ECHOES OF SLAVERY, voices from South Africa's past

168 pp., illus., paperback, Cape Town, 2004.

Between 1806, when the British occupied the Cape for the second time, and 1834, when slavery was abolished, hundreds of illiterate slaves and ex-slaves addressed the authorities on subjects important to them: slaves complained to the fiscal, the courts, and the Slave Protectors, while "free blacks" had notaries write letters on their behalf. Jackie Loos presents us with a series of portraits and descriptions of incidents gleaned from these primary and secondary archival sources.

Most of these sketches were originally published as weekly columns in the 'Cape Argus'.