Surinamese Society in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century
A Comparative Research between the Artists John Gabriel Stedman and Pierre
Jacques Benoit
Faye Kegley
3509613
Masterthesis American Studies
October 20th 2013
Joes Segal (Assessor)
Jaap Verheul (Second Assessor)
Content
Introduction
1
Part I: Historiographical Discussion
6
1.Whites
7
1.1 Jewish Merchants
1.1.1 A Jewish Community in Suriname
1.1.2 Jews in Relation to Blacks
1.2 Non-Jews
1.2.1 Eighteenth Century
1.2.2 Nineteenth Century
2.Blacks
7
9
12
15
15
17
18
2.1 Slaves
18
2.1.1 Eighteenth Century
18
2.1.2 Nineteenth Century
20
Part II: Visual Analysis
23
3. Eighteenth century Surinamese society as seen by the artist John Gabriel Stedman
24
4. Nineteenth century Surinamese society as seen by the artist Pierre Jacques Benoit
36
Conclusion
47
Bibliography
Introduction
“Skin color is virtually in every culture and in every people a starting point for someone to
recognize as belonging to their own group or species.”1
Slavery in Suriname, compared to other colonies in the West Indies, is to this day labeled as
extremely harsh. For example, the authors of the book Geschiedenis van Suriname. Van Stam
tot Staat claimed that the vision that the slaves in Suriname were treated worse than elsewhere
in the West Indies will contain truths and is supported by statements of other writers.2 What is
accurate remains doubtful. However, the fact remains that black slaves were seen as inferiors
in the eyes of white people. This had everything to do with social ranking. At least until the
1860s, there was a clear stratification in Surinamese society between free people on the one
hand and slaves on the other. This virtually coincided with the distinction between white and
black.3 Surinamese social ranking was thus strongly based on skin color. It affected your
status and the way you were treated in Surinamese society.4
This research establishes a link between historical reconstruction and visual
representation of Surinamese society from the 1750s to the 1850s. It is conducted after
reading several contradictory sources about the Surinamese society. Certain sources state that
Suriname was unparalleled in its harsh culture, and that slaves were treated barbarously by
their white plantation owners; others maintain that Suriname was just like any other colony in
the West Indies and that slaves and blacks were actually treated relatively mildly and
humanely. How are these differences in the literature to be explained? Are they based on the
different views and backgrounds of the authors, on different historical developments taking
place in different eras, or maybe a bit of both? What was the general situation for slaves in
Suriname in the eighteenth and nineteenth century? To answer these questions, two sources of
great importance for the visual representation of Suriname between the 1750s and 1850s are
compared, namely John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the
Revolted Negroes of Surinam, and Pierre Jacques Benoit’s Journey Through Suriname:
Description of the Possessions of the Netherlands in Guiana (adapted from Voyage á
Surinam: Description des Possessions Néerlandaises dans la Guayane). Stedman and Benoit
Edwin Marshall, “Kolonialisme, Huidskleur en Wie Eegie Sanie,” Tijdschrift voor Surinamistiek (OSO) 24
(2005): 106.
2
Eveline Bakker, et al., Geschiedenis van Suriname. Van Stam tot Staat (Zutphen: Walburg Pers,1998), 50.
3
Jean .J. Vrij, “Kleur en Status in Vroegmodern Suriname: De Schutterij van Paramaribo als Case
Study,” Tijdschrift voor Surinamistiek (OSO) 24 (2005): 20.
4
Ibid., 22.
1
are of great importance for this research. Both books are primary sources, full of first-hand
accounts and filled with visual representations of Surinamese society. Through his work,
Benoit wanted to revive the significance of Suriname as a colony. It is an interesting travel
account, often contradictory, but nonetheless very significant as a visual source with regard to
the life and culture of Suriname. The end of the book contains all of Benoit’s artwork made in
Suriname during the nineteenth century. For Stedman’s Narrative, I use the transcription of
the original 1790s manuscript. According to the editors of the book, Richard Price and Sally
Price, it was widely respected and praised, but also incorrectly interpreted by many.5
Stedman’s Narrative is an invaluable source for the depiction of life in Suriname during the
eighteenth century.
New and original about this research is that visual primary sources are used in
conjunction with the historiographical discussion about Suriname during the eighteenth and
nineteenth century. To be sure, Stedman and Benoit have been widely used in the secondary
literature, and the Dutch West Indies, especially Suriname, have of course been discussed
frequently in multiple sources. However, this research compares written material with visual
material, while it also juxtaposes the two artists mentioned above. Moreover, this research
focuses on different aspects of Surinamese society such as the social position of blacks and
whites, men and women and their mutual relationship. It tries to analyze the differences and to
answer the question in what way the racial and gender differences in Surinamese society
between 1750 and 1850 are represented in both the existing literature and the visual culture of
Suriname. It will be interesting to see in how far these representations will be compatible.
In order to answer this question, the thesis is divided into two parts: historiographical
discussion and visual analysis. The historiographical part has two chapters. The first chapter
deals with the white people in Suriname. It is divided into two subchapters: Jews, and nonJews. The Jews, especially the Sephardic Jews, were of great importance for the colony of
Suriname. They shared their knowledge of cultivating sugar and set up large sugar
plantations. Furthermore, Jewish planters were described as being extremely harsh in dealing
with their black slaves, and it is interesting to find out what the visual material might tell us
about this observation. Suriname was a colony of mixed people with different religious
backgrounds. The role of white plantation owners (men and women) in relation to their black
slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth century will also be extensively discussed in this
chapter.
