Manumission is the release from slavery, and therefore, a transition from the most extreme form of subjugation into another position and status in society. Some historians have defined manumission... Show moreManumission is the release from slavery, and therefore, a transition from the most extreme form of subjugation into another position and status in society. Some historians have defined manumission as a formal act, often understood as a gift that severed the bond between slave and master. More recently researchers have emphasized that it was a lengthy process that involved pre-existing dependencies and resulted in new hierarchies. This article takes a fresh look at the process and tries to gain a fuller understanding of manumission by examining it from the position of the manumitted and their social relations. Taking into consideration a wide range of documentary sources from colonial, notarial and Dutch governmental archives, we reconstruct the dependencies that were created in the process of manumission. The dependencies that evolved during manumission processes were related to family and other kinship ties, but also had an urban, communal, religious, economic and institutional logic. Manumission was not only an act at a specific moment, but also a process, and it was not a bilateral, but a multilateral one. With the instrument of manumission and within the limits set by economic reality and the colonial government, the manumittees tried to make meaningful life choices that transformed slave society profoundly. We find that they created complex dependencies across boundaries of status and racial categorization. Show less
Between the American Revolution and the US Civil War, the geography of slavery and freedom in North America changed radically. In some respects, this was an age of emancipation. The northern US,... Show moreBetween the American Revolution and the US Civil War, the geography of slavery and freedom in North America changed radically. In some respects, this was an age of emancipation. The northern US, Canada, and Mexico all abolished slavery in this period, and the transatlantic slave trade itself was abolished in 1808. In the southern US, however, slavery underwent an enormous expansion—from the Atlantic seaboard to Texas—mainly as a result of the successful introduction of cotton in the newly acquired lands of the southern interior. In the age of the “second slavery,” southern slavery grew at an unprecedented rate and became characterized by a number of unique features, including a slave population that was almost entirely born in slavery; the development of a massive internal slave trade that wrought havoc on slave communities; the dominance of cotton plantation agriculture in the lives of most enslaved people; the adaptation of slavery to urban settings; the curtailment of manumissions; and the rise of a continent-wide refugee crisis, as freedom seekers fled to parts of the continent where slavery had been abolished. This chapter will explore the institution of slavery in one of its most well-known contexts. Show less
This open access handbook takes a comparative and global approach to analyse the practice of slavery throughout history. To understand slavery - why it developed, and how it functioned in various... Show moreThis open access handbook takes a comparative and global approach to analyse the practice of slavery throughout history. To understand slavery - why it developed, and how it functioned in various societies – is to understand an important and widespread practice in world civilisations. With research traditionally being dominated by the Atlantic world, this collection aims to illuminate slavery that existed in not only the Americas but also ancient, medieval, North and sub-Saharan African, Near Eastern, and Asian societies. Connecting civilisations through migration, warfare, trade routes and economic expansion, the practice of slavery integrated countries and regions through power-based relationships, whilst simultaneously dividing societies by class, race, ethnicity and cultural group. Uncovering slavery as a globalising phenomenon, the authors highlight the slave-trading routes that crisscrossed Africa, helped integrate the Mediterranean world, connected Indian Ocean societies and fused the Atlantic world. Split into five parts, the handbook portrays the evolution of slavery from antiquity to the contemporary era and encourages readers to realise similarities and differences between various manifestations of slavery throughout history. Providing a truly global coverage of slavery, and including thematic injections within each chronological part, this handbook is a comprehensive and transnational resource for all researchers interested in slavery, the history of labour, and anthropology. Show less
The introduction to this volume explains the condition of slavery (including its definition and its place at the far end of a broad spectrum of coercion and unfreedom); illuminates conceptual and... Show moreThe introduction to this volume explains the condition of slavery (including its definition and its place at the far end of a broad spectrum of coercion and unfreedom); illuminates conceptual and methodological choices; and discusses the layout and main intentions of the handbook. In particular it discusses how scholars approach the study of slavery, as well as some common themes in global slavery scholarship. It also underscores the intention of this volume to both historicize and spatialize slavery—i.e., to historicize it by moving beyond linear stories that trace slavery from Graeco-Roman antiquity and end with transatlantic slavery and abolition; and to spatialize it by recentering the geography of slavery, illuminating regional contexts of slavery around the world. Show less
