10. Suriname: Colonization and Brutal Slavery[1]
Political activist Anton de Kom was born on the 22nd of February 1898[2]. His place of birth was Paramaribo, capital of Suriname. This former Dutch colony Suriname was named after its 480 km long River Suriname. Suriname is situated between Guyana and French Guyana. Anton’s father, Damon de Kom, was born in slavery in 1862, one year before the Dutch Government abolished slavery in Surinam and the colonies in the Caribbean. Ending slavery by legislation was a great step forward, but first the emancipated slaves were compelled to work 10 more years for their masters, to get used to their new status. The abolition was an important event but it did not make Suriname just and fair overnight. Racist views and discriminatory structures did not disappear like a falling star, nor did they entirely but slowly fade away during the next hundred years. As a child, adolescent and young man, Anton could see and feel irritating remains of colonialism and slavery. His great aunt told him time and again about the hardships of slavery. She reminded him that his grandmother, her sister, had been killed by a jealous master.[3] She showed him the field of gallows near Fort Zeelandia, telling him that vultures ate the corpses of the victims that had been hanged there.
The horrific tales and sad stories motivated him to become a political activist. Her stories were very different from the history lessons told at school. As a grown-up he decided to write a new book about the history of slavery in Suriname, told from the perspective of the enslaved and the colonized. Long had he been thinking that many of the atrocities he had heard were too horrific to be true. Later, when he had moved to The Netherlands and frequented the Royal Dutch Library in The Hague, he was shocked to learn that all these stories were true. In a brisk Police report he read that the fingers of young slave were being chopped off because he had criticized his master. And when the pain made him cry extremely loud, his tongue was cut out too.[4]
The national library turned out to be a rich source for his book: “Wij Slaven van Suriname.” [5] Finding a publisher was not easy. The first, censured, edition got published in 1934. It was translated in German and published in Moscow and Zurich with financial help from the Russians. The uncensored Dutch version is still on sale.
Anton de Kom proudly finished secondary school with diploma. This was exceptional for a black boy in a Dutch colony. Next, he finished a Bookkeeping course and found a job as a clerk at the Balata Rubber Company. There, he organized protest actions against the low pay and harsh labour conditions of “rubber bleeders.” This was courageous and praiseworthy, but the Balata Company and the Colonial Government did not like this at all. Age 22, De Kom went to Haiti, the first country that had ousted its colonizers and abolished slavery. However, he did not find the job and the social climate he was hoping for. Next he took a job on a Dutch ship. In Holland, he joined the Dutch Army: a strange decision for a man, who, deep down, always was and would be a freedom fighter.[6] The simple reason was that he needed an income and a roof above his head. He quitted one year later. He found a job as bookkeeper and met a girl, named Nel Borsboom. The two fell in love, married and got four children. A century ago, this racially mixed family drew a lot of attention in an almost all-white society.
In The Hague Anton came into contact with left-wing students from the Dutch Indies, now Indonesia. The secret service closely watched their activities. De Kom lost his job during a reorganisation. One could be forgiven for thinking that his association with Communists played a role in his sacking.
When he learned that his mother was dying, De Kom went back to Paramaribo, taking his family with him. He arrived on the 4th of January and was welcomed by hundreds of men and women who remembered his political activity. Alas, his mother already had passed away. De Kom started a complaints office. Everyday, ten or more people from various ethnic backgrounds came to his office, asking for legal help. No wonder; poverty was endemic and justice hard to get, especially for non-whites. The authorities hired three retired policemen to spy on him. In no time, they had gathered enough “evidence” to put him in prison, accusing him of Communist agitation. On the 4th of February about 4,000 supporters marched to the Governor’s office, demanding his release. They were met by a detachment of policemen armed with rifles and bayonets. The protesters showed no fear; men in the front row opened their shirts, provoking the police to aim at their breast. Procurator-General Van Haaren urged the crowd to calm down and promised that he would release Anton de Kom next Tuesday. That day the protesters came back to celebrate his release. But, Anton was kept in prison and his supporters were shot at by policemen and soldiers. Two men got killed; 32 got wounded, turned a day for celebration in many days of misery and mourning.
After some terrible weeks in custody, Anton de Kom was deported to The Netherlands. The unemployment rate was record-breaking high. He failed to find new employment, got embittered and depressed. He began to write anti-colonial articles, and became paranoid, imagining secret service men behind every tree or streetcorner. He became unpredictable, even aggressive towards his wife and children. In 1939, he was treated in an institute for the mentally disturbed, which he left after three months.[7]
10 May 1940, Hitler’s armies invaded The Netherlands. The Dutch surrendered after five days, after the Germans had bombarded the centre of Rotterdam and threatened that Amsterdam would be next. For Anton de Kom, Nazi-Occupation and Colonialism were two branches of the same poisonous tree. He joined the resistance, fully aware that he was putting his life at risk. He got captured in 1944, was transported to Germany, forced to work and died of tuberculosis in camp Neuengamme; three weeks before the end of World War II, three weeks before Hitler killed himself.[8] In 1982, Anton de Kom received the Dutch Resistance Memorial Cross. In 1983, The University of Suriname was renamed Anton de Kom University.[9]
Discovers and colonizers
De Kom had been wondering why Europeans felt the urge to colonize unknown territories, thousands of miles overseas. Sociologist Werner Sombart taught him that it was greed, as simple as that. Sombart certainly had a point, but also lack of opportunities played a big role. Poor farmers and farm hands dreamt of owning a big farm overseas. Members from the upper middle class and the nobility also vied for respect, fame and power, in particular sons that were not first-borns.
