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Khoi convict executed for sodomy in Cape Town
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Klaas Blank |
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|---|---|
| Born | c. 1705 |
| Died | 1735 (aged 29–30) |
| Cause of death | Execution by drowning |
| Known for | First recorded death sentence for sodomy in Cape Town |
Klaas Blank (c. 1705 – 1735) was a Khoi convict in the Dutch Cape Colony. In 1735, he and a fellow convict, Rijkhaart Jacobz, became the first individuals recorded to have been sentenced to death and executed for the crime of sodomy in Cape Town.
Klaas Blank was born around 1705. Details of his early life are unrecorded. In 1718, as a youth, he was sentenced to fifty years imprisonment on Robben Island for reasons that remain unknown in the historical record.[1]
During his imprisonment, Blank was periodically sent with work parties to nearby islands. Evidence presented at his later trial indicated that he and a fellow convict, Rijkhaart Jacobz (c. 1700–1735) of Rotterdam, were seen committing sodomy as early as 1724 on Dassen Island, where they had been sent by prison authorities to collect seal blubber. The sergeant in charge on Robben Island was reportedly informed of these acts but took no action. He was later relieved of his post, partly for this reason.[2]
His replacement adopted a harsher regime. Through severe beating, he obtained a confession from Jacobz regarding multiple occasions on which he and Blank had engaged in sexual acts. These confessions were subsequently confirmed in court before the Court of Justice in Cape Town. Blank and Jacobz were convicted of sodomy. In 1735, when both men were in their mid-thirties, they were executed by drowning in Table Bay.[2]
Legal and historical context
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The case of Klaas Blank was not isolated. Under Dutch Roman law, which was applied in the colony, sodomy was a capital crime. Between 1705 and 1792, the Court of Justice in Cape Town conducted approximately 150 trials for sodomy, involving more than 200 men. The severity of the sentence depended on the specific acts proven: the death penalty was reserved for “actual sodomy” (anal intercourse), while lesser acts such as attempted sodomy or mutual masturbation were punished by flogging, banishment, or forced labour.[1]
- ^ a b Oosterhoff, J. (1989). “Sodomy at Sea and at the Cape of Good Hope During the Eighteenth Century”. In Gerard, K.; Hekma, G. (eds.). Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. New York: Harrington Park Press.
- ^ a b Aldrich, Robert; Wotherspoon, Garry (2002). Who’s Who In Gay And Lesbian History: From Antiquity to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-0-203-98675-2.
