1658 — Slavery Begins at the Cape

On March 28, 1658, the Dutch East India Company's Amersfoort dropped anchor in Table Bay carrying one hundred and seventy-four enslaved Africans seized from a Portuguese slaver, the first large shipment of enslaved people to South Africa. Seventy-five remained at the Cape; the rest were carried on to Batavia, far across the sea.

That arrival began nearly two centuries of bondage at the Cape. That same year saw the first political prisoner banished to Robben Island. A single ship's anchor in Table Bay opened a long and painful chapter, and the memory of those days still shapes the nation's culture today.