In the 19th century, the Cape frontier was afflicted by a recurring series of
Frontier Wars, between the
Cape Colony on the one side, and the Xhosa chiefs on the other. Stockenström's military career additionally saw growing disagreement between the leadership of the local Cape forces (the Burgher commandos) and the settlers on the frontier who supported greater imperial control. While the young Stockenström was a great and sometimes ruthless soldier in the frontier wars, in the coming years he came to develop a growing sympathy with his Xhosa opponents. The frontier policy of the
colonial government at the time was the so-called "Reprisals System", whereby frontier settlers were permitted to cross the border to reclaim stolen cattle from any Xhosa settlement to which the cattle-tracks led – even if the stolen cattle were not in fact there. Stockenström was fiercely opposed to this system. His opinion that the Cape Colony colonists of the frontier were unfairly treating of their Xhosa neighbours led to his later conclusion that a strictly enforced system of treaties must be enforced on both sides in order for peace and mutual respect to develop.
The 4th Frontier War (1811-1812) In 1811 he was commissioned as an ensign in the Cape Regiment, took part in the
4th Cape Frontier War (1811–12), and in the campaign against Ndlambe. During this time, Andries served as aide-de-camp to his father, Anders Stockenström. When his father was ambushed and killed, the young Andries rode from Bruintjieshoogte with 18 mounted burghers. He hunted down and overtook a number of the killers near Doringnek, slaying 13 of them. Upon returning from Doringnek, Andries was appointed to his father's position in command of the burgher forces. Following Ndlambe's expulsion, he assisted Colonel John Graham in fortifying the
Fish River frontier. Governor
Sir John Cradock then appointed him as assistant landdrost of
Graaff-Reinet, stationed initially at Van Stadensdam on the (upper) Fish River, and afterwards at the newly founded town of
Cradock. Andries retained his commission as his duties remained mostly of a military nature. In a rapid and successful campaign in 1813, he struck across the Fish River against
Xhosa tribes that had violated the new frontier, and in May 1814 he was appointed a
lieutenant in the Cape Regiment. He rose through the ranks rapidly after fighting in the fourth frontier war.
The 5th Frontier War (1818-1819) ("Moral Bob") led a legal and press campaign against Stockenström that would continue for much of the remainder of his career. Due in part to overcrowding, a civil war broke out between the amaNgqika (Ngqika Xhosa) and the amaGcaleka (Gcaleka Xhosa). As the Cape had signed a defence treaty with Ngqika, it was legally required to respond to Ngqika's request for military assistance in 1818. Stockenström was thus ordered to lead his commando, as an ally of Ngqika, against Ndlambe's amaGcaleka. After swiftly intercepting and defeating the Gcaleka army, he withdrew his commando and stationed his Graaff-Reinet burghers to defend the left flank at the Kat River. However, after the Cape withdrawal, the amaGcaleka regrouped in 1819 and this time invaded the Cape Colony itself, attacking Grahamstown. Stockenström thus took to the field again. He was first ordered to position his Graaff-Reinet commando to meet any attack across the northern section of the frontier. Then while the
Cape,
Stellenbosch and
Swellendam commandos advanced against the main amaGcaleka army, Stockenström's
Graaff-Reinet commando was ordered to clear insurgents from the dense bush in the Fish River area – previously regarded as impenetrable. After successfully implementing this supposedly impossible campaign, Stockenström was promoted to captain in the Cape Regiment. The war ended in October 1819, when Gcaleka agreed to recognise Ngqika's independent leadership of the Western Xhosa, and the area between the Keiskamma and Fish rivers was declared a neutral zone, closed off from both black and white settlement. From about this period, Stockenström's relationship with Governor
Lord Charles Somerset declined, in part because of his "outspoken criticism of Somerset’s frontier policy or his refusal to allow the settlement of the 1820 Settlers in his district and his opposition to their location on the frontier", Duminy suggests, and in part because of a quarrel with the Governor's son, Col. Henry Somerset. In addition, Stockenström was friendly with Acting Governor Sir
Rufane Donkin, and since Grahamstown editor
Robert Godlonton was a staunch supporter of Col. Somerset, this "meant that the remainder of his public career was characterized by personal and political feuds". His military career ended in July 1820 when he was transferred to the Corsican Rangers. The Graaff-Reinet district's involvement with the frontier was also reduced by the creation in 1821 of the separate district of
Albany (out of
Uitenhage) and in 1826 of the district of
Somerset East (out of Graaff-Reinet). However Stockenström remained landdrost until the reform of 1828 which abolished his office. In his final year as landdrost, he played a significant role in the Cape by lobbying for Ordinance 50 (1828) to grant the right to own land to the Khoikhoi and all other free black inhabitants of the Cape. A project that led to his later establishing of the Kat River Khoi Settlement.
