In the first seventy years of the nineteenth century, executions by hanging were carried out in public, the primary rationale being that it would serve as a deterrence. Apart from that, the culprit would never become a repeat offender nor would there be any recidivism. On the other side, the general public relished the spectacle with many executions, especially the most notorious murders, attracting sizable crowds. Attendance at an execution can only be classified as the most bizarre form of morbid curiosity. Ultimately public executions were outlawed in 1869 and in future all executions were performed inside the prison walls.
This blog covers the execution of Hermanus Jager by hanging on the 23rd November 1833 for murdering his wife as well as briefly covering three executions of which two were public.
Main picture: Exhibition held at the Kgosi Mampuru Prison in Pretoria
Hermanus, a Bastard Caffer, 22, was brought from Uitenhage on the Wednesday. “Constantly attending” to him was two clergymen, Rev. Francis McCleland of St. Mary Church and the Rev. Alan Robson of the Union Chapel. What transpired was confidential but one can surmise that penitence was one aspect demanded by the parsons. Another was probably requesting him to accept Jesus into his life. Whatever passed between them would never erase the magnitude of the crime nor the finality of the penalty in any of their memories.
Arriving along Queen Street from the direction of Uitenhage, they proceeded towards the toll gate opposite the Baptist Church. The land on either side of the dirt road was owned by a farmer and Veldkornet [Field Cornet] by the name of Johannes Phillippus Hartman. His land on Richmond Hill cannot be described as cultivatable as it could best be described as rocky. From his house, his wife could view the execution proceedings. As Johannes had died twelve years prior in 1821, only his wife could watch the spectacle.
By the time that the wagon bearing Hermanus drew to a halt opposite Lane’s Canteen, Hermanus was sincerely penitent. Cloistered within his own thoughts, it is doubtful whether Hermanus was aware of the cool fresh sea breeze with its salty aroma, that morning. From the wagon to the gallows was a third of a mile but Hermanus declined the traditional ride in a cart. His motive for not conforming with tradition is unknown but it may have allowed him to regain his composure or extend his life albeit by minutes.
Escorted by a detachment of 75th Regiment and a crowd of Hottentots, Hermanus sang psalms the whole way. As he reached the gallows, he turned and in a dispassionate voice addressed the crowd from the gallows. “Here I stand, a what? A murderer! There,” pointing to the canteen, “is the house which brought me to this awful situation”. He was speaking figuratively of course as the crime had been committed nowhere near this canteen, but it was symbolic of the cause of his woes.
The 47th hymn was sung in Dutch. A cap was presented to him but it was too small and it had to be slit open with a penknife. A tear ran down his cheek. The signal was given, and the unhappy man was launched into eternity. On being cut down, he was buried under the gallows.
Ironically, the canteen was open during the execution and crowded with Hottentots. It would take another 36 years before public executions were prohibited in 1869
Death by stabbing
With regard to sensational legal matters at the old Court House, in 1852, at the farm Maitland Mines, a coloured woman stabbed her alleged husband with a clasp knife, causing instant death. At her trial on that eventful day, crowds thronged the porch of the building until she was found guilty and sentenced to death. The scaffold was erected between the sandhills off the present Queen Street and the death sentence was duly carried out at dawn before the mob had time to gather there to watch the morbid scene.
Last public execution
In 1869 a coloured man named Gert Arentes per JJ Redgrave [Jacob Arantes per Ivor Markman] was tried at the Court House for killing a native at Hankey. After a long trial he was found guilty and the capital sentence was passed. The gruesome gallows were erected on the open space adjoining the North End Gaol and he was hung before a huge crowd who looked on with morbid curiosity. This was the last execution of a criminal to be held in public.
When a tool of trade becomes tool of murder
When emotion overcomes the perpetrator, any object can be utilised to eviscerate one’s victim. But what’s better than a long butcher’s knife used to disembowel stout cattle to wreak vengeance on one’s victim?
Sources
Graham’s Town Journal 5 December 1833
Port Elizabeth in Bygone Days by J.J. Redgrave (1947, Rustica Press)