History of Cape Colony From 1806 To 1870 - 1820 Settlers

1820 Settlers

The war of 1817–19 led to the first wave of immigration of English settlers of any considerable scale, an event with far-reaching consequences. The then governor, Lord Charles Somerset, whose treaty arrangements with the Xhosa chiefs had proved untenable, desired to erect a barrier against the Xhosa by having white colonists settle in the border region. In 1820, upon the advice of Lord Somerset, parliament voted to spend £50,000 to promote migration to the Cape, prompting 4,000 British people to emigrate. These immigrants, who are now known as the 1820 Settlers, formed the Albany settlement, later Port Elizabeth, and made Grahamstown their headquarters. Intended primarily as a measure to secure the safety of the frontier, and regarded by the British government chiefly as a way of finding employment for a few thousand of the unemployed in Britain. Yet, the emigration scheme accomplished something with more far reaching implications than its authors had intended. The new settlers, drawn from every part of the United Kingdom and from almost every grade of society, retained strong loyalty to Britain. In the course of time, they formed a counterpoint to the Dutch colonists.

The arrival of these immigrants also introduced the English language to the Cape. English language ordinances were issued for the first time in 1825, and in 1827, its use was extended to the conduct of judicial proceedings. Dutch was not, however, ousted, and the colonists became largely bilingual.

Over the ensuing decades there was considerable political tension between the eastern and the western halves of the Cape Colony. The Eastern Cape, from its major port and urban centre Port Elizabeth, resented being ruled from Cape Town in the Western Cape and frequently agitated to become a separate colony. These separatist tensions did not completely die down until the 1870s when Prime Minister John Molteno restructured the Cape administration to meet the major eastern concerns and, in the Constitutional Amendment Bill of 1873, abolished the last formal distinctions.