Kwame Nimako and Glenn Willemsen show how the slave trade and slavery intertwined economic, social and cultural elements, including nation-state formation in the Netherlands and across Europe. They explore the mobilisation of European populations in the implementation of policies that facilitated Atlantic slavery and examine how European countries created and expanded laws that perpetuated colonisation.
Addressing key themes such as the incorporation of the formerly enslaved into post-slavery states and contemporary collective efforts to forget and/or remember slavery and its legacy in the Netherlands, this is an essential text for students of European history and postcolonial studies.
Kwame Nimako and Glenn Willemsen show how the slave trade and slavery intertwined economic, social and cultural elements, including nation-state formation in the Netherlands and across Europe. They explore the mobilisation of European populations in the implementation of policies that facilitated Atlantic slavery and examine how European countries created and expanded laws that perpetuated colonisation.
Addressing key themes such as the incorporation of the formerly enslaved into post-slavery states and contemporary collective efforts to forget and/or remember slavery and its legacy in the Netherlands, this is an essential text for students of European history and postcolonial studies.

The Dutch Atlantic: Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation
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The Dutch Atlantic: Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation
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Overview
Kwame Nimako and Glenn Willemsen show how the slave trade and slavery intertwined economic, social and cultural elements, including nation-state formation in the Netherlands and across Europe. They explore the mobilisation of European populations in the implementation of policies that facilitated Atlantic slavery and examine how European countries created and expanded laws that perpetuated colonisation.
Addressing key themes such as the incorporation of the formerly enslaved into post-slavery states and contemporary collective efforts to forget and/or remember slavery and its legacy in the Netherlands, this is an essential text for students of European history and postcolonial studies.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781783714834 |
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Publisher: | Pluto Press |
Publication date: | 09/12/2011 |
Series: | Decolonial Studies, Postcolonial Horizons |
Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 240 |
File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Kwame Nimako teaches International Relations at the Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam. He is the co-author of The Dutch Atlantic (Pluto, 2011).
Glenn Willemsen (1948-2008) was the first director of the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy (NiNsee) from 2003 to 2008. He was also Adjunct Professor at the Union Institute&University, Cincinnati, Ohio from 1999 to 2008. He is co-author of The Dutch Atlantic (Pluto, 2011).
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Introduction, Goals and Issues
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the unwavering efforts of predominantly black Dutch groups in the Netherlands have put the legacy of Dutch slavery on the national political agenda. These efforts have brought the discourse on the legacy of slavery in the Netherlands into the public domain and have simultaneously given it an emotional charge, culminating in the unveiling of the National Slavery Monument on 1 July 2002 in Amsterdam. The physical monument was followed by the establishment in 2003 of a slavery institute, namely, the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy (NiNsee).
When Glenn Willemsen became the first director of NiNsee (in August 2003), he found himself in a situation in which he had to explain to the Dutch public what NiNsee was and why the abolition of Dutch Atlantic slavery on 1 July 1863 should be remembered and commemorated in the Netherlands. In order to answer some of these questions he decided to write a book, Dagen van gejuich en gejubel (Days of Exultation and Jubilation) (2006a). The main purpose of the book was to answer two questions: what happened on the day of legal abolition in the Netherlands, Suriname and the Dutch Antilles; and how did the demand for a slavery monument and institute come about? Willemsen was also interested in the notion of freedom, namely, how various parties, including the state, the enslavers and the enslaved, interpreted the notion of freedom. I (K.N.) supported him in researching the book and gave him feedback as he wrote the book.
What was also not anticipated when Willemsen became the director of NiNsee was the number of invitations he would receive from various civil society groups, including student groups, to give lectures on the Dutch involvement in the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery. It was clear that there was widespread interest amongst the Dutch public, especially young people, for information about the role of the Dutch in the 'slave' trade. After such lectures he was frequently asked to recommend a book for further reading. Obviously there are several books on the Dutch involvement in the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery. But he realized that what was needed was a comprehensive book, one that would give an overview of the complexity of the subject. It was against this background that he invited me to collaborate with him in writing such a book. However, in February 2008, during the process of researching and working on the book, Glenn Willemsen passed away. This was a tragic loss to his family, to me personally, and to the Black community in the Netherlands. Since the basic contours of the book had already been delineated and part of the research had been done, I decided to complete it. I felt that there was still a desperate need for a book of this kind, and that its publication would make a significant contribution to the debate on slavery and its legacy in the Netherlands.