Besides trading, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and its Western Indian counterpart (WIC) also sought to expand their dominant position by establishing and managing colonies. Central to this... Show moreBesides trading, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and its Western Indian counterpart (WIC) also sought to expand their dominant position by establishing and managing colonies. Central to this strategy was to stimulate an orderly, self-producing colonial population, with a European elite at the top and a sharp distinction between free citizens and people in slavery. The reality was less orderly, however: in disparate colonial settlements such as Batavia, Cochin, Ceylon, Elmina, Suriname, Curaçao and Berbice, people from different backgrounds, religions, and social positions encountered one another and formed relationships – formal and informal, coercive and consensual – which could either challenge or reinforce the social divisions on which colonial hierarchies rested. Regulating Relations, focusing on the abovementioned settlements in the eighteenth century, investigates how norms around marriage, family, and sexuality formed in this complex world: how did colonial authorities attempt to regulate the intimate relations of populations under their control, and how did men and women of various backgrounds give shape to these norms through their own behavior and use of institutions? Show less
Fatah-Black, Karwan; Lauret, Lauren; Tol, Joris van den 2023
In the nineteenth century, when the principal cultural, political, and financial institutions of the Netherlands were established, slavery was still very much part of the nation’s global imperial... Show moreIn the nineteenth century, when the principal cultural, political, and financial institutions of the Netherlands were established, slavery was still very much part of the nation’s global imperial structures. Dutch families, institutions, and governments are increasingly interested in the role their predecessors played in this history of colonialism and enslavement. This book is a history of De Nederlandse Bank in which particular attention is paid to its links with slavery, both as a factor in the economy and as a subject of political debate. Because De Nederlandse Bank served the Dutch Ministry of Colonies and consequently followed Dutch trade interests, the bank’s history intersects with the history of slavery. The investigation in this book focuses not only on the DNB’s formal involvement but also on the private involvement of its directors. In addition, it examines whether the bank and its directors played any role in the abolition of slavery. Show less
This article examines the issue of private investment in the seventeenth-century Dutch colony in Brazil. For the first time, new archival discoveries allow for a reconstruction of the size of... Show moreThis article examines the issue of private investment in the seventeenth-century Dutch colony in Brazil. For the first time, new archival discoveries allow for a reconstruction of the size of private investment in the colony, as well as a breakdown into distinct investment activities. The article argues that private investment was an absolute necessity for the West India Company in the hope of making its colony successful, as it could not provide the required funds by itself. Private individuals claimed to have invested over eleven million guilders in the colony, nearly one-and-a-half times the WIC’s original capitalization. A number of case studies elaborate the overall figures presented and show that Dutch investors did indeed move into sugar cultivation and even moved into agricultural property development. Presenting these data and sources will, it is posited, allow for a fuller picture of the role of former inhabitants of Dutch Brazil in the development of plantation systems in the wider Caribbean from the mid-1640s onwards. Show less
Afscheidscollege van Prof. dr. Gert J. Oostindie Directeur van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV-KNAW) Hoogleraar Koloniale en Postkoloniale Geschiedenis aan de... Show moreAfscheidscollege van Prof. dr. Gert J. Oostindie Directeur van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV-KNAW) Hoogleraar Koloniale en Postkoloniale Geschiedenis aan de Universiteit Leiden uitgesproken op vrijdag 17 december 2021 Show less
Unlike most city histories, this book focuses exclusively on the city’s connections with colonialism and slavery. Rotterdam, the second-largest Dutch city, is one of Europe’s leading ports. Its... Show moreUnlike most city histories, this book focuses exclusively on the city’s connections with colonialism and slavery. Rotterdam, the second-largest Dutch city, is one of Europe’s leading ports. Its maritime expansion was intrinsically linked to Dutch colonialism, including slave trading and colonial slavery in the Americas, Africa and Asia. This painful history sits uneasily with the city’s modern cosmopolitan image and its large population of ‘new Rotterdammers’ with colonial roots. The present volume provides a summary of the research that has documented this history, with chapters on the contribution of colonial trade to economic development; the city’s involvement in slavery; the role of the urban political elites; the impact on urban development and architecture; the ‘ethical impulse’; colonial art and ethnographic collections; colonial and postcolonial migration; and finally the resonance of this history in postcolonial Rotterdam. Show less
