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History of Grahamstown


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Grahamstown was founded in 1812 as a military outpost by Lieutenant-Colonel John Graham as part of the effort to secure the eastern frontier of British influence in the then Cape Colony against the Xhosa, whose lands lay just to the east.

Egazini, Battle of Grahamstown

On 22 April 1819 a large number of Xhosa warriors, under the leadership of Nxele (or Makana), launched an attack against the British colonial forces. The Xhosas warned Colonel Willshire, the commanding officer, beforehand of their planned attack on Grahamstown, brought about by the continued harassment of Xhosas within their own territory by the British authorities. The Xhosas came close to taking the town, but were repulsed by the heavy artillery and gunfire of the British, suffering heavy losses. Nxele surrendered, was taken captive and imprisoned on Robben Island. On Christmas Day, 1819 he tried to escape, and drowned.

Growth

Grahamstown grew during the 1820s as many 1820 Settlers and their families left farming to establish themselves in more secure trades. In 1833 Grahamstown was described as having "two or three English merchants of considerable wealth, but scarcely any society in the ordinary sense of the word. The Public Library is a wretched affair." In a few decades it became the Cape Colony's largest city after Cape Town. It became a bishopric in 1852. It was traditionally the capital and cultural centre of the Albany area, a former traditionally English-speaking district with a distinctive local culture.

In 1872, the Cape Government Railways began construction of the railway line linking Grahamstown to Port Alfred on the coast, and to the developing national railway network inland. This was completed and opened on 3 September 1879.

Grahamstown was the location of the testing of the first diamond find by Henry Carter Galpin.

In 1904 Rhodes University College was established in Grahamstown through a grant from the Rhodes Trust
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