This leads us to several questions. The first question that arises is: what exactly happened on that famous day of emancipation, 1 July 1863, in Suriname, the Dutch Antilles and the Netherlands? This question was dealt with extensively by Willemsen (2006a), so we only reflect on it briefly in this book. More relevant here is another question, namely, what is the genesis of this passion that strives to keep alive the events of emancipation day – especially among the descendants of those who were enslaved? And what sustains such a passion? Then there is the question of why the white part of the population in the Netherlands experiences this day so differently from the way that black Dutch men and women experience it. Next, we expand on why the first of July has never really become 'this happy day in Dutch history' which the editors of the Utrechtsch Provinciaals en Stedelijk Dagblad (2 July 1863) had anticipated. And finally, we expand on why slavery in the Dutch Antilles is not commemorated on 1 July in the same way as it is in Suriname. In the Dutch Antilles, 17 August, a date of uprising among the enslaved, is remembered; why are there several dates for the remembrance of Dutch slavery?
To the best of our knowledge this is the first book that discusses and analyses Dutch slavery, legal abolition and issues related to emancipation in an integrated fashion. Existing works tend to analyse these issues separately, chronologically (Emmer 2005, Postma 1990). But these massive and far reaching phenomena were fundamentally and inextricably integral to one another. An integrated analysis of the functioning of Dutch slavery and the 'slave' trade, and of its legal abolition and the circumstances of emancipation, promises far greater insights into how the system functioned as a whole and into the distinctive features of the Dutch experience, when compared with the roles of Britain, the United States, Spain and Portugal. And an integrated analysis of the kind provided in this book is able to offer far more penetrating insights into the roles of these phenomena in the formation of modern systems of international relations.
Much of the existing research on Dutch slavery focuses on the Dutch involvement in the transatlantic 'slave' trade, with emphasis on the transportation of African captives on Dutch ships to the Caribbean and the Americas (van Danzig 1968, Postma 1990, de Heijer 1997. The literature on legal abolition and emancipation in the context of the legacies of slavery is limited (Siwpersad 1979, Oostindie 1996, van Stipriaan 1996, Willemsen 2006a). We focus on slavery itself because the transportation (slave trade) was a means to an end (slavery). In turn slavery was a means (production) to an end (consumption). We are also interested in the decision-making processes, namely, the planning and designing of the 'slave' trade and slavery. It will become clear below that some of the decisions culminated in the signing of treaties between European nations. Atlantic slavery also contributed to new social formations and social thought. This implies that more people were involved in the 'slave' trade and slavery than just those who actually implemented the system. And we examine the legacy of slavery, including its reach into the institutions and collective activities of organizations and groups in the Netherlands and beyond at the present time.
INTRODUCTION AND GOALS
Most countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas acknowledge the place of the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery in their histories during the past 400 years. Each region has acknowledged the part that it played in this unequal division of labour. Europe was the location of ideas, design, planning and innovations in slavery and the slave trade; Africa was the source of banditry, abduction and the captivity of vulnerable peoples (Rodney 1974); the Caribbean and the Americas were the sites of production by enslaved labour (James 1980); and Europe again was the destination of the consumption of the goods produced by the enslaved (Williams 1994). All elements of this network of nations and international relationships were irrepressibly racialized (Banton 1977; Miles 1982).
This book carries out a systemic and coherent interrogation of the involvement of the Dutch in the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery system and it assesses the consequences of this involvement for contemporary society and social thought. By 'systemic' we imply a process that became intertwined with nation state formation, not only in the Netherlands but also across Europe and beyond. By 'coherent' we imply consideration of the 'slave' trade and slavery as a totality; in other words, that the 'slave' trade and slavery were much more than an economic system – that they became part of a social and cultural system that was taken for granted by those who dominated it. A fundamental social component of this system was racism (Williams 1994). In turn most of the documents on the 'slave' trade and slavery had taken it for granted that Africans had to be enslaved.
