Death Notes

Regarding Margaretha Gerrits murder. {The court case reference is: AR VOC 4030 (14 Mar 1692) fol 328.} Maria/Marie van Negapatnam was the slave girl of Margaretha Gerrits and Jan Coenraad Visser. On a Friday evening in March 1692, the slave girl Maria and her mistress Margaretha was working in the kitchen, when a household slave Claas van Mallebar, passed through the kitchen on the way to chop wood in the yard. Margaretha scolded at Claas for not getting the wood in time for her baking, and she refused to believe his excuse that he was on the mountain looking for the cow. Claas then said: "Jou oud hond, Jij moogste den selvs gaan haalen" - You old dog, go and fetch it yourself! Margaretha then attempted to strike Claas, but he lifted his axe and buried the axe in her neck. It was fatal and her her head was almost decapitated. This occurred in front of Maria, Robert Shell, p 219 states that after this murder, Maria van Negapatnam ran to Visser (senior) and cried: "Baas, Baas! Moeder is dood! Moeder is dood!". Shell explains that at the Cape, slaves considered the mistress as both mistress and mother, and the masters as fathers. But in this case, depending on when Maria had children of Coenraad Visser (junior), ironically she may have been her de facto mother-in-law.