5
John G. Stedman, Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, trans.
Richard Price and Sally Price (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1988), xv.
1
The second chapter of the first part examines the people of color in Suriname. There
existed a range of mixed races in Suriname, since whites often had relationships with blacks.
This was not uncommon in the West Indies, since more white men than white women lived in
the colonies, and black women slaves were readily available.6 This chapter will thus also
elaborate on the various degrees of blacks, a result of the intermixture of blacks and whites.
Another part is devoted to the (black) slaves of Suriname in the eighteenth and nineteenth
century.
Part two contains an analysis of the visual sources of this research. The artists
Stedman and Benoit are intensively discussed, largely based on their own journals. What
motivated these artists to write these journals and to represent life in Suriname in a certain
way? The visual sources in this part also concentrate on the categories blacks and whites, men
and women and their mutual relationship. The focus is on the people of Suriname, their
lifestyle and their appearances.
As mentioned earlier, the general claim was that Suriname was the most harsh slave
colony in the Caribbean. Stedman had a major contribution to this general notion. Based on
the comparison between the historiographical literature and the visual material, this research
tries to discover if this claim is accurate. To detect the truth and to exercise the comparative
nature of this research, one cannot just look at primary sources, such as Stedman’s Narrative
and Benoit’s Journey through Surinam.
This research also makes use of multiple secondary sources, however two sources
deserve special attention, namely Het Paradijs Overzee: De Nederlandse Caraïben en
Nederland (1998) by Gert Oosindie and Samenleving in een Grensgebied: Een SociaalHistorische Studie van de Maatschappij in Suriname (1994) by Rudie van Lier. These two
scholars are in particular significant for the history of Surinamese slavery in the eighteenth
and nineteenth century. Gert Oosindie, a specialist in Caribbean history, writes about
colonialism in the Dutch Caribbean. The book contains four independent chapters: historical
slavery, the emancipation process after 1863, the twentieth century and a contemporary
comparative perspective chapter. Oostindie is critical about eighteenth and nineteenth century
literature and tries to rectify the conventional representation of Suriname during slavery,
which is needed in revealing the compatibility of the representations of Suriname in the
literature and the visual material. According to Oostindie, the historian Genovese rightly
6
Rudie A.J. van Lier, Samenleving in een Grensgebied: Een Sociaal-Historische Studie van de Maatschappij in
Suriname (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), 72.
2
noted that “the debates over the variants of slavery in the America’s are often confusing, if not
completely worthless, because there was no clearly defined criteria.”7 Furthermore, Oostindie
reckons that the criticism is unbalanced, since it mainly focuses on one feature of the harsh
nature of slavery in Suriname.8 By incomplete empirical evidence, it is impossible to
substantiate the claim that Surinamese slavery was the hardest and the cruelest compared to
other slave colonies.9
Another influential publication about the history of Suriname used in this research is
Rudie van Lier’s Samenleving in een Grensgebied: Een Sociaal-Historische Studie van de
Maatschappij in Suriname (1994). Van Lier, a Surinamese historian and sociologist, gives a
powerful introduction into the social history of Suriname. His book can contribute to the
question in what way the racial and gender differences in Surinamese society between 1750
and 1850 are represented in the existing literature, the same goes for Oostindie. However,
compared to Oostindie, Van Lier refrains himself from critical statements. Van Lier mainly
attempts to represent the social development in the colony of Suriname. The purpose of his
study was “to contribute to the development of a balanced Surinamese society.”10
This research can contribute to a better understanding of social life of the West Indies,
especially the Dutch West Indies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Furthermore, the Sephardic Jews are mentioned separately in this research, however I will not
delve deeper into the different religious backgrounds of the people in Suriname. For some it
can prove to be interesting in further researching this field, since many people of various
backgrounds lived in Suriname. Likewise, this research could attract people interested in the
visual culture of Suriname, since this research tries to test the historiography of Suriname,
regarding the social, cultural and gender differences in the eighteenth and nineteenth century,
with the representation of these differences in the contemporary visual culture. This is done
through image-analysis and through consulting the accompanying texts of the artists.
Hypothetically, the visual sources could give us different insights in the social relations in
Suriname in the eighteenth and nineteenth century when compared to the literature.
7
Gert Oostindie, Het Paradijs Overzee: De Nederlandse Caraïben en Nederland (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker,
1998), 75.
8
Ibid., 75.
9
Gert Oostindie, Roosenburg en Mon Bijou: Twee Surinaamse Plantages, 1720-1870 (Dordrecht: Foris
Publications, 1989), 413.
10
Van Lier, Samenleving in een Grensgebied, 19.
