Susanna van Bengale

F, #2515, b. circa 1640, d. 13 December 1669

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NGK (Cape Town) Baptisms 1665-1695NGK (Cape Town) Baptisms 1665-1695
Last Edited11/07/2015
Birth*Susanna van Bengale was born circa 1640.1
 
Death*She died on 13 December 1669. She was executed by being sown into a sack and thrown into the ocean.2
 

Family
Children
(Convict) ShipVoyage On 18 December 1657 the Malacca departed Batavia enroute to de Caep de Goede Hoop where it docked on 6 March 1658. Evidently on board was Susanna Een Oor van Bengale, a convict banished to the Cape for an unknown offense.3,4 
Interrogation* On 11 December 1669 Susanna van Bengale was was interrogated about the death of her daughter Elsje. It was only after she was tortured (thumb screws were applied) that she confessed to strangling her daughter out of desperation because she was unable to feed the infant and her pleas for help were refused.5 
Names in the record, in publications, etc.8 December 1669, the name of Susanna was written in the record as Susanna Een Oor van Bengale.6
Monsterrollen and Opgaafrollen (Muster and tax rolls)On 5 March 1659 Susanna van Bengale was enumerated in the muster roll The Lodge, (Cape Town), she was enumerated with Groote Catrijn and the former soldier Domingo van Batavia, all convicts for life sent from Batavia.7,8
In 1662 Susanna van Bengale was enumerated in the muster roll de Caep de Goede Hoop.9
Crime and relatedOn 1 December 1669 Susanna van Bengale strangled her baby daughter, Elsje van de Caep. She was ill, and unable to feed the crying child because her milk had dried up. None of the other slave women in the Lodge were willing to suckle her child or help in any way. Elsje dies 8 days later.10
Slaves Owned by the CompanyOn 28 March 1666 Susanna van Bengale was enslaved and owned by the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) at the Cape.11
On 17 June 1669 Susanna van Bengale was enslaved and owned by the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) at the Cape.12

Citations

  1. [S21] Date estimated by compiler, Delia Robertson and, unless there is corroborating information, should not be considered as anything more than a guide.
  2. [S758] Mansell Upham 'Consecrations to God: The 'nasty, brutish, and short' life of SUSANNA from BENGAL otherwise known as 'ONE EAR' - 2nd recorded female convict at the VOC-occupied Cape of Good Hope', First Fifty Years, Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), (http://e-family.co.za/ffy/ui66.htm), September 2012. "In terms of tempering justice with mercy, the court sentences Susanna to be tied in a bag and taken to the roadstead. There she is to be tossed into the sea by the executioner so that death will ensue … "letting the body reside there until one like the fish" ... On 12 December 1669 the Journal confirms Susanna's conviction and sentence:
    "December 12th. - This evening the Council decreed that the female slave, above mentioned, should be tied up in a bag and thrown into the sea. The minister [Adrianus de Voogd] and sick comforter [Joannes à Bolte(n)] were accordingly sent to her, to admonish her to repentence [sic] of what she had done, so that she might in a Christian manner prepare herself for death to-morrow afternoon.""
  3. [S795] Website The Dutch East India Company's shipping between the Netherlands and Asia 1595-1795 (http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/das/search) "Number     5454.7
    Name of ship     MALAKKA
    Master     Munt, Jan
    Tonnage     1100
    Type of ship     
    Built     
    Yard     Amsterdam
    Chamber     Amsterdam
    Date of departure     18-12-1657
    Place of departure     Batavia
    Arrival at Cape     06-03-1658
    Departure from Cape     19-03-1658
    Date of arrival at destination     24-07-1658
    Place of arrival     Wielingen
    Chamber for which cargo is destined     Amsterdam (258,198)
    Particulars     
    Previous outward voyage     0862.7."
  4. [S758] Mansell Upham 'UL08 Consecrations to God', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "Banished to the Cape of Good Hope, the convict Susanna van Bengale evidently arrives from Batavia (6 March 1658) on board the ship Malacca. ... Although the trial papers relating to the sentence of Susanna were also despatched to the Cape, these - despite a thorough search - are not found preserved at the Cape Archives."
  5. [S758] Mansell Upham 'UL08 Consecrations to God', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "On 11 December 1669, the smallpox-infested Susanna is arrested, tortured and a confession extracted. In thumbscrew-induced compliance, Susanna admits to tying a belt around her child's neck and murdering her daughter. She has no milk of her own to breastfeed her infant. None of the other slave women are willing to help suckle her child or even help her in any other way. Being sick, she can no longer bear her predicament and resolves to quickly end her situation by doing what she did."
  6. [S758] Mansell Upham 'UL08 Consecrations to God', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "Note46. ...en moeder van 't selve genaemt Susanna, alias Een Oor)..."
  7. [S758] Mansell Upham 'UL08 Consecrations to God', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "Susanna first appears as Susanna in the muster roll (5 March 1659). Susanna appears together with the Cape's other "black" convicts-for-life sent from Batavia."
  8. [S647] Precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope, Letters Despatched 1652-1662 to which are added land grants, attestations, Journal of voyage to Tristan da Cunha, names of freemen, &c. Vol III, H.C.V. Leibrandt; (Cape Town, South Africa: W.A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1900), p.297.. Hereinafter cited as Precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope.
  9. [S758] Mansell Upham 'UL08 Consecrations to God', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "We find Susanna again listed in the muster roll (1662) together with the rest of the Cape's convict population:
    "Susanna and Catharina [Groote Catrijn] from Batavia for life, a Chinaman [Waniko] for another 4 years and Gerrit Gerritsz from Lier for 1 and 3/4 years for misdemeanours committed at the Cape"."
  10. [S758] Mansell Upham 'UL08 Consecrations to God', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "She has no milk of her own to breastfeed her infant. None of the other slave women are willing to help suckle her child or even help her in any other way.
    Note 46. ...op primo deser des nagts met een touw gewurgt, en sodanigh gehandelt is, dat 't er voorsz kint op 8e daaraanvolgende is komen te overleijden;."
  11. [S397] NGK G1 1/1, Nederduitsch Gereformeerde Kerk, Kerken Boek (Bapt.), 1665-1695: 28 dito (Maert) is geoopt een soon van een van de E.Comp: slavinnen en genaemt Andries de moeder heet Susanna, transcribed by Richard Ball, Norfolk, England, (May 2006), Genealogical Society of South Africa, eGSSA Branch http://www.eggsa.org/. Hereinafter cited as Nederduitsch Gereformeerde Kerk, Kerken Boek (Bapt.).
  12. [S397] NGK G1 1/1, Nederduitsch Gereformeerde Kerk, Kerken Boek (Bapt.): An. 1669
    Den 17 Junij
    een slaevinne kint van de E.Compang' wiert genaemt Elsje. De moeders naem Susan tot getuyge stont Mr. Johan Bol an unknown place en uyt naem van den E.Heer ensyn Raedz, 1665-1695, Genealogical Society of South Africa, eGSSA Branch http://www.eggsa.org/
  13. [S687] VC 603, Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, baptisms. Cape Archives Verbatim Copies, (1665-1696), Western Cape Archives and Records Service, Roeland Street, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa: An. 1669
    den 17 junij: een slavinne kint van de E. Compang: wiert genaemt Elsje. de moeders naem [deleted half-completed word] Susan tot getuyge [deleted error] stont Mr [Magister] Johan Bolten uyt naem van de E.[dele] heer en syn raedt.
    [Thanks to Mansell Upham for corrected transcription.]. Photocopy image thanks to Mansell Upham. Hereinafter cited as Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, baptisms.
 

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