1. Piet Retief became a spokesperson for the frontier farmers who voiced their discontent, and wrote the Voortrekkers' declaration at their departure from the colony.
14 Facts About Piet Retief
1. 2.
Piet Retief was a leading figure during their Great Trek, and at one stage their elected governor.
3.
Piet Retief proposed Natal as the final destination of their migration and selected a location for its future capital, later named Pietermaritzburg in his honour.
4.
Piet Retief was born to Jacobus and Debora Piet Retief in the Wagenmakersvallei, Cape Colony, today the town of Wellington, South Africa.
5.
Piet Retief's family were Boers of French Huguenot ancestry: his great-grandfather was the 1689 Huguenot refugee Francois Retif, from Mer, Loir-et-Cher near Blois; the progenitor of the name in South Africa.
6.
Piet Retief grew up on the ancestral vineyard Welvanpas, where he worked until the age of 27.
7.
Piet Retief is reported to have gone bankrupt at least twice, while at the colony and on the frontier.
8.
Piet Retief wrote their manifesto, dated 22 January 1837, setting out their long-held grievances against the British government.
9.
Piet Retief's household departed in two wagons from his farm in the Winterberg District in early February 1837 and joined a party of 30 other wagons.
10.
On 5 October 1837 Piet Retief established a camp of 54 wagons at Kerkenberg near the Drakensberg ridge.
11.
At Port Natal Piet Retief was taken by the potential of the bay and the possibilities of it becoming a Dutch free trade port.
12.
On Piet Retief's second visit to Dingane, the Zulu agreed to Boer settlement in Natal, provided that the Boer delegation recover cattle stolen by the rival Tlokwa nation.
13.
Piet Retief's chest was sawn open and his heart and liver removed and brought to Dingane in a cloth.
14.
The town of Piet Retief was named after him as was the city of Pietermaritzburg.