Camps Bay, Farm of Freed Slave Swart Maria Evert

The first founding farm of Camps Bay was established and owned by Swart Maria Evert, the free slave daughter of Anne and Evert of Guinea. Her parents were two freed West African slaves who ran a successful smallholding in the City Bowl. She was the most sucessful farmer of her time and is the ultimate symbol of triumph over adversity. Maria tilled the soil and planted vines, fruit trees, corn and raised cattle and sheep. She also owned the farms de Mosselbank at Klipheuwel and Klawervlei at Darling and also had been granted grazing and hunting rights in the veld of Sonquasfonteyn and the Drooge Vallei outside of Groene Kloof. Swart Maria Evert died in the smallpox epidemic of 1713 as one of the richest women in Cape Town after rising above slavery.