Prize Negro, noun phrase

Forms:
Also with small initials.
Origin:
EnglishShow more English prize taken in war + Negro African.
obs. except in historical contexts
A black African from beyond South Africa’s borders, who, having been rescued from a slave-ship, was ‘released’ at the Cape and indentured to a colonist as a labourer. See also apprentice noun.
1824 S. Afr. Jrnl I. 84One hundred and eighty are slaves; fifteen are apprentices (or Prize Negroes); and four are Hottentots.
1827 Reports of Commissioners upon Finances at Cape of G.H. II. 75The prize negroes indentured for fourteen years, may in general be considered to have been as great a source of profit to their masters as slaves.
1868 J. Chapman Trav. II. 182Their (sc. the people of Mazhanga’s) language is..very like that spoken by most of the prize negroes brought from the east coast to the Cape.
c1963 Stellenbosch: Oldest Village in S. Afr. (brochure) 8The well-known D.R. Minister Meent Borcherds included in his memoirs a detailed description of the village as he knew it in 1825..the population..consisting of 774 Christians, 144 Hottentots, 852 slaves, 22 prize negroes and 64 free blacks.
A black African from beyond South Africa’s borders, who, having been rescued from a slave-ship, was ‘released’ at the Cape and indentured to a colonist as a labourer.
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18241963