One of them was Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda, born around 1466.[10] He had taken part in the second voyage of Christopher Columbus to America. In 1499, Isabella I and Ferdinand II commissioned him to sail to the New World. They trusted him to lead a tiny fleet of three caravels and a crew of 300 seamen and soldiers. After some weeks, the fleet reached the Wild Coast, now called Guyana. At the mouths of the rivers Essequibo and Orinoco, the Spaniards were met by friendly natives. Ojeda offered them precious gifts, but the natives refused to lead Ojeda to the sources of the golden ornaments they were wearing. Ojeda changed his tactics, but torture did not break their will. Ojeda decided to travel on, entered the Gulf of Venezuela, but did not establish a permanent settlement. [11] Ojeda sailed back to Spain. His expedition had made no profits. The loss of lives was huge. Of the 300 seamen and soldiers that had boarded his caravels in Spain, only 55 returned. This means that more than 80 per cent of them had died from all kinds of diseases, lack of fresh food and fatal accidents on board. Less than 20 per cent returned home.
Almost a century later, 23 April 1593, Domingo de Vera e Llargoyen, a nobleman from San Sebastian, landed on the Guyana coast and claimed this territory for the Spanish King. He appointed himself as first Governor of Suriname. In 1580, The Spanish Crown had assigned him to find El Dorado, the mythical City of Gold. He made five attempts to achieve this goal, but failed.
In 1594 Vice Admiral, Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) learned of this mythical City of Gold. This info came from reports written by De Vera, confiscated by an English captain. Raleigh who also was a writer, a poet and a spy, got hooked by the chance of finding lots of gold. As a young man he served in the army of the Huguenots in France. He had studied in Oxford but not seriously. He left without a degree. Walter Raleigh had become the queen’s favourite after his ruthless fight against the Irish Catholics. He was knighted and granted large pieces of land. In March 1584, Queen Elizabeth I of England, as presumptuous as any Christian imperialist, granted him permission to discover, occupy and govern “any remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countries and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince or habituated by Christian People.”[12] A delighted Sir Walter Raleigh began to explore the east coast of North America, and attempted to establish a settlement in Virginia, but failed. Yet he became convinced that this part of the world deserved further exploration and he wanted to be part of it.
In 1593, Sir Walter Raleigh took up his search for gold again. He sailed to the coast of Guyana, where local people gave him useful information about the situation further inland.[13] Like all explorers before him, he never found the legendary Golden City. He returned to England with only a mixed bag of remarkable observations and fantasy tales about the natives. His exaggerated claims have contributed to the wide diffusion of the alluring Legend of Eldorado, the king richly adorned with gold.
Walter Raleigh’s life took a nasty turn in 1603. His “friend” Baron Cobham falsely testified that he was involved in a plot against King James I. Sir Raleigh had not studied law and made the unwise decision to defend himself. He was found guilty, convicted to be axed, but King James spared his life.[14]
During his long stay in the Tower, Raleigh passed his time writing poems and working on his Opus Magnum: The History of the World. In 1616, King James I, who was lacking cash. He released Raleigh and assigned him to lead a second expedition to find El Dorado. He was told not to engage in acts of piracy, nor to fight with Spaniards. When he sailed up the Orinoco river, he reached San Thome, a Spanish settlement. Raleigh’s son got killed during a battle with these Spaniards. Back home, the Spanish king demanded that Raleigh should be killed. 29October 1618 Raleigh’s head was chopped off.[15]
In 1650, Lord Willoughby, governor of Barbados, sent an expedition of 40 men, led by sergeant-major Anthony Rowse to Suriname, to look for a suitable site for permanent settlement. He wrote his wife that he had taken this initiative because he had been told by all that had been there, that it was the sweetest place on earth; delicate rivers, brave land, fine timber. They were out almost five months, and amongst 40 persons, not one of them had so much as a head ache. The air was so pure, and so was the water. They never got stomach trouble, eating five times a day of fish and fowl.[16]
Willoughby had arrived with 300 men, plus many gifts and goods for barter. He got a friendly welcome from the natives. This experienced colonizer managed to found 50 plantations and a fort. He also succeeded in attracting more Europeans. Soon, Willoughby’s land stretched over more than 30,000 acres. Labour was done by a number of native Indians and about 3,000 enslaved Africans. There were around 1,000 whites. Among them many French Jews descending from people who had fled the Spanish and Portuguese inquisition.[17] In Suriname, they received the same rights as British citizens. Later, also German Jews arrived.[18]
In the seventeenth century, new waves of Europeans began to settle in this wide stretch of land and wetlands between the wide deltas of the Orinoco and the Amazon River. The European settlers tried to force indigenous people to work for them, but they refused. Many died from European diseases. The Europeans did not fare better. Tropical diseases, unhealthy meals and dangerous amounts of liquor made countless casualties. Hence the new colonies always faced a shortage of workers and servants. To solve this problem the French first transported shiploads of orphans and children of the poor. The English began with sending criminals and political prisoners.[19] Though, it was never enough to satisfy the demand. After a while, importing enslaved Africans was embraced as the most efficient way to solve this problem. Also the Dutch got involved in the trafficking of black Africans.
In 1667, again conflict flared up between the Dutch and the British.[20] The province of Zeeland sent three war ships to Suriname. The fight took only three hours. The victors confiscated all British possessions, including a large sum of money. This showed that Suriname could be a profitable colony. 31 July 1667, the Netherlands, England, France, and Denmark signed the Peace Treaty of Breda. Suriname was handed over to the Dutch in exchange for New Amsterdam, now New York. They also got a number of fortresses in Africa that were of great importance for the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch believed they had made an excellent deal: a small city for a much larger tropical paradise with many blooming sugar and coffee plantations. How wrong they were.
` Orinoco, an enslaved African prince.
