Title: Ethnic pride and racial prejudice in Victorian Cape Town
Description: Nineteenth-century Cape Town, the capital of the British Cape Colony, was conventionally regarded as a liberal oasis in an otherwise racist South Africa. Longstanding British influence was thought to mitigate the racism of the Dutch settlers and foster the development of a sophisticated and colour-blind English merchant class.

Vivian Bickford-Smith skilfully interweaves political, economic and social analysis to show that the English merchant class, far from being liberal, were generally as racist as Afrikaner farmers. Theirs was, however, a peculiarly English discourse of race, mobilised around a 'Clean Party' obsessed with sanitation and the dangers posed by 'un-English' Capetonians in a period of rapid urbanisation brought about by the discovery of diamonds and gold in the interior.

. This original contribution to South African urban history draws on comparative material from other colonial port towns and on relevant studies of the Victorian city.
Subjects: History, Racism, Social life and customs, Cape town (south africa), South africa, social life and customs, South africa, history
Places: Cape Town, Cape Town (South Africa), South Africa