This article takes a close look at a small selection of court cases from the Dutch coloniesBerbice (in present-day Guyana) and Curaçao in the eighteenth century, to examine underwhat circumstances... Show moreThis article takes a close look at a small selection of court cases from the Dutch coloniesBerbice (in present-day Guyana) and Curaçao in the eighteenth century, to examine underwhat circumstances and in what ways colonial authorities chose to intervene in violencecommitted against enslaved people. This serves to gain insight into broader attitudes towardsviolence against enslaved people, many instances of which remain obscured in colonialarchives because they were normalized, formally sanctioned, or simply not prioritized bycolonial institutions such as the criminal court. In comparing Curaçao and Berbice, specialattention is given to the specific historical developments and social geography of each colony,which shaped colonial administrators’ concerns and therefore attitudes to violence: when didauthorities decide to intervene, and how did their considerations vary depending on time andplace? Show less
While the literature on slave flight in nineteenth-century North America has commonly focused on fugitive slaves escaping to the northern states and Canada through the “Underground Railroad”,... Show moreWhile the literature on slave flight in nineteenth-century North America has commonly focused on fugitive slaves escaping to the northern states and Canada through the “Underground Railroad”, Conditional Freedom aims to provide new insights into the evolving social and political geography of freedom and slavery in nineteenth-century North America, particularly by exploring the development of southern routes of escape from slavery in the US South and the experiences of self-emancipated slaves in the US-Mexican borderlands. First, Conditional Freedom provides a social history of enslaved freedom-seekers. Second, it also provides a political history of the contest between Mexican free soil and the spread of slavery west of the Mississippi river valley between 1803 and 1861. Its main question is: what was the nature of slave flight in the Mexican borderlands, and how and why did Mexico develop into a site of “conditional freedom” for slave refugees from the American South? In order to reconstruct the entangled stories of slave refugees and free soil in the US-Mexico borderlands, this study draws mostly upon municipal, county and state archives, military and judicial records, diplomatic and personal correspondence, newspaper articles, “runaway slave” advertisements, petitions, memoirs and travel accounts. Show less
In the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of enslaved people escaped slavery in the US South. The bulk of historiography has hitherto focused on those who left the slaveholding states in their... Show moreIn the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of enslaved people escaped slavery in the US South. The bulk of historiography has hitherto focused on those who left the slaveholding states in their endeavors to reach freedom. In reality, however, the majority of slave refugees stayed within the South. Cities of Refuge: Slave Flight and Illegal Freedom in the American Urban South, 1800-1860 is the first study to put permanent southern-internal slave flight centerstage. It investigates how and why urban spaces of freedom arose, and how refugees from slavery navigated them. The freedom these people found was of an illegal nature because it had no basis in law. Based on four major cities as case studies, this dissertation analyzes social, cultural, political, and economic processes that made illegal freedom possible. Drawing from material from Baltimore (Maryland), Richmond (Virginia), Charleston (South Carolina), and New Orleans (Louisiana), the size of the urban free black populations, degrees of urbanization, and work opportunities receive particular attention. In a nutshell, Cities of Refuge paints a nuanced picture of slavery, slave control, and freedom within the changing social geography of the American South. Show less
This article discusses slavery and the lives of enslaved people in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, under Dutch and British rule. It argues that by sanctioning and tapping into a perceived local... Show moreThis article discusses slavery and the lives of enslaved people in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, under Dutch and British rule. It argues that by sanctioning and tapping into a perceived local practice of slavery and legally constituting slaves, Dutch colonial rulers further strengthened the power of the dominant caste Vellalar over their subordinates. This was done through processes of registration, legal codification, and litigation. For some enslaved people, however, bureaucratization provided grounds for negotiation and resistance, as well as the potential to take control over their individual lives. British rule that took over areas controlled by the Dutch East India Company or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie—first in the guise of the East India Company (1796–1802), then under the Crown (1802–1948)—introduced a number of measures, acts, and incentives to dismantle slavery as it was practiced on the island. This article draws from Dutch and early British period petitions, court records, commission reports, and slave registers to interrogate the discourse of freedom that permeated the British abolition of slavery from 1806 to 1844 and suggests that in Jaffna after abolition there remained bondage in freedom. Show less
