The Trekboers were nomadic pastoralists descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch colonists, French Huguenots and German Protestants. The Trekboere began migrating from the areas surrounding what is now Cape Town (such as Paarl, Stellenbosch and Franschhoek) during the 17th century throughout the 18th century.

The Trekboere were semi-nomadic pastoralists, subsistence farmers who began trekking both northwards and eastwards into the interior to find better pastures/farm lands for their livestock to graze as well as to escape the autocratic rule of the Dutch East India Company (or VOC), which administered the Cape, and who they saw as tainted with corruption and unconcerned with the interests of the free burghers, a social class from which most of the Trekboers came.

Trekboere also traded with indigenous people. This meant that their herds were of hardy local stock. They formed a vital link between the pool of animals in the interior and the providers of shipping provisions at the Cape. Trekboere tended to live in the wagons in which they traveled, and rarely remained in one location for an extended period of time. A number of Trekboere settled in the eastern Cape, where their descendants were soon known as Grensboere (Border Farmers), or later called simply Boers (which is a Dutch word for "farmers").