Life was hard for Africans in Suriname. Often, field slaves had to work beyond exhaustion. Besides working the fields, enslaved girls and women had to cook, clean their hut and wash the clothing. Many enslaved women and girls got raped by their master, his assistants or adolescent sons. Some of these women were forced to prostitute themselves, to earn extra money for their white boss.[21] This dismal situation was condoned or even fully accepted by most colonists. Critics were hard to find. One of them was Aphra Behn (1640 – 1689). Aphra Behn was the first English women ever that made a living by writing novels, poems and plays. She and her parents had come to Suriname during British reign. After 1667 she went back to England. There, she married Johann Behn. This German or Dutchman died a few years later. One of her most renowned novels tells the sad love story of Orinoco, an African prince who was captured and shipped to Suriname. As a handsome young boy and warrior, he had fallen in love with the beautiful Imoinda. His grandfather, the king, had many wives and concubines. Yet, after noticing the spectacular beauty of Imoinda, he wanted her for himself. Acting against the moral rules of his people, he forced Imoinda to come to his palace and share his bed. Then he sold her to an African slave trader who transported her to the coast, to be traded to a European sea-captain and shipped to America. When Orinoco learned what had happened he became inconsolable. Not much later, also Orinoco was kidnapped by members of an enemy tribe, enslaved and shipped to Suriname. There, to his great surprise, he was rejoined with Imoinda. But Aphra Behn does not finish her story with a happy ending. She casts a sharp light on the injustices and cruelty of slavery: on the exploitation, violence and murder. She focuses on Orinoco’s hopeless attempt to flee to the jungle with his pregnant wife, and highlights the extremely cruel way in which he was martyred and killed after being caught. Aphra Behn’s novel is the first strong critique against colonial slavery. Nowadays she is also seen as one of the first precursors of feminism.[22]
First degree maltreatment
Pinson Bonham, governor of Suriname from 1812 till 1815, witnessed that Dutch planters treated slaves very badly. He had visited many plantations in the Caribbean region and observed that the Blacks of Suriname had to work much harder than enslaved workers elsewhere. Their food was more scarce and of lower quality.[23] They had to toil seven days a week, though, on Sunday, Christianized slaves were allowed to go to church. Also others have recorded many examples of cruel treatment. That is why we now know that Mrs Pieterson, a widow, killed slaves by beating them to death. When asked about this outrageous behaviour, she obstinately remarked that, to her, these Blacks were no more than objects, bought with her own money. Hence she could treat them as she pleased, even if this meant destroying them.[24] Mrs Mauricius, a governor’s widow, admitted that she loved to see scars on the backs of her slaves and enjoyed to watch them dying from extremely harsh corporal punishments. The court of justice advised her to stop these practices. They feared that her vicious actions would lead to more slaves escaping her plantation. But she refused.[25]
First and foremost, planters and colonial governments were interested in profits and tax revenues. That’s why slave holders seldom or never got punished for cruelties. Very few got reprimanded.[26] That is precisely the reason why historians have found so few documents about cruelties inflicted on slaves. Most of what we learned of these atrocities comes via oral history, from stories told by children or grandchildren of victims.
Anton de Kom believed that the wives of some slave owners had become extremely cruel and revengeful, because their men had indulged in sexual relations with attractive coloured women. These young women were in no position to resist their horny masters. By refusing sex, they ran the risk of being beaten and maimed. The wives knew what was going on and saw mixed race children being born and growing up on their plantation. To minimize the sex appeal of female slaves White wives designed wide, shapeless skirts and wide jackets to hide the feminine features of their Black servants.[27]
Maybe this dress story needs some qualification. Marjan Meurs presents a number of alternative explanations for the clothing of the so called koto missies, but offers no definitive refutation. Some of her explanations even conflict with each other, such as the assertion that planters wished to spend very little money on slaves’ clothing, yet giving them wide and ankle long skirts. Fact is that in the city of Paramaribo some masters and mistresses indulged in conspicuous consumption and liked to show off their richness by giving their house servants colourful, but still oversized kotomissie clothes, made of expensive material, to wear whenever they had to accompany them on festive occasions or outdoor walks. The most debated argument refers to what degree female slaves got forced to wear these dresses or whether they did it by their own volition. City slaves tended to look down upon field slaves that still walked around with bare breasts, as was the custom in Africa. Maybe we should make a distinction between the city and the country side. A serious argument against wearing long and wide skirts and starched jackets is that it hinders field work. After emancipation day, a new middle class of well-to-do emancipated Blacks emerged that wanted to imitate the white middle and upper class, but at the same time wished to hold on to their tradition and preference for colourful ethnic designs. With this explanation we arrive at a generalized observation that everywhere when cultures meet, some fusions in culture and lifestyle will occur.
Maroons
In Suriname, quite a number of Africans protested with their feet against their labour and living conditions. Planters and governors encouraged the hunting of runaways and the maiming or even the hanging of recidivists. Yet, escapes kept going on. Runaways found safe hiding places in the jungle or the marsh lands. The first generation of enslaved Africans had arrived with the right skills to survive in the wild. They had no trouble finding food and material for making simple huts and canoes. Now and then, to increase their comfort, they sneaked back to the plantations to steal extra food, clothing and utensils, such as knives and spoons. They also helped others to escape or lured or forced women to join them. These runaways were called Maroons. The term is derived from the word “Cimarron”. Cima is Spanish for (mountain) top and Cimarron refers to uncivilized mountain men and cattle that went astray in the mountains.
Most Maroon communities were established near or on river banks. Thus they could profit from fishing and hunting. Settlements like these also emerged in Brazil, British and French Guyana. For generations, Maroons held on to some African customs and traditions. Maroon communities were led by a chief, often called captain or Granman. He decided over religious matters and over plans to raid plantations.[28] It is quite surprising to learn that there also was slavery within the established Maroon settlements.[29] For them, this simply was another continuation of everyday life in tribal Africa, including African beliefs, customs and rites, such as Winti and Voodoo. The Granman also decided over resettlement whenever the need arose, for example when there discovery was neigh. Their isolation led to the development of two kinds of Afro-Surinamese people: the city blacks and the Bush Negroes. The blacks in the cities, among them relatively many Mulattoes, tended to see themselves as more civilized, and therefore as “better” than their brothers in the jungle. Even political activist Anton de Kom shamefully admits that he held that view when he was young.
