The Slagtersnek Monument is located on the N10 south of Cookhouse.

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In the early 1800s this area was the eastern border of the Cape Colony. In 1815 a farmer from the district, Frederik Bezuidenhout, was summoned to appear before a magistrate after repeated allegations of his mistreating one of his Khoi labourers. Bezuidenhout resisted arrest and fled to a cave near his home where he defended himself against the soldiers sent to capture him. In the process, he was shot dead by one of the soldiers.

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As things tend to go, one thing led to another and at his funeral one of Bezuidenhout’s brothers, Johannes (Hans, also called Jan), swore revenge. Together with a neighbour Hendrik Prinsloo, Hans organised an uprising against the British colonial power. The motivation behind it being their belief that the British were hostile towards the Afrikaner farmers. On 18th November 1815, a commando of rebels met an armed force from Landdrost Jacob Cuyler, the military commander on the eastern frontier, at Slagter’s Nek. Negotiations followed but failed. In the following days, a number of rebels surrendered, although some of the leaders, among them Hans Bezuidenhout, refused to turn themselves over to the British authorities. On 29th November 1815, they were attacked by colonial troops and, like his brother, Hans died while resisting arrest.

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All the arrested rebels were finally charged at Uitenhage. Some were cleared, others imprisoned or banished. Six were sentenced to death with one being pardoned by the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset. On 9 March 1816, the remaining five were hanged in public at Van Aardtspos. The hangman conducting the execution didn’t realise that five were to be hung and didn’t bring enough rope, so he used old leather riempie rope. Four of the nooses broke during the process. The four whose ropes broke, as well as the public, pleaded for their lives as prisoners would normally be set free if the rope snapped. Culyer resisted and ordered that they be hanged a second time. This time they were hung one by one while their wives and children, who were forced to attend the hanging, had to watch. The names of the five who were hanged were Hendrik Prinsloo, Stephanus Bothma, Abraham Bothma, Cornelius Faber and Theunis de Klerk and their names appear along with those of the Bezuidenhout brothers on the monument erected 100 years after the execution.

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The Somerset East Museum hosts a display of the beam from which the men were hanged, together with other interesting information.