3
Part I
Historiographical Discussion
4
1.Whites
1.1 Jewish Merchants
“Port Jews extended the boundaries of the Jewish world and reimagined its contours. Pushing
beyond harbors long familiar to Jewish merchants, they daringly crossed over into the New
World, establishing Jewish communities around the Caribbean and up and down the Atlantic
coast”11
The Jews were of great importance in the growth and development of the New World, and
especially in Suriname. Therefore, they deserve an individual chapter. This chapter briefly
discusses the background of the Jews coming to Suriname, but mostly analyses the Jewish
community that existed in Suriname. To what extent did the historical development of
Suriname in the late eighteenth century impact this group of Jews, and what was the
relationship between this group and others in Suriname in the eighteenth and nineteenth
century? Furthermore, what does the literature say about the Jewish planters in the eighteenth
and nineteenth century? This chapter will try to answer these questions in two subchapters.
In his article “Port Jews in the Atlantic: Further Thoughts,” Jonathan Sarna defines
port Jews as merchants who set up Jewish congregations in relatively ‘new’ and presumably
flourishing places, such as in the New World. Sarna states that there are not many sources
relating to the topic of ‘port Jews,’ especially for the Atlantic port Jews.12 The (port) Jews,
who had moved to the New World and were mostly of Sephardic origin, were engaging in all
sorts of merchant activities there. While still holding on to their own traditions, these Jews
tried to conform to the particular habits of their new surroundings.13 But why did Jews
establish communities all around the New World and especially in the West Indies? It might
be because “American port Jews rarely stayed put.”14 Wherever the Jews went, even though
they have always been influenced by their environment, they could still maintain their
distinctive Jewish identity. According to Laura Leibman in “Sephardic Sacred Space in
Jonathan D. Sarna, “Port Jews in the Atlantic: Further Thoughts,” Jewish History 20 (2006): 213.
Ibid., 213.
13
Adam Sutcliffe, “Jewish History in an Age of Atlanticism,” in Atlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and
Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500-1800, ed. Richard L. Kagan and Philip D. Morgan (Baltimore:
The John Hopkins University Press, 2009), 23.
14
Laura A Leibman, Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life
(Portland: Vallentine Mitchel, 2012), 13.
11
12
5
Colonial America,” “early American Jews often had as much or more in common with their
Jewish brethren in nearby ports than with their non-Jewish neighbors.15 Leibman provides us
with insights in the role of port Jews as superb traders. Port Jews were first and foremost
traders among themselves, but also with other groups in the Atlantic World. The port Jews
lived separately from all other groups, but were very sophisticated.16
During the fifteenth century, many places in the world had already been reached by the
Europeans, and many Jewish port cities started to be established in the Atlantic World, such
as in Suriname. The period of the European search for overseas markets, religious freedom
and conversion can be labeled the ‘colonial period.’ The beginning of this period cannot be
marked by one specific incident, however certain events stand out. For example, from the
1440s and up, the Portuguese set up slave-trading organizations on the African continent and
in 1492 pioneers discovered a New World.17 Briefly summarized, the period of European
colonization in the New World started around the end of the fifteenth century. Around the
1500s, Jews had to flee from the Inquisition, and they settled, among other places, in
Amsterdam.
“While thriving in Amsterdam – where they became the hub of a unique urban Jewish
universe and attained status that anticipated Jewish emancipation in the West by over a
century – they began in the 1500s and 1600s to establish themselves in the Dutch and
English colonies in the New World. These included Curacao, Suriname, Recife, and
New Amsterdam (Dutch) as well as Barbados, Jamaica, Newport and Savannah
(English).”18
Jews have been living in Amsterdam for ages. According to Tjeerd Ritmeester, “its religious
tolerance made the city a popular destination to settle after years of discrimination
elsewhere”19 However, this was not the only reason why Jews migrated to Amsterdam.
Ritmeester states that “the search for livelihood, the expansion of trade opportunities, and
even the building of empire also had their part in impelling Jewish migration”20 Ritmeester
believes that the city of Amsterdam contributed to the fact that the port city of Joden Savanne
15
Leibman, Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism, 13.
Ibid., 13.
17
Jonathan Schorsch, Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2004), 9.
18
Marc L. Raphael, Judaism in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 39.
19
Tjeerd Ritmeester, “Amsterdam,” paragraph 1.
20
Ibid., paragraph 1.
16
6
in Suriname was established. He states that “it were not only economic aspects, such as their
investments in Dutch trade organizations, that were important but also cultural expressions,
philosophical influences, trade relations, and religious transformations which started in the
Dutch capital or were strengthened by it”21 It remains unclear in how far Ritmeester’s
statements are based on historical fact. However, it is indeed true that the Dutch, including the
city of Amsterdam, were important in establishing certain port cities in the West Indies. When
the Dutch colony of Brazil was taken over by the Portuguese, many Dutch people, including
many Jews, disseminated their knowledge of sugar production to other colonies, among them
Suriname.
Even though the Jews were living in unfamiliar settings, which could have meant a
great disadvantage in trading opportunities, they still had close connections with Europe and
parts of the Atlantic World. Therefore, it was relatively easy for them to start trading
activities. Furthermore, the Jews had the capacity to adjust to circumstances, so they were
capable of conforming and accommodating to their new milieu.22 Compared to the Jews in
Europe, the Jews in the New World took greater part in the growth and improvement of their
communities. Jonathan Sarna even argues that “they enjoyed the status of founders, passed
that status on to their descendants, and thanks to them, subsequent Jewish residents enjoyed
pioneer status as well.”23 So, these Jews were trying to benefit from their status in the New
World.