Commissioner-General for the Eastern Province (1829-1833) In 1827 the Council of Advice was enlarged to include two unofficial members, and in June that year Stockenström was appointed to fill one of these positions. Early in 1829 Major-General
Richard Bourke, who had arrived in the colony in 1826 as lieutenant-governor of the
Eastern Province, but instead became acting governor when
Lord Charles Somerset departed, appointed Stockenström to the new post of
commissioner-general for the
Eastern Province.
The Kat River Khoi Settlement In spite of the many political hindrances to his actions, Stockenström nonetheless set to work to reach an agreement for peace on the frontier and to stabilise the Ceded Territory between the Fish and Keiskamma rivers. He decided to set aside this extensive and very fertile area for settlement, not by the white settlers of the frontier, but by the Cape's extensive
Khoi and
Griqua population. Some of Stockenström's top commanders were Khoi; he had long fought alongside Khoi soldiers in the frontier wars, and claimed to hold their bravery and loyalty in high esteem. He granted this displaced and marginalised people full and equal rights of land ownership and facilitated the establishment of their settlement, in what became known as the "
Kat River Khoi Settlement". The dense settlements thrived and expanded, and the Kat River Settlement quickly became a large, peaceful and successful region of the Cape that subsisted more or less autonomously from the rest of the country. Stockenström was later to regard the creation of this settlement as his proudest achievement.
Frontier policy Cattle raiding across the frontier, by both sides, was a persistent cause for frontier violence. For this reason, Stockenström promulgated new regulations dealing with the recovery of stolen stock. The previous "Reprisals System" of the frontier meant that the reaction to a cattle raid was simply to launch a counter-raid. Stockenström ruled that armed parties were only permitted to cross the frontier and recover stolen stock by force if the civil authorities gave permission. This policy nonetheless proved to be very problematic because, when deciding whether to authorise punitive action, Stockenström depended on information from sources which were often unreliable. In 1830 Stockenström permitted settlers to launch a
punitive expedition against Tyali, having been shown evidence that this Xhosa chief was led raids across the border. However, the expedition resulted in the shooting of another chief, Zeko, which caused considerable controversy. Based on false information, Stockenström had at first commended Field Commandant Erasmus for his conduct, but later investigations showed that reports of Zeko being armed and removing livestock were false. Faced with growing demands for punitive expeditions, Stockenström became increasingly suspicious of the motives of Col Somerset and the frontier settler group. The issue became critical in June 1831, when the colonial government directly authorised Somerset to launch an attack on the Xhosa, without Stockenström's permission and in spite of his objections. Stockenström became increasingly critical of the frontier policy implemented, both in his reports from Graaff-Reinet and in the proceedings of the Council of Advice. After
Lord Stanley, Secretary for the Colonies, requested his resignation from the council, Stockenström left the Cape in 1833 and traveled to London where he resigned as Commissioner-General, after having failed to persuade the
Colonial Office to give him more independence in his frontier work. He moved from London to
Sweden – his ancestral home – in 1834 and, at roughly the same time, the
Sixth Frontier War broke out in the Cape.
Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern Province (1836-1838) In August 1835 he travelled to London to give evidence to the House of Commons on relations with the Xhosa in Southern Africa. In a hugely influential testimony, he blamed imperial policies and the frontier settlers' behaviour for causing repeated outbreaks of war with the Xhosa. In particular, the settlers' use of raids into Xhosa territory, to attack suspected cattle thieves. His opinions – though hugely controversial – impressed the new Secretary for the Colonies,
Lord Glenelg, who appointed him
Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern Province.
New frontier policy As lieutenant-governor, Stockenström now had the ability to construct a completely new policy for Cape-Xhosa relations. He began by returning the recently annexed "Province of Queen Adelaide" to the Xhosa. He then instituted his own unique treaty system, recognising the Xhosa chiefs as independent and equal authorities in his diplomacy. This system involved the exchange of diplomatic agents as reliable "ambassadors" between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa chiefs. The diplomatic agent system was underlain by formal treaties to guard the border and return any stolen cattle from either side. Importantly, Stockenström forbade colonial expansion into Xhosa land. With this key provision, the treaty system soon brought a degree of peace to the frontier. In his frontier policy, Stockenström was also in disagreement with the liberals and philanthropists of the Cape, in that he believed that the authority of the chiefs must be preserved, and that the relations of the borderlands needed to be strictly regulated and policed.
