Lord Charles Somerset became governor of the Cape Colony in 1814. One of his main challenges was trying to secure the Colony's borders with the amaXhosa. It proved to be a difficult task requiring a lot of military resources. Somerset came to believe that populating the frontier area with European farmers could resolve the problem and lessen the military's load. At that time unemployment and poverty was rive in Britain. Soldiers had been demobilised after the Napoleonic Wars and the industrial revolution was at its height.

In Britain out of work folk, mostly artisans and craftsmen, were lured with rosy promises of African farms. 1820 saw the arrival of 4000 so-called British Settlers by ship in Algoa Bay. They were mostly poor or unemployed British families lured to the area by the British colonial rulers by being offered free farming land in Africa. In actual fact they were being settled in the area, with virtually now support, as a buffer between the Cape Colony and disgruntled Xhosa's. It is also from these "frontier" areas, mostly between the Bushmans and Fish Rivers that some of the first Voortrekker (Boer) pioneers left from 1836 onwards to the interior in their bid to free themselves from British rule (in the so-called "Groot Trek" - Great Trek). As the Settlers soon realised that they were in fact being used by the colonial authorities they had a lot of sympathy with the Voortrekkers. On the departure of one group of Voortrekkers a representative of the Settlers in Grahamstown, handed over a large bible to the religious Boers symbolising their support and well wishes.

The Settlers were ill equipped to handle very tough farming conditions. Farms given to them were mostly too small for livestock farming (±100 acres) and not suitable for crops. After a while many of the new arrivals gave up on farming and headed to the closest towns to apply their trades. Grahamstown, the military's regional headquarters from 1812, was a popular destination and prospered with the inflow of the Settlers special skills. The farmers who remained on their land ended up with bigger farms and often introduced merino sheep, a breed that fared well in the harsh Eastern Cape environs. Port Elizabeth, and to a lesser degree Port Alfred, became the Settlers' harbours for export and import (the latter's entrance proved to dangerous for shipping after a number of ships ran aground). Today Port Elizabeth is the fifth largest city in South Africa.

These days on entering Grahamstown from Port Elizabeth in the southwest, you will notice a big building on a hill (Gunfire Hill) overlooking the town below. The 1820 Settlers National Monument was designed with the intention of creating a conference, education and cultural centre for use by all. It was conceived, and is managed, by the 1820 Foundation. Broadly speaking, the aim of the 1820 Foundation is to advance the educational and cultural development of the peoples of South Africa. The Foundation and Monument plays a very important role in the annual Grahamstown National Arts Festival and other programmes / projects.