1.1.1 A Jewish Community in Suriname
According to Jonathan Israel, the beginning of the 1700s are “the most flourishing period of
Dutch America in practically every respect and also the most flourishing phase by far of the
Jewish communities in Dutch America.”24 Suriname had the biggest Sephardic community,
and along with Curacao it was the most profitable colony in the West Indies. The Dutch took
over Suriname in 1667 from the English, who established the colony in 1651. A few decades
later, Suriname “produc[ed] more revenue and consum[ed] more important manufactured
goods, per capita, than any other Caribbean colony.25 The Dutch-American colony was
mainly focused on sugar cane development, however, the production of coffee later on also
proved to be profitable. From the 1660s onward, Suriname transformed into one of the
Ritmeester, “Amsterdam,” paragraph 6.
Sutcliffe, “Jewish History in an Age of Atlanticism,” 27.
23
Sarna, “Port Jews in the Atlantic,” 216.
24
Jonathan I. Israel, “The Jews of Dutch America,” in The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to
the West, 1450 to 1800, ed. Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering (New York: Berghahn Books, 2001), 336.
25
Stedman, Narrative, xiv.
21
22
7
flourishing colonies of the West Indies. Starting in the 1700s until around the 1800s,
Suriname was a plantation society with a plantation economy. However, the extent of Jewish
plantation owners decreased quite a lot near the end of the century: whereas in 1730 Jews still
owned 115 out of 440 sugar and coffee plantations in Suriname, by 1788 this figure had
dropped to only forty-six.”26 This drop was caused by, among other things, the increase in
prices. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, plantations were relatively cheap to buy
and maintain. Near the end of the eighteenth century, the costs of slaves and plantations began
to rise.27
The Jews lived in a plantation community, in the middle of the densely tropical
vegetation and close to the Surinamese River, named Joden Savanne. In 1667 the Dutch tried
to overthrow the British in Suriname, however without success. Eventually that same year
they exchanged Suriname for New Amsterdam. The new Dutch rulers kept the same
privileges for the Jews that were in place under the British. However, the Dutch did give the
Jews the opportunity to acquire more land, due to a title the Dutch governor Van
Scharphuizen gave them in the 1690s28 These privileges for the Jews were not received with
open arms by every citizen. Frictions heightened between the Jews and non-Jews, especially
during the crisis period in 1770s Suriname.29 Prejudices against Jews during this period
intensified. According to the non-Jewish citizens, the Jews owed it to themselves that the
slaves ran away, because they were the most cruel plantation owners around.30 That Jewish
planters treated their slaves worse than other plantation owners, was a widespread thought in
the literature about Suriname from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. However,
according to Rudie van Lier, there is no substantial proof for this.31
The Jews of the Dutch colonies were significant actors in mercantilism within the
West Indies and among their native country. Jonathan Israel, states that this was due to the
“psychological, cultural, and economic consequences of the relatively brief, but profound,
Jewish experience in Brazil.”32 The Dutch had continuing and steady connections with the
former colonies of Spain and Portugal, which had great effect on the success of the Dutch in
the overall trade.33 Therefore, it is not surprising that from the 1600s until the 1800s, the most
Israel, “The Jews of Dutch America,” 336.
Robert Cohen, Jews in Another Environment: Suriname in the Second Half of the Eighteenth
Century (Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1991), 67.
28
Larry Luxner, “Joden Savanna,” Americas 47 (1995): paragraph 8.
29
Van Lier, Samenleving in een Grensgebied, 90.
30
Ibid., 90.
31
Ibid., 91.
32
Israel, “The Jews of Dutch America,” 340.
33
Ibid., 340.
26
27
8
thriving Jewish communities in the New World were part of the Dutch colonies. That
Suriname had a thriving Jewish community could also be seen in the fact that it had two
synagogues. The first one “built in 1685, was inland, among the plantations, situated on the
Surinamese River; the other, of considerably later construction (1735), was on the coast, in
the port of Paramaribo.”34 However, according to Israel, the fact that the Jewish communities
in the Dutch West Indies were so prosperous was also due to the open-minded and liberal
stature of the Dutch in general, as the Netherlands were “the most tolerant of European
societies.”35
In Suriname there were many animus revertendi. According to historian Robert Cohen
these were ‘sojourners,’ people who remained in the colony for a brief period but eventually
went back to Europe, probably after requiring enough wealth.36 The Jews, on the other hand,
had no real mother country, so they more often had the intention to stay.37
According to Larry Luxner, there were three waves of Jewish immigration to
Suriname. The first Jews who settled in this colony were Sephardic Jews from the Dutch
colonies, such as Brazil, or straightaway from Holland. This group arrived around the 1630s38
The second wave of Jewish immigration started from around the 1650s and these Jews came
directly from England or from the English colonies39 The last wave, and according to Luxner
the most significant group of the Jewish migrants, was a group guided by David Nassi which
was forced to leave a succession of areas a number of times: “these Jews had fled first to
northeastern Brazil to escape the Inquisition in Europe, but were forced out in 1654 when
Portugal conquered Brazil. They trekked west to Cayenne, a Dutch outpost on the Atlantic
Ocean, but once again were expelled, this time by the French, who captured Cayenne from the
Dutch in 1664”40 Many Jews of this ‘exodus’ group eventually migrated to Suriname around
1666. By 1730 Suriname had the greatest amount of Jewish citizens in the West Indies,
around 1500.41 In the 1790s, there were even “five times more Jews in Suriname than in all of
North America; even as late as 1830, more Jews lived in Suriname than in New York.” 42
Israel, “The Jews of Dutch America,” 336.
