Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Great Trek was not universally popular among the settlers either. Around 12,000 of them took part in the migration, about a fifth of the colony's Dutch-speaking white population at the time. [2] [15] The Dutch Reformed Church, to which most of the Boers belonged, explicitly refused to endorse the Great Trek. [2]
The subsequent favourable reports of the Commission Treks resulted in many farmers leaving their farms and trekking into the interior of Southern Africa, in what later became known as the Great Trek. Uys sold his own farm in December 1836 and left the Uitenhage area with his party of 100 Voortrekkers (as they became known) in April 1837.
Marthinus Jacobus Oosthuizen (October 14, 1818 – April 2, 1897) was a Voortrekker farmer known for his heroism in battle. He was born near Uitenhage and joined the "Groot Trek" (Great Trek). He became famous for his heroism during a battle on 16 February 1838 shortly after the murder of Piet Retief and his delegation, and the massacres of ...
Potgieter chose the one on the plain, while Uys decided to attack the hill in front of the commando. The pack horses were left here and Uys crossed the Nzololo. He continued along the deep pools of the Reed creek and crossed it some 120m further, swinging north to ascend Italeni Hill where the white shields were waiting.
The conflict was the catalyst for Piet Retief's manifesto and the Great Trek. In total, 40 farmers (Boers) were killed and 416 farmhouses were burnt down. In addition, 5,700 horses, 115,000 head of cattle, and 162,000 sheep were plundered by Xhosa tribespeople. In retaliation, sixty thousand Xhosa cattle were taken or retaken by colonists.
Jan Gerritze Bantjes (Beaufort West, 8 July 1817 – Potchefstroom, 10 March 1887) was a Voortrekker [1] [2] [3] whose exploration of the Natal and subsequent report were the catalyst for mobilising the Great Trek. He was also the author of the treaty between the Zulu king Dingane kaSenzangakhona and the Voortrekkers under Andries Pretorius. [4]
The carronade used during the battle on an improvised carriage Andries Pretorius brought with him from the Cape. The trekkers—called Voortrekkers after 1880 [4] —had to defend themselves after the betrayal murder of chief Trekker leader Piet Retief and his entire entourage, and ten days later the Weenen/Bloukrans massacre where "not a soul was spared."
Beginning in 1835, several groups of Boers, together with large numbers of Khoikhoi and black servants, decided to trek off into the interior in search of greater independence. North and east of the Orange River (which formed the Cape Colony's frontier) these Boers or Voortrekkers (" Pioneers ") found vast tracts of apparently uninhabited ...