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Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves as voortrekkers, meaning "pioneers" or "pathfinders" (literally "fore-trekkers") in Dutch and Afrikaans. The Great Trek led directly to the founding of several autonomous Boer republics , namely the South African Republic (also known simply as the Transvaal), the Orange Free State and ...
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. On 29 June of the same year, the Uys Trek arrived at the combined Voortrekker laager at the Sand River where, unbeknownst to them, Piet Retief had been elected Governor and a constitution drafted.
Date/Time Thumbnail Dimensions User Comment; current: 11:21, 1 August 2013: 1,870 × 2,116 (2.49 MB): JMK {{Information |Description ={{en|1=Dick Cruikshanks as Piet Retief in the 1916 film, The Voortrekkers, or Winning a Continent (in the USA), produced for African Film Productions Ltd., from a scenario drafted by Gustav Preller, by motion picture prod...
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."
Among the Voortrekkers, 41 men, 56 women and 185 children were killed. [3] In addition another 250 [3] or 252 [4] Khoikhoi and Basuto who accompanied the Voortrekkers were killed, [5] bringing the casualties to 532–534. The murdered included George Biggar, the son of Alexander Biggar, a trader at Port Natal. Biggar and his second son, Robert ...
Retief was born to Jacobus and Debora Retief in the Wagenmakersvallei, Cape Colony, today the town of Wellington, South Africa.His family were Boers of French Huguenot ancestry: his great-grandfather was the 1689 Huguenot refugee François Retif, from Mer, Loir-et-Cher near Blois; the progenitor of the name in South Africa. [6]
Many Trekboers crossed the Orange River decades before the Voortrekkers did. Voortrekkers often encountered Trekboers in Transorangia during their Great Trek of the 1830s and 1840s. In 1815, a Trekboer/trader named Coenraad (Du) Buys (a surname of French Huguenot origin) was accused of cattle theft and fled from the British.
Their conservative outlook on life also affected their level of education detrimentally. Almost all the people who met the Thirstland Trekkers commented on their low level of education. [4] The “mak volk” was a group of labourers who accompanied the Thirstland Trekkers and adapted the way of life and spiritual culture of the Trekkers.