From day one, the colonial administration always prioritized the interests of planters. For them, catching escaped slaves always had top priority. They promised premiums to anyone who caught them, dead or alive. Those that were caught often were put to death in gruesome ways: killed like cougars, or even worse, roasted on a low fire. Their corpses were left to rot or eaten by scavengers, denying them the right of a decent funeral. Anton de Kom tells the story of Séry and Flora, two courageous women. In 1711, they had escaped but been caught by Dutch soldiers in 1711. They were tortured with knives, spears, and fire. Yet they refused to tell who had helped them fleeing to a Maroon settlement. Flora’s head was chopped off in front of Séry and daughter Patienta. Even then Séry kept her mouth shut. She was beheaded too. The heads were put on stakes and brought to Paramaribo to show what will happen to anyone who dreams of escaping slavery.[30]
In 1726, Maroons revolted against plantations near the Saramacca River. The colonial army captured eleven insurgents. These three men and eight women were publicly tortured to death. This maddened the rest of the rebels so much that they continued to attack other plantations. As a result the colonial government failed to subdue all Maroons; reason for Governor Johan Mauricius to develop a new strategy, based on the old Roman principle of divide and rule. He sent negotiators to induce Chief Adoe to sign a peace treaty. To show his good intentions Mauricius offered him expensive goods, peace, freedom and the right to do business with whites, in exchange for information about the whereabouts of other Maroon villages. But Adoe refused.[31]
How to legitimize slavery?
Most preachers, priests, pastors and common believers were convinced that slavery was a God given institution. In the past theologians had concocted the theory that all black Africans were descendents of Noah’s son Cham, cursed to a life of servitude.[32] Minister Johan Picardt preached this false idea with great conviction. His white audience was eager to accept this divine split between superior Europeans and inferior black Africans, for ever cursed to be enslaved.[33] Picardt was not the only Dutch pastor that preached that way, thus relieving most slave owners of feelings of guilt about keeping blacks as slaves, even Christianized ones.
Among colonists the losers outnumbered the winners. Losers returned home with broken dreams. Quite a few planters got rich. Governors Administrators and tax collectors became wealthy too.
The new rich loved to show off their wealth. One way to flaunt their affluence was by keeping more enslaved house servants than was necessary.[34] Full of caustic irony, Anton de Kom writes that the Whites, who always claimed to belong to an old and highly respected civilization, spent most of their wealth in irresponsible ways. In stead of using their richness for nice new houses, offices, churches, roads or bridges that could stand the time, like the wealthy Greek and Romans of Antiquity, they indulged in excessive drinking, reckless gambling and adulterous sex.[35] Why were these masters acting so shamefully? De Kom thinks they did it, because they wanted to silence their fear of slave revolts with strong liquor and sexual power. If, indeed, they were full of angst, then this tells us that they were well aware that their bonded labourers were real humans who could get severely frustrated and rebellious over mistreatment, injustice and humiliation.
Only a handful of whites acknowledged that blacks were humans just like them, entitled to respectful treatment. Only a handful of white colonists denounced harsh punishments given for “minor crimes” such as breaking a tea cup, mislaying a comb, or stealing some slices of bread. food. Gradually the protest against this punitive climate grew. The death penalty for insulting, or disobeying one’s white master or his wife, was altered in lifelong imprisonment in a camp,[36] often in combination with putting them in iron shackles, cutting off one’s tongue, or the branding of both cheeks. Some might have preferred the death penalty.
Dutch Colonizers: Reluctant Converters
The Dutch have often been characterized as a nation of clergymen and merchants. This might have been an apt description once, but definitely not for the Dutch that settled, colonized and worked in Suriname. Their gospel was making profit, profit and still more profit. In their view converting slaves, sending them to church, teaching them to pray and to read the Bible, was a waste of time. And wasting time is wasting money. Furthermore, Dutch colonizers feared that Bible study might lead Blacks to posing awkward questions about the right of Christians to enslave other Christians. Governor Mauricius, on the other hand, thought that enslaved Blacks, once they had been converted, would be more willing to accept their wretched situation on earth, in exchange for being offered the hope to get to heaven, to enjoy eternal bliss. Exactly the same illusions and discussions had been alive in New England half a century earlier. There too was a strong resistance against educating and baptizing slaves. But some hoped that these slaves might learn to see their miserable life as God’s will.[37]
The conversion campaign did not start well. Most planters refused to pay for the costs of religious education. They prioritized profit over saving souls.[38] Nonetheless, many slaves did convert, but they were not allowed to say their marriage vows in an official church ceremony, despite the Christian view that marriage was a sacred bond. Since the Dutch were reluctant missionaries, foreigners took over. Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, a German count, had founded a Pietistic Protestant movement. He had opened his manor for persecuted Moravian brethren in Herrnhut. Later on, these Moravian brethren settled in the Dutch city of Zeist. In 1735, they moved on to Surinam, where these Moravian brethren became active preachers.[39] They established the Evangelical Community of Brethren.[40] They also offered social assistance and took care of the ill and indisposed and offered education to Native Indians, Creoles, and Bush Negroes. These Moravian missionaries held on to their old profession as carpenter or blacksmith. Thus, they remained financially independent. They supported, educated and converted many Blacks. Doing so, the Hernhutters have had a great influence on Suriname and the process of emancipation.[41]
Planters had hoped that Christianized slaves would stop rebelling and running away. But this did not happen; the main reason being that their Christian masters did not treat and respect them as fellow Christians. Recurrent uprisings led to arson and killing of planters. A violent insurgency emerged when slaves of planter Bruyère refused to be seconded to planter Martin, a malicious neighbour. The mortality on Martin’s plantation was so high that he constantly needed replacements. Yet Bruyère persisted and asked the army for support. As soon as the soldiers arrived, the slaves rebelled. They outnumbered the soldiers, wounded officer Hertsberger and killed two of his men. They also chopped off the hands of Bruyère.[42] Things got worse when Captain Frederik Meyer was ordered to fight the insurgents. He lost about 30 of his men and withdrew. A third attempt was made to defeat the rebels. But also Captain-Lieutenant Reinet, heading 80 well trained military, brought no victory. The only thing he achieved was that the 150 revolting Negroes moved on to a better hiding place, deeper in the jungle, joining other Maroons. From time to time, they went back to plantations to spur their enslaved fellows to flee. They dispersed pamphlets and threatened to kill four whites for every slave or mulatto that got killed by a white master.
