The 1849 Census of Cape Missions.

In this article, we discuss a census made of the Cape mission stations in 1849. First, we analyse how it came into being, in terms both of the political pressure which led to the decision of the Legislative Council of the Cape Colony to order its compilation, and of the process by which the actual work was done. Second, we present a number of the more salient of the results of the census, which allow for the first time a full compilation of the number of residents at (almost all) the mission stations within the Cape Colony, broken down by sex and to a degree by age. At the same time, we can provide a degree of information on the ways in which the mission inhabitants were integrated into the Cape's labour process, both formal and informal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]