Ibid., 339.
36
Cohen, Jews in Another Environment, 11.
37
Ibid,. 11.
38
Luxner, “Joden Savanna,” paragraph 4.
39
Ibid., paragraph 5.
40
Ibid., paragraph 6.
41
Laura A. Leibman, “Remnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname.
Epitaphs, and Remnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname. Essays, and: Creole Jews:
Negotiating Community in Colonial Suriname (review),” American Jewish History 97 (2011): 85.
42
Ibid., 85.
34
35
9
The downside of a single crop economy is that after a golden age, one needs to look
for other opportunities to revive the economy. Suriname had the same problem, it had an
economy which was solely centered around the production and export of sugarcane. However,
Suriname had a deficiency in slave labor at one point. Near the end of the 1600s, resistance of
slaves became a common phenomenon, but slaves were of course needed to work the sugar
plantations. So, Joden Savanne began to seem less important to the Jewish planters. Through
an alliance of “soil depletion, slave rebellions, maroon attacks, economic crisis, absentee
landownership, and a ravaging fire” the Jewish community of Joden Savanne slowly
collapsed near the end of the seventeenth century.43 Around that time, their community began
to dissolve with the start of the urbanization process. Paramaribo now became a big trading
city for the Jews, and “Suriname Jewry dwelt in sizable harbor towns economically and
culturally tied to commerce, shipping, and the sea.”44 However, the invention of sugar
winning from beets, which could be grown in Europe, was starting to develop. This was,
amongst other things, an important element that eventually caused the Surinamese economy
to shrink. After decades of wealth, Suriname was not a lucrative place anymore. As the yield
from the plantations as well as the commerce in the cities diminished, the Jews needed to look
for other places where they could make a living. They found these new prospects further
North. The North American colonies started to attract many people, among them Jews.
1.1.2. Jews in Relation to Blacks
There were many ways in which Jews and blacks were related to one other. Interaction on a
sexual level was one example, interaction on a business level another. Both examples will be
discussed in this subchapter. Intimate relationships between Jews and blacks occurred
frequently, however not only between Jews and blacks. In general, forced or deliberate sexual
intercourse between various groups was a big side-effect of the slave system, and almost
impossible to prevent. Females with a lighter complexion were preferred above other slaves to
perform domestic chores. Sexual relationships between plantation owners and domestic slaves
often took place in plantation areas, such as in Joden Savanne in Suriname. The chances of
occurrence were thus much higher in Suriname, since this colony was mostly a plantation
colony.45 The mulatto children, or children of mixed blood, born out of these ‘relationships,’
Aviva Ben-Ur, “A Matriarchal Matter,” in Atlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age
of Mercantilism, 1500-1800, ed .Richard L. Kagan and Philip D. Morgan (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2009), 153.
44
Israel, “The Jews of Dutch America,” 336.
45
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 218.
43
10
had special advantages compared to other slaves, since their father was white and often also
their master. Historian Rosemary Brana-Shute states that “in 1805, colored slaves, in contrast
to black slaves, constituted 2.6 percent of all slaves manumitted between 1760 and 1836.”46
Moreover, some mulatto slaves even adopted the religion of their masters, and the same thing
happened among the slaves of Jews.47
Sexual intercourse often occurred because many colonies in the New World
experienced a scarcity of women. So, opportunities such as the “Suriname Marriage” arose.
This marriage is described by professor Aviva Ben-Ur, as “the informal, but still permanent
relationship concluded with some form of ceremony and ending with the death or departure of
the white male.”48 This particular form of a relationship in the New World, since official
marriage was not very common, led to a big Afro-European society,49 and also to a great
amount of Jewish mulattoes in Jewish culture.50
Besides sexual intercourse, blacks and Jews were also commercially tied to one
another. A Jamaican Sephardim stated that he “traded with the Indians, mulattos and
mestizos” and he was confronted by “keen competition from many Christian women who
engaged in petty retailing and employed their Negro slaves for that purpose.”51 They were all
rivals in the same markets within their communities, or in international trade networks. Just
like the blacks, Jews were not always seen as regular white people in the colonies, or they did
at least not belong to the dominant group. The shunning of Jews because of their religion did
not occur very often in the colonies of the New World, since the Jews “were considered more
white than they could ever have been in Europe at that time.”52 However, as mentioned
earlier, non-Jewish brethren still considered the Jews as their rivals, especially with regard to
merchant activities. According to historian Wieke Vink “in Suriname, Jews are held in deep
contempt not only by the Christians, but also by the negroes, so that the latter do not consider
them [the Jews] as whites; if they spot two Christians and a Jew, they say Toe Bákra lange
wan Joe (two whites and a Jew).”53 According to this quote, being Jewish and being white
were not one and the same thing, the Jews were “legally but not socially white.”54 As stated
46
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 218.