Modern European expansion and colonization was also a consequence of rivalry among Europeans, so it is necessary to study and analyse both processes (rivalry and colonization) simultaneously (Palmer and Colton 1978; Huntington 1993; Tilly 1986 and 1990). The European countries that were involved in the Atlantic 'slave' trade and slavery did so under national flags. Also the lands that were acquired to put the enslaved to work without consent and contract were acquired in the name of nations. Thus we begin our interrogation by looking at the formation of nation states in Europe, including the Netherlands, in relation to the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery system.
European populations had to be mobilized to implement policies that facilitated the 'slave' trade and slavery. Also the European countries developed laws that facilitated the 'slave' trade, slavery and colonization; an international legal framework was called into being that made the 'slave' trade and slavery a legitimate business enterprise in the eyes of European leaders and many of its citizens. One of the major goals of this book is to analyse the place of the Dutch nation state in these processes and the consequences of these developments for contemporary society and social thought, including the ways in which discussion of race is addressed or marginalized.
CONTEXT AND CONCEPTS
The context of this book is the formation of the Dutch nation state and the social formation that emerged as a consequence of the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery system. One of our conclusions is that this has given rise to parallel histories and intertwined belonging. People who have parallel histories and intertwined belonging share the same space but have different experiences and memories. With regard to the transatlantic 'slave' trade we see that the captives shared the same ship as their captors (intertwined belonging) but the histories of how they boarded the ship and the conditions they experienced on board were fundamentally different (parallel histories); in a similar vein the enslaved might have inhabited the same space on a plantation as the enslaver (intertwined belonging), but the histories of how the enslaved and the enslaver ended up in the same space and the division of labour (imposed by the enslaver on the enslaved) also differed fundamentally (parallel histories). These parallel histories and intertwined belonging in turn gave rise to a different understanding and different notions of freedom and emancipation. For the enslaver and the nations that enslaved others, freedom may have implied the freedom to enslave others; for the enslaved, freedom may have meant finding a place that they could call home without being hunted and dehumanized and humiliated. Thus, in the context of Dutch history, we have different emancipation trajectories. The key concepts that will serve as a guide in articulating the trajectories of emancipation are: sovereignty, citizenship, science, racism, chattel slavery, freedom and legal abolition. The formal abolition of slavery made citizenship (as opposed to common space) an intertwined belonging and parallel memories (as opposed to different experiences) parallel histories.
The book is based on a wide range of primary and secondary sources. In the literature on slavery, career historians legitimately place emphasis on salvaging archive material (Eltis et al. 1999, Richardson 1985, Walvin 1973, Lovejoy 2000, den Heijer 1997, Klooster 1997, Postma 1990, Dantzig 1968). Analyses of slavery based on archival sources have provided important insights. There is no doubt that these efforts are laudable. But they also have limitations, sometimes severe limitations. We recognize that while archives give us a window to the past they do not necessarily have the last word on human history and agency. A view from a window – one window – does not provide the necessary panorama for understanding the phenomena of slavery, legal abolition and emancipation as a whole. It is now acknowledged that in writing about powerless people, drawing on archival and conventional published sources alone is not enough (Hochschild 2006, Wolf 1982; Wallerstein 1974; Frank 1998: 178; Trouillot 1995). As more people gain access to institutions of education, especially communities with histories of oppression and enslavement, they question the history that has been passed down to them and in some cases forced down their throats (Rodney 1974, Davidson 1980, Mignolo 2007).
Besides, data in the archives were collected for a variety of different purposes. In addition, career historians use data selectively; they use data that suit their needs and leave out those data that they consider irrelevant (Willemsen 2006a). Decisions about what to include and exclude are typically presented as being based on 'objective' or 'valid' criteria. But we have a great deal of evidence to demonstrate that such decisions have frequently been based on subjective criteria, and often for reasons of bias and distortion (Collins 1991). Anyone conducting research on slavery should be aware that the vast majority of data in the archives were not recorded by the enslaved, nor for the enslaved. Neither was the opinion of the enslaved sought. In fact the concept of 'slave trade' was imposed on captives. There is no evidence, even from the sources of the enslavers, that the Africans who were chained and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas were slaves in Africa before they arrived in the Americas. Thus throughout this book, all mention of 'slave trade' and 'slavery' refers to the abduction and enslavement of Africans in the so-called 'New World' of the Americas from 1500 until the 1880s. We find that in contemporary discourses, academic and public, the notions of 'slave trade' and 'slavery' have become conceptually inflated and universalized in ways that often act as an impediment to their analysis. So in our efforts to write a more comprehensive history of these phenomena, and to do so in an integrated way, we find it imperative to embrace a far greater range of primary and secondary data than can be found in the typical archives. For instance data that was used by the state to compensate enslavers before the legal abolition of slavery can also be used by the descendants of the enslaved to claim reparations. Archives on their own cannot do this.