Legal pressure and decline of the treaty system However many frontier colonists resented Stockenström's restrictions on their expansion into Xhosa land. The Eastern Cape settler movement, which advocated dismantling Stockenström's treaty system and annexing the Xhosa land, was led by
Godlonton and Col Somerset. This movement increasingly conducted a virulent and libellous campaign against Stockenström and his treaty system. Godlonton had control of the most influential newspapers of the frontier region, and used them to advocate for his campaign. Godlonton also used his considerable influence in the religious institutions of the
1820 settlers to drive his opinions, declaring that the settlers were "selected by God himself to colonize Kaffraria". Officially, Stockenström was also beset by the problem that, as lieutenant-governor, he was still legally dependent on Sir
Benjamin d’Urban, the overall Governor of the Cape, who resented the fact that he had been overlooked when the
British parliament authorised Stockenström to take over the frontier. An additional problem was that he also still lacked authority over the military. Under immense pressure from the frontier settlers' press campaign, Stockenström became increasingly drawn into a series of bitter legal battles. In February 1838 he started a libel action, after being publicly accused of murder, and requested the new governor,
Sir George Napier, to launch a full inquiry. Stockenström was exonerated by the court of inquiry in June 1838, but nonetheless felt his position hopeless, and travelled to Britain to consult Glenelg. Glenelg refused to accept Stockenström's resignation, but his successor,
Lord Normanby, dismissed Stockenström in August 1839. Dispirited, Stockenström returned to the Cape in May 1840 and retired to his farm Klipkraal (in the Swaershoek Valley near
Somerset East), making only occasional trips to
Uitenhage and
Cape Town. In 1842, a severe drought affected the region, causing an increase in cross-border cattle raiding. This, together with the growing neglect of Stockenström's treaty system, began to lead to growing violence along the frontier. In 1844, the new governor of the Cape, Sir
Peregrine Maitland, abolished Stockenström's treaty system altogether, imposing instead a unilateral system of more severe treaties. Certain provisions of the new treaty system, such as those allowing frontier settlers to counter-raid their Xhosa neighbours if they believed that cattle had been stolen, led to a sharp increase in violence. Maitland's system also involved building a system of military fortifications on Xhosa lands so as to secure the frontier militarily. The new governor also began to settle
Mfengu in frontier Xhosa territory, and opened parts of it up for permanent white settlement. Aware of impending war, in 1845 Stockenström moved to his farm Maasström, at the foot of the Kaga Mountains, where he remained until April 1846 when the
Seventh Frontier War broke out.
The 7th Frontier War (1846-1847) When the
Seventh Frontier War (the "Amatola War") erupted, the conventional imperial troops soon suffered setbacks in the rough frontier terrain. Their long troop columns were slow and easily ambushed by the elusive Xhosa gunmen. Faced with increasing losses and a full-scale invasion of the Xhosa armies across the frontier, the British Governor Sir
Peregrine Maitland called upon the local
Cape Burgher Commandos. The Cape burghers were mounted frontier gunmen, recruited locally from
Boer,
Mfengu,
settler,
Khoikhoi and
Griqua populations, and fiercely loyal to Stockenström. They objected to serving under an imperial commander, so Governor Maitland promoted Stockenström to colonel, so as to place him in command of the local mixed commandos. Stockenström's burgher force first cleared the south-western part of the Eastern Province up to the Fish River, inflicting a string of defeats on the
amaNgqika, and then advanced to Fort Beaufort, where it was initially ordered that he would invade the Xhosa country. Instead of launching a military invasion to destroy the Xhosa armies, Stockenström selected a small group of his mounted commandos, crossed the Colony's border and rapidly rode deep into the Transkei Xhosa heartland, directly towards the kraal of
Sarhili ("Kreli"), the paramount chief of all the Xhosa. Due in part to the speed of their approach, they were barely engaged by Xhosa forces and rode directly into Sarhili's capital. Paramount Chief
Sarhili and his generals agreed to meet Stockenström (with his commandants
Groepe,
Molteno and
Brownlee), unarmed, on a nearby mountain ridge. The meeting was initially tense - the fathers of both Sarhili and Stockenström had been killed whilst unarmed. Both men were also veterans of several frontier wars against each other and, while they treated each other with extreme respect, Stockenström nonetheless made the extreme demand that Sarhili assume responsibility for any future Ngqika attacks. After protracted negotiations, Sarhili agreed to return any raided cattle & other property and to relinquish claims to the Ngqika land west of the Kei. He also promised to use his limited authority over the frontier Ngqika to restrain cross-border attacks. A treaty was signed and the commandos departed on good terms. Andries, his health ruined by this expedition (he remained in poor health the rest of his life), called on the British government to institute an inquiry into the war, maintaining that it had been prolonged needlessly but the new governor,
Sir Harry Smith, ostentatiously blamed the Stockenström treaty system for being the cause of the war. In a meeting with the Xhosa chiefs, the Governor famously tore up a piece of paper in front of the chiefs and announced: "No more treaties". Historian Piers Brendon described "Smith, placing his foot on the neck of the Xhosan ruler and proclaiming, 'I am your Paramount Chief, and the Kaffirs are my dogs!'" Sir Andries publicly condemned Governor Smith's policies, and warned that they would precipitate a further crisis, but Earl Grey, the Secretary for the Colonies, declined to take action. ==Political career==