Jan Jacobsz: from enslaved man to farmer

The early history of the Riebeek Valley includes enslaved people as well as settlers, and some of their stories survive in the records.

Jan Jacobsz was enslaved by Christina de Bruijn, known as Stintjie, the widow of Jan Botma of Kloovenburg. She freed him and left him the farm Zonquasdrift on the Berg River. The records differ on where he came from: one source calls him Jacobs van Macassar, another describes him as coming from Angola.

In 1737 Jan Jacobsz became the owner and farmer of Allesverloren, one of the four original farms of the valley.

His life is a reminder that the valley's farms were built by many hands, and that the people who worked them came from across Africa and Asia as well as Europe.