Ibid., 218.
48
Ben-Ur, “A Matriarchal Matter,” 154.
49
Ibid., 154.
50
Ibid., 156.
51
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 267.
52
Wieke Vink, Creole Jews: Negotiating Community in Colonial Suriname (Leiden: KITLV
Press, 2010), 107.
53
Ibid., 107.
54
Ibid., 108.
47
11
by Vink, the negroes also scorned the Jews. However, Vink probably meant ‘free’ negroes
here, since they were also the ones doing business with the Jews. Black slaves on the other
hand, when looking at their Jewish masters, just saw another white person. The only thing that
mattered to them was that the Jews had a light complexion and that they themselves were
considered inferior to their masters.
Many Jews owned slaves, maybe not as many as their non-Jewish neighbors, however
they were still big participants in the slave trade. According to historian Oscar Reiss, Jewish
law acknowledged and permitted the fact that Jews owned slaves. However, they should
handle the slaves kindly and with compassion, and they were not allowed to chastise them.55
Still, a lot has been written about the fact that Jews were ruthless and inhumane plantation
owners. Especially in Suriname, the Jewish planters were indeed not aversive to flout at the
Talmudic law in this sense. A Dutch abolitionist in the nineteenth century, Wolter van
Hoëvell, stated that “there are many Israelites [in this colony]. Do we wrong them when we
call many of them penny-pinching, always ready to profit from the blood and sweat of their
slaves, and like all cowards, cruel to their subordinates?”56 Many slaves fled into the forest
after they experienced life on plantations owned by Jews, as was the case in the two stories
below. These stories were recounted by escaped slaves in possession of Sephardic Jews:57
“Lanu’s wife – I don’t know if she was a girlfriend or a real wife – worked in the white man’s
house. Once she gave her husband a drink of water. But they tell me it was really sugar-cane
juice, because that was the water the white man normally drank. Well, they saw that and said,
‘The woman gave Lanu sugar cane juice!’ and they whipped her. They beat the woman until
she was dead. Then they carried her to him and said, ‘Look at your wife here.’ Then they
whipped Lanu until he lost consciousness, and they left him lying on the ground. Then, the
spirit of his wife came into his head, and he arose suddenly and ran into the forest. The white
man, seeing this, said, ‘Lanu’s gone!’ But his men said, ‘He won’t live; he’s as good as dead
already.’”58
“Ayako had a sister [Seei] on the same plantation. One day she was at work, with her infant
son tied to her back. The child began crying, but the white man didn’t want her to sit down to
nurse it. But it kept on crying. She kept working. The child kept crying. Then the white man
called her. ‘Bring the child over here and I’ll hold it for you.’ So she took the child off her
55
Oscar Reiss, The Jews in Colonial America (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2004), 85.
Vink, Creole Jews, 115.
57
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 263.
58
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 263.
56
12
back, handed it to him, and returned to work. He grasped the child upside down by the legs
and lowered its head into a bucket of water until he saw that it was dead. Then he called the
woman and said, ‘Come take the child and tie it on to your back.’ So she did so. She returned
to work until evening, when they released the slaves from work… Well, Ayako saw this and
said, ‘What sadness! My family is finished. My sister has only one child left, and when she
goes to work tomorrow, if the child cries, the white man will do the same thing again.’ …
Then he prepared himself until he was completely set. And he escaped. He ran off with his
sister and her baby daughter [Yaya].”59
Coincidentally, both Lanu and Ayako came from the same plantation, however, more stories
like these are known to exist.60 These runaway slaves were called Maroons. Especially in
Suriname, Maroon attacks were very prevalent. John Gabriel Stedman discussed these slave
uprisings in his book Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of
Surinam. That slaves were inhumanely treated was a general notion and the source for these
uprisings. Slaves were actually afraid that they would be owned by Jews:
“In general, slaves consider it as one of the biggest catastrophes that can happen to them, when
they become the property of an Israelite - and half of the free population of Paramaribo are
Israelites! [... ]
The slaves are fearful of such masters with good reason, because in general they and the free
coloureds are the cruellest masters. The scarce clothing of the unfortunates who are under the
control of these tyrants, their emaciated appearance, and the despondency of their gazes are
proof of the maltreatment to which they are exposed on a daily basis and the little that is given
to them for their maintenance. In general, the Israelites are rather poor nowadays, and
especially from such shabby folk manv of whom still own several slaves, the slaves have to
endure the most misery and cruelties.”61
And as Vink continues, “as some of the most famous cases of Maroon attacks and collective
escapes took place on Jewish plantations, these events (also) fostered the view that Jewish
planters generally maltreated their slaves.”62 Of course, stories like these are not necessarily
based on proven historical fact, however, many writers and artists have explicitly mentioned
59
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 263.
Ibid., 263.
61
Vink, Creole Jews, 119.
62
Ibid., 114.
60
13
the cruelty of slave owners, Jews and others. The slave system in itself was a very inhumane
and cruel arrangement.
