Free Burghers in the Dutch Cape Colony

Not to be confused with Grand Burgher, Burgher (Church history), Hamburger University, or Burgher people. For information with regards to the Burghers of the Boer republics (1852–1902) visit the page: Burgher (Boer republics)
Cape free burghers depicted in a 1908 illustration by J. R. Skelton.

Free Burghers (Dutch: Vrijburgher, Afrikaans: Vryburger) were early European colonists in the 18th century who had been released of their service contracts to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and had become full citizens (burghers). The introduction of Free Burghers to the Dutch Cape Colony is regarded as the beginning of a permanent settlement of Europeans in South Africa.[1] The Free Burgher population eventually devolved into two distinct segments separated by social status, wealth, and education: the Cape Dutch and the Boers.[2]

  1. ^ "Afrikaner". South African History Online.
  2. ^ Ross, Robert (1999). Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners. Philadelphia: Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–58. ISBN 978-0521621229.