The best South African history lesson you probably never heard

The first multi-racial stand against injustice in South Africa was made more than 200 years ago by nine men from very different cultural backgrounds.

Who was involved?

Louis the freed-slave-turned-tailor came from Mauritius, James Hooper and Michael Kelly were Irish sailors, Jeptha of Batavia was a slave from Indonesia and two other men of unknown origins – Abraham and Adonis – completed the motley crew behind the revolution. They were later joined by two Khoi men and an Indian man.

All the men had one thing in common: they wanted an end to slavery.

Why were they so riled up?

Elsewhere in the world, the slave trade was crumbling: America had banned the import of slaves in January that year. Spain, France and England had outlawed it and yet hundreds of men and women were still bound in service in the British-ruled Cape.

By October 27, word had reached Cape Town of the rising tide against slavery. Our band of brothers hatched a plan: they would march through the farms of Tygerberg and Koeberg in the rural districts, gathering slaves as they marched towards Cape Town.

Once they had reached town, the idea was to seize the Amsterdam Battery, turn the guns on the Castle and then negotiate a peace which would involve establishing a free state and freedom for all slaves.

How did they do it?

Dressed up as a Spanish captain, tailor Louis rode onto Vogelgezang farm on the evening of October 27. Flanking him were Michael and James, disguised as British officers. The farmer, Gerhardus Louw, was not home but they convinced his wife to hand over all their slaves. They even convinced her to give them room and board for the night.

The next morning, rested and fed, the men rounded up the slaves and walked off the farm.

As the group marched across 30 farms, their numbers grew to a crowd of at least 300 slaves and servants.

Court records referenced in Herman Giliomee's The Afrikaners: Biography of a People show Abraham told a slave woman: “Tomorrow the troop will hoist a red flag and fight itself free, and then the slave women will be able to say 'Jij' [you instead of thou] to their mistresses.”

What went wrong?

News of the uprising reached town before they did, and the Governor ordered the military to lay in wait for the insurrectionists at Salt River, just outside the city.

The group walked straight into an ambush and 326 of the marchers were captured. Of the men, 47 were put on trial – including Louis, James, Michael and the two Khoi leaders. Nine of the men, including Louis and James, were found guilty of treason and were sentenced to hang.

Another 11 were sentenced to death for “active participation” and many others were given jail terms, including imprisonment on Robben Island.

The rest of the slaves were sent back to their masters.

Is there a happier ending?

It would be another 25 years before slavery was finally abolished in the Cape in 1833, and another year before the formal end of slavery, which was marked at midnight on December 1 with bonfires on Table Mountain and Signal Hill and fireworks in the harbour.