[3] The system had its origin in the Cape Northern Frontier during the second half of the 18th century, when settlers would capture native children, and force them to work as indentured labourers until adulthood.
[5] Inboekelinge children were captured during raids, or handed over as apprentices by their conquered parents in return for land or goods.
[2] In 1869 the synod of the Dutch Reformed Church adopted a resolution condemning the practice, but rescinded it two years later on the grounds that the system no longer existed.
[7] Historians like Elizabeth Eldredge and Fred Morton have argued that Inboekstelsel was a system of slavery.
[3] Although legal slavery was formerly abolished in the Cape colony in 1834, the inboekstelling system allowed white settlers to continue to practice forced labour.