[3] In 1815, a farmer from the eastern border of the Cape Colony, Frederik Bezuidenhout was summoned to appear before a magistrate's court after repeated allegations of mistreating one of his Khoi labourers.

Bezuidenhout resisted arrest and fled to a cave near his home, where he fought the Coloured soldiers sent to capture him.

He urged local Boers to rebel against the colonial government, wanting to chase the British and the Khoikhoi into the sea and establish an independent state on the eastern frontier.

[6] On 18 November, a commando of 60 rebels met an armed force of 40 soldiers sent by Colonel Jacob Cuyler, the military commander and Landdrost (magistrate) on the eastern borders, supported by 30 loyalist Boers led by Willem Nel, at Slachter's Nek.

[4] The rebellion and the consequent executions of the rebels have acquired special significance among contemporary South African historians as the beginning of an Afrikaner struggle against British colonial rule.