Sex, Power and Slavery Section: Legacies: Discourse, Dishonor, and Labor (original) (raw)
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Perhaps the belatedness of Emancipation was the most rema¡kable fact about it. The Dutch government accepted the ineviubility of the ending of slavery only in the 1840s; and even then little progress was made. By 1861, two years before Emancipation, the Dutch historian Wolbers scorned the lukewarm abolitionists for having forsaken the noble cause.
This article explores the local and intercontinental networks that underpinned the private trade in slaves and the transportation of the enslaved in the VOC seaborne empire during the eighteenth century. We rely on two sets of complementary VOC records, with their respective shortcomings, to reveal information about those who were involved in this trade as sellers, buyers and traded. Our focus is on the Cape of Good Hope as a node with a high demand for slaves, and Cochin from where slaves were traded and transported to all regions of the empire, including the Cape. It is apparent from these sources that high ranking VOC officials, the Company rank and file, free citizens and Asians under VOC jurisdiction partook in this lucrative trade. Analyses of regions of origin, age, gender, and caste are provided, giving the reader a rare glimpse into the identity of the enslaved.
From 1807 – 1833, Impediments to the Process of Slave Emancipation in the British West Indies
The Abolition Act of 1807 declared British involvement in the Atlantic slave trade illegal. Slavery itself remained, however, condoned by the British government and exploitation of Negroes continued in the British West Indies until the Emancipation Act of 1833. If Britain deemed the slave trade to be too immoral, then it is puzzling that the institution of slavery remained firmly in place in British colonies for another twenty-six years. Were there not the same humanitarian reasons for ending slavery as there were for ending the slave trade? By looking at Britain in the first part of the nineteenth century, it is clear that emancipation of West Indian slaves was not regarded as a natural corollary of abolition of the slave trade. In Britain, there existed strong overtones of racism even in the outlook of many anti-slavery advocates, and assumption of an anti-slavery stance did not preclude notions that blacks were inferior. Such prejudices were especially predominant in the British Parliament, where West Indian planters enjoyed much influence. The process of emancipation was painfully slow because of the conservative British Parliament with its extraordinary respect for private property; the financial burden of providing compensation to West Indian planters; opposition from commercial merchants and working class radicals; and fears, compounded by widespread slave revolts, that slaves were incapable of dealing with freedom. Ultimately, however, the most formidable obstacle to emancipation was not a human agent; rather, it was the entrenched British prejudice toward people of African descent that was evident even in the minds of abolitionists. An examination of the intervening years between the Abolition Act of 1807 and the Emancipation Act of 1833 demonstrates that it was this prejudice, which delayed slave emancipation.
Same old song? Perspectives on slavery and slaves in Suriname and Curaçao
Gert Oostindie (ed.), Fifty years later; Antislavery, capitalism and modernity in the Dutch orbit, 1995
Explaining abolition has long been a central concern in the hìstoriography of the Americas.l Not so for the Dutch Caribbean, where the ending of the slave trade was imposed by the British and where slave Emancipation came late but apparently mdisputed. ln fact, the belatedness of Emancipation was the most remarkable fact about it all. The Dutch government accepted the inevitability of the ending of slavery only in the 1840s; and even then little progress was made. By 1861, two years before Emancipation, the Dutch historian J. Wolbers scorned the lukewarm abolitionists for having forsaken the noble cause. Slavery was still a reality. Yet the abolitionists now slumbered, self-congratulatory for once having contributed to the good cause and deaf to'the shrill críes of the tortured slaves [as] it became so tedious to hear time and again of those negroes living so far away' (Wolbers 1861:746). Subsequent historians have consistently remarked on the absence of a passionate public debate on abolition in the Dutch world. David Brion Davis summed it up with the cursory remark that Dutch Emâncipation wâs 'businesslike' (Davis 1984:285).2
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Recent studies about colonialism tend to focus on processes of knowledge production, racism, identity formation, and violence. These themes are to a large extent informed and defined by anxieties which emerged in postcolonial metropoles. At the same time, they are only loosely connected with debates in former colonies. This book brings us back to the basics of colonialism: economic exploitation. Women, Work and Colonialism in the Netherlands and Java: Comparisons, Contrasts and Connections, 1830-1940 is a milestone in the field of comparative social economic history. Supported
Introduction: Explaining Dutch abolition
Gert Oostindie (ed.), Fifty years later; Antislavery, capitalism and modernity in the Dutch orbit, 1995
Prefaae institutionâl debt, namely to the KITLV, for financing the seminar, copublishing this book, and generally, for being a superb institution for work on the Caribbean. I was efficiently and cheerfully assisted in the process of editing by Marco Last. Peter Mason helped to smooth stylistic inelegancies in some of the non-native speakers' contributions. It was a pleasure working with both of them. Ellen de la Rie, of the Department of Caribbean Studies, provided good-humored assistance with the preparation of the index. Harry poeze and Marjan Groen, of the KITLV press, were helpful and accurate as ever in the final stages of the preparation of this book. At the University of Pittsburgh Press, Catherine Marshall coordinated publication of the American edition.