Slavery is now a hot topic of conversation, in the Dutch kingdom.
On the 19th of December, Premier Mark Rutte will be making a meaningful speech televised throughout the kingdom and its former colonies.
The speech has not been written yet, I understand, and the final wording still debated, but we were informed that representatives of the kingdom will be present on the former colonies, and after listening to Rutte’s address they will be speaking too, expressing remorse over that dark period of inhumane exploitation.
In talks over the subject in the Netherlands several groups of activists voiced their objections to the date, they wanted the announcement to coincide with the anniversary of the Dutch abolition of slavery, 160 years ago, they also had some other outlandish demands.
I am not going to repeat those, because I feel the sincere effort of the Dutch to apologize is being exploited by political agendas, on the islands and especially in Surinam, that indeed suffered the most from ruthless exploitation.
Also, in Aruba, political agendas imply that we will FORGET and FORGIVE if the Dutch wipe out the pandemic debt of 900 million florin due to be paid back in 2023.
During Covid, Aruba got the money, spent it, and is now looking for an escape clause.
The Dutch apology for slavery is perfect.
Total absolution is available for 900 million florins.
Just like the Catholic church in the middle-ages selling “indulgences.”
(Though slavery was never big in Aruba, in the absence of agriculture.)
History tell us that when France developed a sweet tooth, for cakes and desserts made with sugar produced from sugarcane grown easily on Caribbean islands, the idea of using slave-labor to work the plantations, to produce the delightful commodity, came naturally to the economic-moguls of the time.
There was huge economic value in producing sugar for almost nothing, and selling it at a fortune to decadent Europe ready to indulge its passion for sweets.
This went on for hundred of years, and involved all trading nations, at the time.
According to Wikipedia: In all, Dutch traders shipped and sold between 550,000 and 850,000 slaves in the Atlantic area: first to Brazil, later mainly to Suriname and the Antilles. Historian Matthias van Rossum estimates that throughout history between 660,000 and 1,135,000 slaves were traded in order to provide labor to the Dutch settlement areas in Asia. When slavery was abolished in 1863, the registers speak of 32,911 persons in Suriname and approximately 11,800 in the Antilles.
We have to remember that slavery is a very old practice, and humanity has always been divided between exploiters and exploited, from biblical times on, through the middle ages, to this day, the system is made up of work-givers and workers, rich and poor, those who give the orders and those who followed them.
Liberty, fraternity and equality are new ideas introduced by the French Revolution in 1789, which no one talked about BEFORE that date.
We should also mention that religion played a big part in slavery. Obviously, the Bible allowed slavery, and because it was sanctioned by the big book, slave owners demanded submission from the enslaved. They believed it was a judgment from God – God’s will – for both the slave owners and the slaves themselves.
Religion explained that slaves were predestined to slavery and as such they should embrace their fate and serve their masters with devotion. Calvinists linked slavery to the children of HAM, a biblical figure who was cursed. Ham’s descendants were said to populate Africa, and thus in their book it was OK to enslave Africans.
I can assure you that the princess enjoying her tompoes in Amsterdam had no clue thousands were being kidnapped on the West Coast of Africa, chained and transported across the Atlantic sold in Curacao to sugar plantations in Surinam. Who knew?
They had no internet at the time.
At the end of the 18th century, when the new ideas popped up, they started talking about human-rights, besides, Europe found a substitute for sugar from the Caribbean, they were growing beets, and the big slave trade started dwindling.
The Netherlands abolished slavery across the globe, in stages, from 1814 to 1914. In Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles on July 1, 1863, with the Emancipation Act. On that day, about 35,000 slaves in Suriname and 12,000 slaves on the Dutch islands in the Caribbean were given their freedom.
The Dutch government paid compensation of 300-350 guilders per slave to the owner as compensation for the lost property. In total, the allowance amounted to almost 12 million guilders, about 10% of the government expenditure in 1863.
As an alternative to the use of slaves, contract workers were recruited from the Dutch East Indies, from Java, India, and China. Their descendants are part of the fabric of this community.