To conclude, Jews were foremost traders, they could adjust well to unfamiliar places,
and were very flexible. Therefore, they were significant for the colonies in the West Indies,
such as for Suriname. Since Suriname had the biggest Jewish community in the West Indies,
it could flourish greatly in the 1700s. Jews had the perfect knowledge of the development of
sugar cane, and since Suriname thrived under these circumstances, it became a plantation
society. Many Jews were plantation owners in the seventeenth century, however, this figure
started to drop once the plantations started to diminish. Even though, the Jews were better off
in Suriname than in most other parts of Europe at that time, they still had to deal with
prejudices from non-Jews. That Jews were the most cruel plantation owners was thus maybe
brought into the world by these non-Jews. There are some records claiming that Jewish
masters were very cruel to their slaves. However, in multiple sources the non-Jewish planters
were equally cited in a negative way.
14
1.2. Non-Jews
Even though they were just a minority group, the white people were in charge in Suriname.
To what extent did this group influence the lives of their slaves, and how did this change
throughout the decades? As mentioned in the preceding chapter, the Jews were supposedly
the most cruel masters. In what way did they differ from the non-Jewish planters? Literature
about Suriname, especially in the eighteenth century, was very negative about Surinamese
planters in general. Allegedly, Suriname was a very harsh slave-colony. Is this indeed true?
This chapter will try to answer these questions in two subchapters, dedicated to the eighteenth
and nineteenth century respectively. In these subchapters, the role of white plantation owners
(men and women) in relation to their black slaves will be extensively discussed.
1.2.1 Eighteenth Century
Most plantation owners seem to have treated their slaves in a more or less civilized manner.
Otherwise, Van Lier states, “the numbers of suicides and runaway slaves should have been
higher.”63 Van Lier continues that it was in the interest of the plantation owners that they
treated their slaves well, since they owed a good deal of their wealth to them. However, Van
Lier still believes that, even though it was a minority group, the existence of owners who
mistreated their slaves should not be underestimated.64 An example of the ill-treatment of
slaves by their plantation owners is mentioned in Candide, ou l’Optimisme, written in 1759 by
the French philosopher Voltaire. In the book, one follows Candide on his journey around the
world. He also stops in the colony of Suriname. As he approaches a town in Suriname, he sees
a half-naked man who has lost both a leg and a hand. What follows is a conversation between
Candide and the poor male slave about his appearance.
“Good God,” said Candide in Dutch; “what are you doing in this horrible condition?” “I am
waiting for my master, Mynheer Vanderdendur, the famous trader,” answered the negro. “Was
it Mynheer Vanderdendur who used you in this cruel manner?” “Yes, sir,” said the negro; “it
is the custom here. They give us a linen garment twice a year, and that is all. When we work in
the sugar factory, and the mill happens to snatch off a finger, they instantly chop off our hand;
and when we attempt to run away they cut off a leg. Both these things have happened to me;
and it is at this cost that you eat sugar in Europe (…). Dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a
thousand times less wretched than I. The Dutch fetishists who converted me tell me every
Sunday that the blacks and whites are all children of one father, whom they call Adam. I’m no
63
64
Van Lier, Samenleving in een Grensgebied, 133.
Ibid., 133.
15
genealogist; but if what these preachers say is true, we are all second cousins; and you must
admit that no one could treat his own relations in a more horrible manner.”65
Although this is a quotation from a novel, in Stedman’s Narrative such incidents were
described as well. According to Gert Oostindie, Candide’s encounter in Suriname is not based
on fact. Oostindie states that Voltaire only mentioned the Dutch colony of Suriname in his
book because he still owed money from the Dutch publisher Van Duren.66 That is according
to Oostindie why he negatively portrayed the Dutch in Suriname, in the character of ‘Mynheer
Vanderdendur.’
Not much has been written about women mistresses when compared to the abundance
of sources that mention male planters and their relationships with their slaves. However, one
infamous story about a cruel woman mistress still goes around in Suriname. Her name was
Susanna du Plessis. Susanna once caught her husband glancing at the breast of their pretty
house-slave Alida. Susanna was intolerant of this behavior and jealous as she was, she cut of
the breast of the slave girl and served it to her husband while saying: “you wanted the breasts
of Alida, well, here you have them.”67
As one will notice in chapter three, in Stedman’s Narrative maltreatment of slaves is
rather the rule than the exception. However, near the end of the eighteenth century and at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, many people wrote about a ‘new’ Suriname. Atrocities as
described above hardly existed anymore. Nevertheless, as claimed by the abolitionist Julien
Wolbers, even though the daily tortures and abuses belonged to the past, encounters that filled
the heart with sadness still existed in the eighteenth century.68 Furthermore, the author Harry
Johnston also still believed that slavery in eighteenth century Suriname was ferocious.
Johnston wrote that “slavery under the flag of Portugal (or Brazil) or of Spain was not a
condition without hope, a life in hell, as it was for the most part in the British West Indies
and, above all, Dutch Guiana,” and that “the Dutch treatment of the Negro before the
commencement of the nineteenth century (…) [was] mainly atrocious.”69
65
Voltaire, Candide of het Optimisme, trans. Harry van Pixteren (Amsterdam: L.J. Veen, 1994), 76-77.
Oostindie, Het Paradijs Overzee, 72.
67
Yvonne van der Pijl, “Missverkiezingen en de Articulatie van Etnische Identiteit,” Tijdschrift voor
Surinamistiek (OSO) 24 (2005): 121.
