Corenhoop slave lodge completed at the fort

In 1658 the VOC completed an outbuilding called Corenhoop, a name associated with a maize heap or grain store, as an early lodge for Company-owned enslaved people. On 29 May, 98 residents were moved into it from the fort's earlier accommodation. The building stood within the fort complex or its outbuildings, placing the housing of enslaved labour close to the station's stores, workshops and agricultural work.

Corenhoop was part of a developing system rather than the later Slave Lodge below the Company's Garden. As the number of Company-owned enslaved people increased, officials used several sites and later had to rebuild or enlarge the accommodation. The museum record preserves the building's institutional purpose and the number moved in 1658, while the surviving administrative perspective says little about the residents' living conditions or their own organisation.

Significance

Corenhoop established an early dedicated space for housing and supervising Company-owned enslaved labour. Its completion followed the Amersfoort and Hasselt arrivals and helped turn forced migration into a permanent institutional feature of the Cape settlement.