Governor Mauricius wanted to end the rebellion. He negotiated with Maroon leaders. Some tribes and chiefs had gotten weary from fighting and retreating still deeper into the jungle, weary from building new settlements over and over again. Mauricius made peace with 16 chiefs. Their tribes were allowed to live peacefully in the jungle, nicely settled near river banks, far from the “civilized world,” far away from malicious masters, slave drivers, and premium hunters.
In 1757, lieutenant-Colonel Crommelin, commander of the colonial army, became governor of Suriname. 10October 1760, he closed a deal with the Ndyuka people. Crommelin tried to soften the rules for corporal punishment, but was met with fierce resistance from the police and the Court of Justice. Planters demanded better protection against Maroon attacks, but were unwilling to pay for the extra costs.
Not all Maroons accepted the treaty. A few tribes went on fighting until complete abolition was achieved for all. Led by Joli Coeur and Chief Bonni, they attacked Dutch troops and plantations; sometimes winning, sometimes losing. In the past, Bonni’s mother had been beaten by her master. Still pregnant she had fled into the woods. There she gave birth to Bonni. This revengeful son of a white master and his enslaved servant grew up in freedom hidden in the hinterlands of Suriname. He trained other boys to become skilled fighters, always demanding iron discipline and obedience. He and his posse became feared by planters, soldiers and the colonial government.[43] But sometimes they found it safer to cross the border with French Guyana. The French governors did not really welcome them, but they realized that the real problem lay with the Dutch colonists. It was their inhumane treatment that produced rebels and refugees. Hence, the French refused to hand over these rebel slaves to the Dutch.
David Nassy (1747 – 1806) was one of the greatest intellectuals of Surinam of that period. He wanted to establish a solid school system. For him, education was important for all young people, irrespective of race or background. But even his plan excluded children from the enslaved. White planters and middle class colonists saw education as a weapon against the weakening of the European culture. Their children were being raised and cared for by black nannies. They feared that these children might internalize too many elements of African or Creole language and culture. Teachers were instructed to crush any use of Creole or Sranantongo.
Though white male colonists supported the idea of racial segregation, mixed race children were born frequently. So, it did not take long before a demand emerged for educating mixed-race children. In 1753, master Van Claveren was ordered to teach non-white children from Christian parents too, though strictly segregated from white pupils.[44] Another route to better quality education was to send one’s children to The Netherlands. Most of them were white, though also a small number of indigenous or Maroon children went to Amsterdam for further education. Back in Suriname many of these non-whites made a career, for instance as governmental clerks and interpreters. Others had learned the right skills for carpentry, plumbing or black smithery. These jobs offered a good opportunity to live like a member of the lower-middle class. Some failed to find a position that matched their level of education. Racial discrimination may have played a role here. Those who succeeded after being schooled in The Netherlands laid the foundations for a growing non-white lower-middle class. They had internalized much of the Dutch culture and mind set, without losing an anti-colonial undercurrent aimed at independency.[45]
In the 18th century many blacks and mulattoes embraced the Christian faith; others did not. Only converted slaves could be manumitted. In the 19th century the colonial elite successfully exerted more soft power to convert African descendants and indigenous people. Active participation in Church life brought more social cohesion among manumitted blacks and mulattoes and an increase of devotion and respectable behaviour.
Outside Paramaribo, the barrier between planters and their enslaved workers was underscored by the divide between believers in the God of the Jews and Christians and those who held on to African forms of religion. In the 17th century planters had resisted all attempts to convert enslaved “heathens.” Dutch reformed minister Jan Willem Kals, who had come to Surinam hoping to convert many descendants of Africa, encountered so much resistance from White Christians that he felt forced to return within months.[46] Besides, colonists disliked his interference in the case of Isabella, an enslaved woman who had been baptized and registered as a member of the local Dutch Reformed church community. Her owner, Gerrit Wobma, had manumitted her to facilitate her membership as a free person. After he died, she was banned from the church and put into slavery again. Isabella told Kals that her new masters wanted her to be their concubine, which she refused. The men denied that they had asked her to engage in adulterous sex, but admitted that they had told her that being baptized would not help her, because “heaven was not made for blacks.” In stead, they told her that blacks were children of the Devil; their only function was to work for and (sexually) satisfy their masters.”[47]
For a long time, the Dutch Reformed Church and the Lutheran Church kept their flocks purely white. Church organisations invested in plantations and bought coloured slaves to work the fields. In 1744, the newly established Lutheran Church baptized one free black. This was an exceptional event. The next 12 years no other manumitted black was being baptized. In 1762, enslaved people were allowed to be baptized, if they had received proper education. The ceremony was an entirely segregated affair. White children were baptized on Sundays, and non-whites on Wednesdays. There was more liberty and egalitarian thinking in Paramaribo. There was more room for non-whites to become a member of the Dutch Reformed Church.[48]
The Society for the enhancement of Religious Education for Enslaved and Indigenous People was founded in 1828. The founders expected that emancipation was going to happen in the near future. They thought that Dutch politicians and citizens might be more inclined to abolish slavery if enslaved people had become fellow Christians. Thanks to the efforts of the Hernhutters ever more people of colour joined the ranks of Christians and became devoted followers of Jesus.[49] The better-off people of colour donated 2, 3 or 5 guilders to the Church for helping the poor. Church communities formed the only available safety net for poor free and manumitted blacks. They could not fall back on governmental poor relief.
