page_title: Schoemansdal, Limpopo
section_title: Zoutpansbergdorp
hierarchical_section_title: Schoemansdal, Limpopo / Zoutpansbergdorp
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Stephanus Schoeman, the second president of the South African Republic, taken by an unknown photographer during the 1880's.
context_page_description: Schoemansdal was a settlement situated 16 km west of Louis Trichardt, which had its origins during the Great Trek. It existed from 1848 to 1867, and functioned as the capital of an autonomous region until the S.A.R. Volksraad was established, when the outpost came under the supervision and regulations of the central government. The settlement was evacuated after only thirty years when attacked by Venda militants. The government rendered indecisive support and the town as torched by Katze-Katze on the night of 15 July 1867.
  After the S.A.R. reestablished control over the area in 1898, the former settlement was ignored and a new one started, at the present Louis Trichardt. Consequently Schoemansdal was the only Voortrekker settlement not to evolve into a modern town. The archaeological site with traces of the former settlement is currently state property and access is controlled. It is situated on the north bank of the Dorps River at 552 m.a.s.l., near present-day Hamantsha and Tshiozwi townships and the Schoemansdal railway siding.
context_section_description: Eleven years after Tregardt's departure, a settlement named Oude Dorp was established at Tregardt's earlier camp. It was founded by field cornet Jan Valentyn Botha who led a faction of Andries Potgieter's trek, consisting of about 48 families. When their wagon train arrived on 2 May 1848 from Andries-Ohrigstad, they immediately constructed an earthen redoubt (or schans) and reed-huts (or scherms). Potgieter, who headed the earlier reconnaissance mission over the Limpopo river, arrived subsequently from Ohrigstad where his followers were being decimated by malaria. He was of the opinion that the Zoutpansberg was sufficiently distant from British influence to afford the possibility of independence, and chose the location as the capital of his republic. The town was henceforth named Zoutpansberg(dorp).
  The settlement had a promising start. Portuguese traders opened trading stores and the ivory trade blossomed. Rice and wheat croplands, fruit orchards and coffee plantations were established. The town also traded in salt, game and ostrich skins, ostrich feathers, animal horns and wood. Wood used for trading or construction included yellowwood, Cape teak, tamboti and beech wood. 
  Potgieter enjoyed independence in this northern outpost and ruled over extensive territory. He and his followers opposed the notion of a Volksraad for the Overvaal region, besides any relations with Cape colonial authorities. In 1849 the Voortrekker faction led by J. J. Burger that remained in Ohrigstad (and subsequently Lydenburg) engaged in a series of negotiations with the faction headed by Andries Pretorius in Potchefstroom. After meetings at Hekpoort, Olifants River and Derdepoort respectively, an Overvaal Volksraad was constituted. Potgieter at first refused to accept its authority but relented when faced with an embargo. Potgieter rendered no assistance to the Transoranje Voortrekkers when their republic was annexed by Britain in 1848. He died at Zoutpansbergdorp in 1852, months after Andries Pretorius negotiated the independence of the Overvaal with British authorities. He left his son, cmdt.genl. Piet Potgieter, in charge of the town. 
   
  In September 1854 Piet's uncle, field cornet Hermanus Potgieter (Groot Hermaans), was searching for ivory near the Nyl River, an area ruled by chiefs Makapan and Mankopane (also: Mapela or Mapele). For reasons imperfectly known, the chiefs decided to massacre them and other unrelated white travellers. The act claimed the lives of 28 white settlers, and the Potchefstroom governance authorized a punitive commando under the command of Piet Potgieter and M. W. Pretorius. The tribesmen retreated into Makapansgat cave, where they were to suffer heavy casualties. One of their snipers however managed to fatally shoot Piet Potgieter. This was the only Boer casualty of the campaign, but his death brought an end to the Potgieters' hegemony in the north.
caption: Stephanus Schoeman
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "{\"subsource\":\"done_button\",\"uid\":\"D6F36DED-B6FC-4BA3-BB82-CD549B447625_1586278622030\",\"source\":\"editor\",\"origin\":\"gallery\",\"source_sid\":\"D6F36DED-B6FC-4BA3-BB82-CD549B447625_1586278622059\"}", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "144", "Image YResolution": "144", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PicsArt", "Image DateTime": "2020:04:07 09:57:50", "Image ExifOffset": "344", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:04:07 09:57:50", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1461", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1822"}