Authorities’ responses to violence against enslaved Africans: comparisons between eighteenth-century Curaçao and Berbice

Abstract

This article takes a close look at a small selection of court cases from the Dutch colonies

Berbice (in present-day Guyana) and Curaçao in the eighteenth century, to examine under

what circumstances and in what ways colonial authorities chose to intervene in violence

committed against enslaved people. This serves to gain insight into broader attitudes towards violence against enslaved people, many instances of which remain obscured in colonial archives because they were normalized, formally sanctioned, or simply not prioritized by colonial institutions such as the criminal court. In comparing Curaçao and Berbice, special attention is given to the specific historical developments and social geography of each colony, which shaped colonial administrators’ concerns and therefore attitudes to violence: when did authorities decide to intervene, and how did their considerations vary depending on time and place?