Near the end of the 18th century, Europe was in a revolutionary mood. The most famous revolution started in Paris. On the 14th of July 1789 an angry mob stormed the Bastille and freed all prisoners, seven in total. This started the French Revolution, always remembered for its catching slogan: Freedom, Equality and Fraternity. It put an end to arbitrary power of the monarch and the exploitation of the poor by noblemen, condoned by church leaders and controlled by the army. Political philosopher Henry de Saint Simon, a nobleman by birth, argued that every country could function and even flourish without kings, counts, dukes and barons, without cardinals and bishops, and without marshals, generals, and admirals. But every nation was doomed without farmers, bakers, and carpenters. This revolutionary fever was very contagious and spilled over to other countries. The Netherlands got only a bit infected, but that was not exported its colonies. Yet, overnight, the brand new revolutionary government of France had abolished slavery in all its colonies. Suddenly slavery was forbidden in Suriname’s neighbour country: French Guyana. Colonists that refused to free their slaves got expelled. The colonial government of Suriname welcomed these exiled planters and encouraged them to buy or set up plantations there.[50]
In 1772, the Colonial Government of Surinam had established a special military unit of African descendants for fighting Maroons. Officially this unit was called the Black Hunters, unofficially they were called Redi Musu, after the red cap that topped their uniform. Enlistment in the army did not change their enslaved status, but they received decent pay, plus some other privileges. And there was the promise of emancipation after their service in the military. Other Blacks viewed them as collaborators or traitors. Even to date, calling a coloured person a Redi Musu is extremely insulting. In 2008, a scandal erupted when the opposition called an MP from the governing party a Redi Musu, implying that he still was working for the colonizers, though Suriname had been independent since 1975. President Venetiaan got very angry and called his political opponents a gang of drug dealers.[51]
The Redi Musu helped the government hunting escaped slaves for many decades. So, in 1807, it came as a great shock when two platoons of thirty Black Hunters killed their white officers and joined the Maroons. The planters called for revenge, but the weak colonial army managed to catch only four of the sixty defected soldiers. The British, occupying Suriname for the second time, forbade the Dutch to break them on the wheel. This was a very cruel method. Victims were tied to a big cartwheel with their hands and legs spread widely. All their limbs were crushed with a heavy iron rod. The last blow, the coup de grace, was a fatal strike on the heart. The Brits found that this medieval method did not fit a civilized country.[52] The Dutch were allowed to hang the four rebels. This is slightly more humane, because death comes more quickly.
In 1808, Britain forbade trading slaves. In Suriname planters always needed new young and strong workers. They could not do without new replacements and urged Dutch sea captains to smuggle in Africans. Hence, the number of imported blacks hardly shrank. In 1815, at the Peace Treaty of Paris, Suriname was handed over to The Dutch again. The official transfer took place on 26 February 1816. From then on, the Dutch went on with the obnoxious Atlantic slave trade.
Abolition in Suriname
In Suriname the attitude and behaviour of a majority of White planters, common citizens and administrators often was very shameful. They rejected any proposal to improve the living and working conditions of enslaved people. They treated their bonded workers as natural objects, as private property. And in their view, nobody had the right to interfere with the way they treated their slaves, their private property. By now, Governor Burchard Joan Elias realized that abolition was inevitable after French and British Guyana had ended slavery. More than once, Elias proposed to grant non-Whites more rights, but he never received sufficient support. He returned to Holland in 1845; bitterly disappointed.
The new governor was Baron Reinier Frederik van Raders: a man with a good character, a true abolitionist. Anton de Kom viewed Baron van Raders as one of the very few Whites with a good heart, high morals, and a head full of good plans.[53] In Curaçao, a colonized island in the Dutch Antilles, Van Raders had successfully implemented projects for improving work and living conditions.[54] However, in Suriname he was continuously thwarted and slandered. His opponents blocked his proposals to shorten work shifts to 10 hours a day. They also obstructed his projects to improve the infrastructure, even when he invested a large amount of his own capital in digging a new canal. Sometimes, he even grabbed a spade, just to show that manual labour was not an inferior activity, only meant for slaves, but an honest and useful job for everyone. In Suriname the prejudice that manual labour was meant for slaves had grown such deep roots that also freed Blacks refused to work with a spade, scythe or hoe.
