement, Eastern Frontier Wars, W.R. Thomson, James Read, Andries Stockenström, political undercurrents in the Kat River Settlement, Kat River Rebellion

South Africa Journal of Cultural History Vol. 22 (1) 2008: pp. 29-55