| Notes |
- PRIVATE
- Norwegian according to the record of his first marriage "Michiel Otto uit Noorwegen"
from Stettin (according to his will). Sa. 1714, wood-cutter 1716, b. 1719. ~ (1) 19.11.1719 Barbara Contermann (see Contermann); (2) 1.3.1722 Anna Margaretha Siek, wid. Barend Gildehausen, d. of Johann Siek (q.v.). 7 children by his second wife. Later divorced. + 1743. Through his second marriage he became the owner of "Vergelegen," which had once belonged to W. A. v. d. Stel. Mentzel (Beschreibung . . . II, p. 64) mentions that he treated his slaves with great cruelty and took to drink in his old age. (GMR 1714-18; Rq. 1719: 117; Stellenbosch Arch., vol. 13, p. 359 and vol. 653 nr. 53; G.R. nr. 687; CJ 807: 7; Inv. O.C. 6:94.)
His reputation for cruelty to his slaves is also mentioned in "Children of Bondage" by Shell. , as follows:
"The domestic market was said to serve a disciplinary function, but I believe this was minor at the Cape, although disciplinary sales do occupy a prominent place in the settlers' and travellers' accounts and in the secondary literature, which report that the threat of sale offered owners an effective psychological spur to punsish "recalcitrant" slaves. A punitive sale would remind other slaves that it could happen to «i»them«/i». Such a pracrice had it's counterpart in the American South. …. The American practice of " selling a slave down the river" had an early South African equivalent of "selling a slave upcountry". Otto Mentzel, writing of the late 1730's, noted this: "In my time, a farmer named Michael Otto (commonly known as Michael Ox) owned the best farm in Hottentots Holland, noted for viticulture, but he was savage, tyrannical to his slaves… When any farmer had a disobedient slave, the mere threat to sell or give him to Michael Otto unless he improved, was often more effective tha
Shell further writes: The death of a slave resulted in the loss of valuable property. Even losing a single slave might entail an owner's financial ruin. Mentzel recalled just such a case: "The last slave that Michael Otto lost because of a brutal punishment had been a wagon-maker's apprentice, for whom he had paid a thousand florins. It was the loss of this man that put the idea in his mind of getting rid of his farm and of drinking away his money".
He owned 22 slaves in total, all but 5 he acquired through his marriage to Anna Siek. The slaves acquired by Michael Otto were Titus van Bengal (22 July 1722); Alexander van Madagascar (24 June 1724); Caesar van Madagascar (24 June 1724); Jason, unknown origin (13 October 1723); Fortuijn van Madagascar (26 October 1729)
He appears in the 1731 report of Governor de la Fonteine with his wife and 6 children in the Stellenbosch district (presumably «i»Vergelegen«/i»), with the comment "«i»Is Een Landbouwer kan Bestaan«/i»" (Is a farmer and can support himself)
The inventory of his estate is in the Cape Archives as MOOC10/5.59. In this document are listed 4 slaves who must have been glad of his passing, namely:
1 jonge gent: Augustus van de Caab (Daniel Malang 195:7)
1 jonge gen:t November van Batavia (Jan Lootse 130:2)
1 jonge gen:t Francies van Moosambique (Michiel Otto 100: slavinne gen:t Susanna van Cochin (Christoffel Burgers 73:
|
- 1743
[3]