[smudgie]

Originally Posted by Merry Kizzmas

his amendment of the Masters and Servants Act (1890) reintroduced conditions of torture for black labourers; his infamous racist “land grabs” set up a system in which the unlawful and illegitimate acquisition of land through armed force was routine.
Rhodes despised democracy. In 1887 he told the House of Assembly in Cape Town: “The native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of South Africa.” His 1892 Franchise and Ballot Act effectively eliminated African voting rights. He repeatedly reminded his colleagues of the “extreme caution” they must exercise when it comes to “granting the franchise to coloured people.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education...is-crimes.html

History teaches us nothing then...Mugabe ends up doing the exact same thing, torturing people and murderous land grabs.
Having made deals with Lobengula I can see where Rhodes thought the Africans were like children, very innocent and quite gullible due to not being educated in the ways of the West.
Masters and servants..a low budget version of Downton Abbey.
I can't comment on how it went way back in the early 1900's, or what is said in some history books, but I do know first hand that the British people we knew in the then called Rhodesia looked after their servants, as did the two previous generations of my family in South Africa.