Free Burghers (Dutch: Vrijburgher, Afrikaans: Vryburger) were early European colonists in the 18th century who had been released of their service contracts to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and had become full citizens (burghers). The introduction of Free Burghers to the Dutch Cape Colony is regarded as the beginning of a permanent settlement of Europeans in South Africa.[1] The Free Burgher population eventually devolved into two distinct segments separated by social status, wealth, and education: the Cape Dutch and the Boers.[2]
- ^ "Afrikaner". South African History Online.
- ^ Ross, Robert (1999). Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners. Philadelphia: Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–58. ISBN 978-0521621229.