RESEARCHES IN SOUTH AFRICA

Illustrating the civil, moral, and religious condition of the native tribes:

Including journals of the author's travels in the interior;

Together with detailed accounts of the progress of the Christian Missions exhibiting the influence of Christianity in promoting civilization in two volumes.

First edition: Two volumes: Vol. 1 xxxv + 403: Vol. 11 + viii + 450 pages (+ 1 leaf instructions to binder and errata with an advertisement for Thomas Pringles’ Ephemerides on the verso), frontispiece in volume 1 (the village of Bethelsdorp) and folding map as frontispiece to volume 2, sketch map of Theopolis in Vol. 2, book plates on the front paste down end papers, binder’s ticket on the front paste down end paper in vol. 1, light foxing mainly on the preliminary pages, full calf binding with decorative gilt and black title labels gilt on the spines, inner gilt dentelles, marbled end papers and edges, a very good set.

Rev John Philip’s horror at the oppression of the Khoi at the Cape, as well as the regular district commando organized killings of the San, led to the writing and the publication of this book. Largely as a result of his findings and the impassioned pleas in the book, as well as his partnership with the likes of William Wilberforce and Thomas Fowell Buxton of the Anti-Slavery Society, Philip gained a tremendous victory in the British Parliament in 1828. As a result, and by way of Ordinance 50 of 1828, it became mandatory in the Cape colony for all of “the King’s” subjects to share the same civil rights. This meant that (in law at least) all races could buy land anywhere, buy a house in any part of town and, when the vote came (in 1852), qualify for it in exactly the same way as whites. It meant equal pay for equal work, at least some integrated schools, and many other things peculiar to the colony, all of which continued until the Union of South Africa was created in 1910, when these freedoms were traded to placate the ZAR (Transvaal) and Orange Free State constituents.

There is a detailed biographical sketch in the Dictionary of African Christian Biography as follows:
https://dacb.org/stories/southafrica/philip-john/