IMPORTANCE AND RELEVANCE
The issues surrounding the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery have become far more enduring than many people thought. This is true in the academy and scholarship, and it is also true in a wide range of public institutions, and in a wide range of communities. This book is an attempt to contribute to, and address, some of the questions related to why the issues surrounding the transatlantic 'slave' trade and slavery have not yet gone away, and why they are not likely to go away anytime soon. It thus appears that it is more relevant to address the question of how to deal with this history than that of how to bury it. This is true for the case of career historians. But we believe that it is also true with regard to those social movements that commonly demand that this history be told. It is a paradox of modern times that the further we get from slavery, the more efforts are made to remember it, to commemorate it and to force it into the public realm (Small 1994b; Nimako and Small 2010).
A review of current global trends in post- and antislavery issues reflects diverse positions on the topic and trends. Postslavery refers to the fact that slavery, especially European-initiated and -led chattel slavery, was at a given point in history a legal institution before it was rendered an illegal institution (Tibbles 1994). In this book, we speak of antislavery, because there are those who consider slavery as unfinished business; forms of slavery still exist. There are also those who view emancipation as unfinished business.
On the basis of these two opposing interrogations of slavery, we can distinguish five movements or trends: the remembrance and commemoration movement; the reparations movement; the anniversaries and apologies trend; the museum heritage and artefacts trend; and the new anti-slavery movement.
The remembrance and commemoration movement, located in Black communities across the diaspora, has consistently recognized slavery and its legacies, with many activities beginning the very moment that slavery was legally abolished (Fryer 1984; Campbell 1985; Brundage 2005; Clark 2005).
The second movement, reparations, is primarily Black-led. It has branches located in Great Britain and emerging branches in the Netherlands. Reparations have had a significant presence in Black communities, with only intermittent attention in the wider public domain.
The third trend is that of anniversaries and apologies. This trend is a recent development, having begun mainly in the last 15 years, with examples in Great Britain and the United States and, much more recently, indications that it is taking root in the Netherlands. There have been formal apologies in Britain and the United States, but at the time of writing no formal apologies in the Netherlands.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
AcknowledgementsForeword
Stephen Small, UC Berkeley
Preface
Artwell Cain, NiNsee
1. Introduction, Goals and Issues
Introduction and Goals
Context and Concepts
Importance and Relevance
Overview of Chapters
2. Transatlantic Slavery and the Rise of the European
World Order
The Age of Banditry (1492–1648)
Sovereignty and Chattel Slavery (1648–1789)
Citizenship, Slavery and the ‘Free Soil Ideology’
Science and Chattel Slavery
3. Chattel Slavery, Sugar and Salt
Slavery and the Making of Global Economy
Slavery and Sugar
Sugar and Suriname
Pacification and Resistance
4. Abolition without Emancipation
European and Systemic Context
From Regulation to Intervention
Modalities of Abolition: Progressive Control versus
Transformative Change
Abolition and Citizenship
5. Trajectories of Emancipation: Religion, Class,
Gender and Race
Religion and Emancipation
Class and Emancipation
viii The Dutch Atlantic
Gender and Emancipation
Race and Emancipation
The Immediate Aftermath of Abolition
6. The Legacy of Slavery: The Unfinished Business of
Emancipation
Memory and Dignitarianism
Commemorators and Commemoration
Integration and Multiculturalism
NiNsee as a Contested Project
Museums and Galleries
Reparations
Anniversaries and Apologies
7. Conclusion: Parallel Histories and Intertwined
Belonging
Some Conclusions
A Final Note
Bibliography
Index