The urban labour market must have been substantial in early imperial Roman Italy, where the economy was thriving and urbanization rates were unprecedented. It could be argued that the existence of... Show moreThe urban labour market must have been substantial in early imperial Roman Italy, where the economy was thriving and urbanization rates were unprecedented. It could be argued that the existence of slavery precluded an actual labour market. The Roman World of Work argues, however, that the economic concepts of a labour market and labour market segmentation hold explanatory power for understanding labour in the cities of Roman Italy. It turns out that gender was more restricting for the position of an individual than legal status, or skill levels. The Roman labour market was segmented along these lines of sex, legal status and skill levels. Yet such factors were culturally determined: they were given meaning and filled in by family and non-familial relations. An individual labourer cannot therefore be viewed on his or her own, but should be understood in the context of the prevailing social structures. This was true for the freeborn, but also for the slave and freed components of the group. Family and non-familial collectives provided intersecting trust networks that were crucial to economic interaction in Roman society, where reliable information was scarce and economic insecurity loomed large. Show less
This research strives to reveal how ideologies of race, class, and gender manifested in the the social, physical, and material landscapes of pre-emancipation colonial Saba, Dutch Caribbean. Race,... Show moreThis research strives to reveal how ideologies of race, class, and gender manifested in the the social, physical, and material landscapes of pre-emancipation colonial Saba, Dutch Caribbean. Race, class, and gender serve as facets and vectors for ideology. By viewing them as processes, their capacity to express such through their social and material environments inextricably tied to their particular temporal and spatial contexts. Through comparisons of the social and material environments of multiple, contemporaneous social contexts within Saba, common social and material vectors among these ideological facets can become apparent. In particular, this concerns: • How tensions between the “incomplete hegemony” of colonial authorities and plantation agriculture with Saban residents resulted in a dialectic between local landscapes, materiality, and ideologies of race, class, and gender. • Differentiating between slavery, free poverty, and low class in the archaeological record. • The dialectic between scale, locality, and perspective in defining and situating class and poverty. Show less
This dissertation is predicated upon the hypothesis that the agency of the non-whites in 18th century Curaçao in realising their freedom and bringing about the improvement of their economic and... Show moreThis dissertation is predicated upon the hypothesis that the agency of the non-whites in 18th century Curaçao in realising their freedom and bringing about the improvement of their economic and social situation is largely underestimated in the historiography. The specific nature of the colony’s economic orientation, centred on commerce and shipping, offered opportunities for both slaves and free non-whites. Discussed are manumission, the judicial position of free non-whites, their social-economic development, their military role and the development of their political awareness during the revolutionary years at the end of the 18th century. Possibilities to earn an income gave enslaved Curaçaoans opportunities to buy their freedom. The majority of the manumissions was made possible by the free non-white population itself. Free non-whites were not treated as equal to whites judicially, but they had access to all legal instruments. There were no judicial barriers preventing free non-whites from engaging in economic activities. Free non-whites were active in most branches of the economy and ownership of real estate and slaves was not uncommon. They played a crucial role in the defence of the colony and in maintaining law and order. There is evidence for a development of political awareness, be it largely circumstantial. Show less
Based on rich and wide-ranging data, this thesis describes the sensitive issue of the contemporary emancipation trajectories of agro-pastoralist Fulɓe in Central Mali. It explores how people are... Show moreBased on rich and wide-ranging data, this thesis describes the sensitive issue of the contemporary emancipation trajectories of agro-pastoralist Fulɓe in Central Mali. It explores how people are currently dealing with hierarchies they inherited from past master-slave relations and focuses on the relational dynamics between members of a network of migrants. The importance of mobility to identity is explored by analyzing the tensions that exist among migrants to reproduce or change hierarchical relations in post-slavery societies. To purchase a copy, please email: asc@ascleiden.nl, or check www.ascleiden.nl, under Publications. Show less