To boost the economy and enhance equality Baron Van Raders invited Dutch farmers to come to Surinam. He wanted to prove that farms could be run without slave labour, using properly paid labourers. This idea dovetailed with a plan designed by Arend van den Brandhof, a Dutch-Reformed parson who wanted to save Surinam from economic disaster after the unavoidable abolition. After all, who else would do the seeding, weeding and harvesting once all the enslaved workers got free? Around 1840, the Dutch economy had landed in a crisis due to a combination of huge state debts and failed harvests. Numerous people were migrating to North America in search for a better future. In this social climate, Van den Brandhof and two of his colleagues intended to copy a plan developed by William Penn, who had established a settlement of English Quakers in Pennsylvania. Van den Brandhof planned to get 400 impoverished Dutchmen to Suriname. In 1843, the government gave its blessing to this plan. Soon there were enough serious candidates that wanted to participate in a project that promised them a newly built farmhouse, 10 acres of cultivated land, and some cows and pigs. What could go wrong? To begin with, Brandhof had stubbornly ignored clear warnings that the selected location was ill-chosen. It was a plot of wild tropical marshland, extremely hard to cultivate. It was a hot and humid area infested by mosquitoes and other nasty insects. Surgeon Frederick Tydeman had predicted that half of the newcomers would die within a year. Alas he would be right. Within a few months more than half of these 384 new colonists died of typhoid and other diseases, poor food and lack of medical help, and also due to mental despair, because the project was severely sabotaged.[55] Wicked people, convinced that witnessing Whites toiling in the fields would undermine the racist labour-system, had ordered constructers to work slowly and to use inferior materials. When the new farmers arrived, only nine houses were finished. Another eight were under construction. The new arrivals were shocked when they saw the unfinished and badly constructed buildings, as well as the poor quality of their land. Their despair was indescribable. The men gritted their teeth, muttered or even cursed. The women shrieked, cried and wailed and the children wept too when they eyed the despair of their parents. A handful of farmers returned to Holland. The rest was trapped in Suriname, unable to pay the fare for a return ticket. Once more, corrupt planters showed that being a Christian or claiming to be a civilized European meant nothing as soon as one felt one’s privileges endangered. Seven years later a similar project was launched. This was aimed at recruiting poor German foresters. But also this project was pushed over a cliff. This time, opponents warned for a massive inflow of proletarian socialists. Planters feared socialists even more than Maroons. Only half of the new settlers survived, made a living and gradually improved their situation without exploiting Blacks. At first they refused to mix with the rest of the populace. It took a few generations before they integrated well and mixed with other ethnic groups, including the Whites that descended van slaveholders.[56]
Van Raders was an incurable idealist as well as an optimistic scientist. He was discharged and sent home after the Venezia incident. Some members of the crew of this Austrian ship were suffering from yellow fever, a very contagious disease. Illegally, some members of the crew had abandoned the quarantined ship, putting the entire nation at risk.[57] Back in Holland Van Raders became an active opponent of slavery, though he had owned an enslaved house servant when he worked in Surinam. Her name was Virginie. She had accompanied Van Raders’ daughter when the latter returned to Holland in 1847. She stayed in Holland for a few years, claiming the status of a free woman. After returning to Suriname Virginie protested against being categorized as an enslaved person. Her case was brought to court. She won and was declared free on the 26th of October 1852. This decision had a significant impact on the legal status of blacks in The Netherlands. In 1860, she returned to The Netherlands and requested to be called Virginie van Gameren. This request was granted.[58]
In 1853, baron Van Raders became a member of a state committee assigned to propose measures to better the position of colonial slaves. Meanwhile, Van Raders was succeeded by Schmidt auf Altenstadt. This was an unhealthy man with a weak will and a shortage of ideas; an easy target for manipulative civil servants and planters. His greatest passion was realizing budget cuts. He did this so eagerly that repairing the damage did cost at least three times more than the amount he had saved. After three years he was succeeded by Schimpf, again someone who crept under the wings of reactionary planters. He sent reports full of positive talk to the Dutch government in The Hague, asserting that, in practice, slavery no longer existed in Suriname.[59]
Yet, despite the obstructive actions of recalcitrant slave owners, the days of slavery were running out. Most planters realized that abolition was neigh. They pressed government to import contract labourers from India and China. But when these “coolies” arrived nobody wanted to hire them, because, at that moment, planters were still allowed to hold slaves. Thus, history repeated itself. The contracted Indians found themselves in a similarly great predicament as the poor farmers that had been lured to Surinam with false promises. They too were unable to pay for a return ticket. The only thing they could do was to accept very low wages. Those who protested got beaten, though this was illegal.[60]
11 August 1859, Reinhart van Lansberge became the next governor of Suriname. He would be the last governor that stopped a revolt with brute violence. Nonetheless, he played a positive role in the transition to emancipation. The last stage of this major evolution proceeded rather peaceful, which is quite remarkable since the road to this path was paved with violent protests at various plantations.
What happened after abolition?
To begin with the freed people still had to work 10 more years for a Dutch master or the Colonial Government. This “apprenticeship” period was invented to prepare them for a life in freedom. Many freed men, women and children became distressed. Planters no longer felt obliged to board and feed them, or to help them in any other way. At the plantations former field slaves had lost all taste for farm work, so they were eager to leave their master, though there were few other options left. The freed men and women no longer had to fear for harsh punishments from their masters and overseers, but now they feared the future.
The year of abolition should have been a year of Jubilee, but things went wrong. In 1863, the Surinamese economy was not running well. Many colonialists had lost their motivation, no longer taken their work seriously. Quite a number had squandered their money. Irresponsible White masters had raped young slaves. Most of them refused to acknowledge their mixed race children. Also many unmarried Black man and woman had engendered babies. In those days, there were three times more children born out of wedlock than in wedlock. After abolition former slave holders and overseers did not stop their immoral behaviour overnight. Liquor bills soared as did the number of sexually transmitted diseases. As a consequence plantations ran into disarray. Several planters got bankrupted. On the other hand, there were also planters that returned to Holland, their pockets filled with compensation money and the money earned with the exploitation of enslaved and bonded plantation workers.
In 1975, after Suriname became independent, more than a third of the black and coloured people left Suriname. They did not trust the capabilities of the new government of Suriname, they feared that ethnic conflicts might emerge, and after years of being influenced by the contents of their school books they believed that many things were better organized in The Netherlands. At least there were better educational opportunities, better healthcare and better equipped hospitals. Five years later, just before the last opportunity to get a visa and to keep your civil status as a citizen of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, again tens of thousands rushed to Holland to beat the ban.
[1] This is chapter 10 of my book project “Ancient Slavery and the road to Abolition” An earlier version has been published in my Dutch book “Afschaffing van de Slavernij” Published in 2013. (12-4-2026: Words 8281)
[2] Full name: Cornelis Gerard Anton de Kom.
