CF Bezuidenhout

Cornelis Frederik Bezuidenhout (24 August 176010 August 1815) was a frontier farmer in the eastern Cape Colony whose death in a skirmish with Khoi soldiers, who had been sent to arrest him. His death was the origin of the Slagtersnek Rebellion which reached its dramatic finale on 9 March 1816 under the gallows at Van Aardspos, twelve miles south of Slagtersnek.

Life and death Cornelis Frederik Bezuidenhout, known by the nickname Freek, was the fifth of seven children of Gerrit Bezuidenhout, a burgher of Graaff-Reinet, and his wife, Sophia Maria Scheepers. Freek was descendant of Wynand Leendertsz Bezuidenhout, of the Netherlands, master gardener at the Cape, and his wife, Jannetje Gerrits, of Amsterdam.

Bezuidenhout was born in the Graaff-Reinet district in 1760. However, most Boers did not support the rebellion. Ultimately, no more than 200 Boers supported the rebellion, only 60 showed up at Slagtersnek, and not a single shot was fired when they were confronted by British troops and loyalist Boers. Hans Bezuidenhout refused to surrender and was shot and killed at his farm, and five of the surviving ringleaders were later executed. The rebellion acquired importance as an incident in the struggle of Afrikanerdom against British domination.