This collection of ten essays features revisions of articles previously only available in obscure journals, together with new work published here for the first time. Topics covered in this collection include: class formation and economic structure; family history and settler demography; racial stratification in the pre-industrial Cape; the position of slaves and Khoi in the colonial legal system; and the roots of Afrikaner Calvinism. Ross depicts the creation of a distinctive colonial society in the 18th and 19th centuries which provided a legacy to modern South Africa which is frequently overlooked in academic writing. The essays incorporate much new archival research, particularly from Dutch sources.