[3] Karin Amatmoutkrim: De Man van veel. Promotheus: Amsterdam, 2021
[4] Karin Amatmoutkrim, o.c. p 41.
[5] Anton de Kom: Wij Slaven van Suriname [We Slaves of Suriname]. The 20th and latest Dutch edition is from 2020..
[6] He wrote several poems that revealed his fighting spirit. They have been published posthumously. Strijden ga ik: www.dbnl.org/tekst/kom
[7] Gemeente Amsterdam: Anton de Kom. Strijden ga ik!www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/achtergrond/anton-de-kom. Retrieved: 28 January 2024
[8] G.J. Oostindie: ‘Kom, Cornelis Gerhard Anton de (1898-1945)’, in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland. URL:http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn5/kom [12-11-2013]
[9] Later, also a few Dutch streets have been named after him. Anton de Kom: nl.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 21 April 2022
[10] Alonso de Ojeda: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonso_de_Ojeda. Retrieved: 13-12-20223.
[11] Alonso de Ojeda invented the country name for Venezuela, meaning little Venice.
[12] “Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh: 1584.” The Avalon Project: Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Retrieved: 14 June 2015
[13] Raleigh sailed up on the Corontine River, reached its first waterfall, since called Raleigh Falls.
[14] Walter Raleigh: Wikipedia. Retrieved 16 December 2023
[15] Walter Raleigh: nl.wikipedia.org. Retrieved; 19 December 2023.
[16] Frances Willoughby: nl.wikipedia.org. Retrieved; 19 December 2023.
[17] E. C. S. Bruyning: “Elke Creool heeft Joods bloed in zich.”, bestjewishstudies.com/nl/geschiedenis-van-de-joden-in-suriname
[18] Ben Ipenburg: Joden in Suriname. Uitgeverij Ipenburg, 2015
[19] Ruud Spruit: Zout en Slaven. Houten: De Haan, 1988. p. 127
[20] The Second Dutch-English war
[21] History of Suriname: Wikipedia. Retrieved: 17-20-19
[22] wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphra_Behn; A. Behn: Oronooko, or the Royal slave: A True History. London, 1688: Scanned version available via the Gutenberg Project.
[23] Letter from Person Bonham to Earl Bathurst 9 February 1814. See A. de Kom: Wij slaven van Suriname, 1971; Uitgeverij Contact, ISBN 90-254-9605-9
[24] De Kom, o.c.: p. 33
[25] Idem: p. 37
[26] Idem: p. 34
[27] This clothing style was called kotomisi. Marjan Meurs: Veel om het lijf. Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht. November, 2010
[28] Silvia de Groot: Van Ayako tot Jankoeso. Opvolgingskwesties bij de Samarakaanse Marrons 1680 – 1932. In: Wetenschap en Partijdigheid. Opstellen voor André J. F. Kobben. Van Gorcum Assen, 1990.
[29] www.slavernijenjij.nl/de-erfenis-nu/surinaamse-familienamen
[30] De Kom o. c.: pp 60-61
[31] Thomas Wentworth Higginson: Travellers and Outlaws, Episodes in American History. Originally published in Boston, 1889
[32] Genesis IX: verse 25 and 27.
[33] Willem Flinkeflögel: Nederlandse Slavenhandel (1621-1803). Kosmos, Utrecht/Antwerpen, 1994. p. 90.
[34] The term conspicuous consumption was introduced by sociologist and economist Thorsten Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
[35] De Kom refers to J. Wolbers, who published a history of Suriname in 1861 (in Dutch) and to the report made by Stedman during his travels to Suriname. Both writers tell their readers that they wanted to shield them against a full description of all the debauchery and immoral behaviour of the colonizers. De Kom, o. c. p. 42 and p. 179
[36] Since all slaves were private property those punished with prison camp for life were bought from their owners. To regain these costs they were obliged to work for the state in these prison camps.
[37] Lorenzo Johnston Greene: The Negro in Colonial New England. Athenaeum 1968. New York City: Paperback edition: pp 257-289
[38] De Kom, o.c.: p. 102
[39] www.suriname.NU
[40] De Evangelische Broedergemeenschap
[41] K. A Zeefuik: Hernhutter zending en Haagsche Maatschappij 1828-1867. University of Utrecht. 10 May 1973. Nowadays about 40 per cent of the Creole populace is a member of the EGB
[42] J. Wolbers: Geschiedenis van Suriname. Amsterdam 1861. pp 152-153
[43] John Stedman, o. c. p 117-118
[44] Karwan Fatah-Black: Eigendomsstrijd. De geschiedenis van slavernij en emancipatie in Suriname. Amsterdam: Ambo/Anthos: 2018. pp 140-141
[45] Idem: Pp 142-143
[46] Idem: p. 144
[47] Karwan Fatah-Black refers to J. M. van der Linde: Jan Willem Kals: leraar der Hervormden, advocaat van indiaan en neger. Kampen: Kok, 1987, p. 65
[48] Karwan Fatah Black, o. c. p 145-147
[49] Idem, p 148-149
[50] De Kom o. c.: p 106. J. Wolbers, o. c.: p 455
[51] Gerard van Westerloo: Binnenlands Bestuur, 31 oktober 2008
[52] De Kom o.c.: p. 85
[53] De Kom, o.c.: p. 98-99
[54] Reinier Frederik Baron van Raders. Wikipedia: Retrieved: 27 January 2012
[55] Karin Sitalsing: Boeroes. Een familiegeschiedenis van witte Surinamers. Altlas Contact; Amsterdam/Antwerpen 2016. bukubooks.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/raders/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-4
[56] Sitalsing, o.c.
[57] De Kom; o.c.: p. 92-93
[58] Virginie van Gameren: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginie_van_Gameren.
[59] De Kom, o.c.: p. 100
[60] De Kom, o.c.: p. 101