Extracts from the St Helena Records

Extracts from the St Helena Records. 

Extracts from the St Helena Records bied ’n seldsame blik op bykans honderd-en-sestig jaar van die geskiedenis en wel-en-weë van St Helena – die klein eiland wat ’n sleutelposisie op die Britse seeroete na die Ooste bekleë het. Die boek, wat die geskiedenis van die eiland vanaf 1673 tot die vroeë 1830s volg, is deur die toentydse goewerneur van St Helena, HR Janisch, saamgestel uit die oorspronklike rekords.

Die versameling sluit uittreksels in uit briewe van die Direkteure in Londen, instruksies aan opeenvolgende goewerneurs, notules van die Raad, hofverslae, bevolkingsyfers en beskrywings van alledaagse gebeure. Lesers sien hoe die vroeë burgers gevestig is, hoe grond en vee geallokeer is, en hoe arbeid en dissipline streng gereguleer is. Die leser kry ook insae in verdediging, voorsiening en handel, sowel as in die harde werklikhede van slawerny, straf en sosiale beheer.

Later inskrywings wys hoe St Helena se rol binne die Britse Ryk verander: die invloed van oorloë en wêreldhandel, ekonomiese voorspoed en insinkings, wisselende rassestrukture en sosiale grense, en die geleidelike beweging na die beperking en uiteindelike afskaffing van slawerny. Napoleon Bonaparte se aankoms en ballingskap verskyn hier nie as romantiese legende nie, maar as deel van die daaglikse administrasie van ’n geïsoleerde garnisoen en sy inwoners.

Dit is nie ’n mooi afgeronde vertellende geskiedenis nie, maar ’n dokumentêre een: kort notules, formele korrespondensie en soms skokkend-eerlike beskrywings van muiterye, epidemies, storms, misdaad en straf. Saam vorm hulle ’n onmisbare bron vir historici en familie met bande met St Helena.

Vir beide navorsers en belangstellende lesers bied Extracts from the St Helena Records die rou brondokumente waaruit die geskiedenis van St Helena weer saamgestel kan word – in die woorde van dié wat daar regeer en gewoon het.

Taal:   Engels
Bladsye:   170
Formaat: Aflaaibare PDF (±1.2Mb)

Extracts from the St Helena Records. 

Extracts from the St Helena Records opens a rare window onto more than a century and a half of life on one of the most strategically important islands in the South Atlantic. Compiled from the original Record Books at the Castle by Hudson Ralph Janisch, C.M.G., governor of St Helena, these documents have been carefully transcribed and arranged to tell, in official voices of the time, the story of the island from 1673 to 1835.

The volume brings together letters from the Court of Directors in London, instructions to successive governors, proceedings of the island council, legal cases, population returns and vivid reports of everyday events. Readers encounter early efforts to settle planters, allocate land and regulate labour; debates over defence, provisioning and trade; and the harsh realities of slavery, punishment and social control.

Later entries trace St Helena’s changing place in the wider British world: the impact of imperial wars, economic booms and crises, shifting racial and social hierarchies, and early moves toward the restriction and eventual abolition of slavery. The arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte and the transformation of the island into his place of exile appear here not as romantic legend, but as part of the routine concerns of governors, soldiers and officials trying to manage an isolated garrison community.

This is not a narrative history polished by later interpretation, but a documentary one: terse minute-book entries, formal correspondence and sometimes startlingly frank descriptions of mutinies, epidemics, storms, crimes and punishments. Together they offer an indispensable resource for historians and for family with St Helena connections, as well as for anyone interested in how a small island sat at the crossroads of empire.

For researchers and general readers alike, Extracts from the St Helena Records provides the raw material from which the history of St Helena can be reconstructed in the words of those who governed, inhabited and passed through it.

Language:   English
Pages:   170
Format:  Downloadable PDF (±1.2Mb)