68
Oostindie, Het Paradijs Overzee, 84.
69
Harry H. Johnston, The Negro in the New World (London: Macmillan, 1910), vi.
66
16
1.2.2 Nineteenth Century
Suriname endured a crisis in the 1770s, due to excessive dependence of the mother country.
Near the end of the eighteenth century, many plantations went bankrupt, since no investments
were being made 70 Furthermore, near the end of the eighteenth century, the institution of
slavery endured some heavy criticism. Even though the Dutch were the last ones to participate
in the anti-slavery debate, it must have had an impact on Suriname as well.71 The ending of
the slave trade (not slavery itself), on top of the crisis, caused Suriname to slowly dissolve as
a plantation society. Slavery still existed until 1863, however, the harsh treatment slaves had
to endure gradually ameliorated during the nineteenth century. At least, this is what some
writers such as Benoit believed. Benoit tried to revise the negative representations of
Suriname, mostly caused by Stedman’s Narrative. According to Oostindie, a Stedman-canon
had originated in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and “little space for critical reflection
and methodological focus” was left. 72 He believed that Suriname suffered from a one-sided
representation.73 Benoit was one of the first writers in the nineteenth century who refuted the
representation of Suriname as a cruel slave-colony. To what extent his views were historically
adequate remains questionable.
To conclude, there exist many conflicting sources with regard to the question whether
Suriname was one of the harshest plantation societies for slaves to live in. Some authors
believed it was. Many who shared this view were abolitionists. However, some were not in
favor of the abolishment of slavery but only wanted better conditions for the slaves.
According to some authors, this new approach was developed during the nineteenth century.
The slave trade was abolished in 1807, and maltreatment of slaves was henceforth
exceptional. However, one needs to look at the next chapter to understand the bigger picture
of this discussion.
70
Oostindie, Het Paradijs Overzee 31.
Ibid., 90.
72
Yvonne van der. Pijl, Levende-doden: Afrikaans-Surinaamse Percepties, Praktijken en
Rituelen rondom Dood en Rouw (Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publishers, 2007), 69.
73
Ibid., 69.
71
17
2.Blacks
2.2 Slaves
“Slaves and slavery permeated the lives of [whites] in myriad ways. Physically,
commercially, sexually, and socially, slaves and owners shared, however unequally, the same
world, expressing differing kinds of loyalty and enmity toward one another, with feelings
contingent on matters momentary or festering.”74
Traditionally, slaves were not more than an object for their masters. Slaves were inferiors and
completely dependent on their owners. This second chapter of the first part examines black
people in Suriname. Did these slaves have the power to do anything about their living
conditions, and how could the historical development of Suriname, and the West Indies in
general, have helped them improving their situation? And to what extent is there a difference
in this regard between the eighteenth and the nineteenth century?
2.1.1 Eighteenth Century
Slavery was omnipresent, even though it was often said that slavery was a “peculiar
institution.”75 Johannes Postma, a Dutch historian who focused on the Atlantic slave trade,
states that the slave trade was “one of the major migrations in human history” and the
forerunner of an even larger migration, namely the movement of people from Europe to the
New World.76 One scholar described it as “one of the greatest crimes committed against
Africa, and one of the most disastrous episodes of its history.”77 However, during the time of
the slave trade, European advocates of the slave system did everything to vindicate the trade,
since it provided them great revenue. A Dutch trader in the eighteenth century, Willem
Bosman, stated that “I doubt not but this Trade seems very barbarous to you, but since it is
followed by mere necessity it must go on; but we yet take all possible care that they are not
burned too hard, especially the Women, who are more tender than the Men.”78 According to
Peter Kolchin, American historian specialized in slavery in the Americas, “a total of 10 to 11
74
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 261.
Peter Kolchin, American Slavery 1619-1877 (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), 5.
76
Johannes Postma, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600-1815 (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1990), 1.
77
Ibid., 1.
78
Ibid., 7.
75
18
million living slaves crossed the Atlantic Ocean from the sixteenth through the nineteenth
century […]. The great bulk – more than 85 percent of the total –went to Brazil and the
various Caribbean colonies of the British, French, Spanish, and Dutch.”79 Slavery, rampant in
the West Indies, as well as in other American colonies, was a side-effect of European
colonization. The slave trade provided for a triangle-connection to occur between Europe,
Africa and the New World. Europe took care of the commercial activities, Africa provided
labor and the New World was a place where the production could be carried out and flourish.
During the eighteenth century there was still a widespread labor deficiency in European
colonies throughout the New World, where Europeans were cultivating products such as
“sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, and later cotton.”80 Sugar became the merchandise of the West
Indies, and thus the ascendant ‘cash crop.’81 Due to the growing agrarian colonies, fieldwork
was needed. Especially the refinement of sugar needed “substantial investments in expensive
refining machinery as well as in land and labor.”82 It was a very extensive process, so many
black slaves worked the often quite large plantations. In Suriname around the end of the
eighteenth century, there were twenty-five times more blacks than whites, and even sixty-five
times more in the plantation areas.83 Postma states that near the end of the 1700s, no less than
96 percent of Surinamese society existed of blacks (enslaved or free). Whatever the exact
amount of blacks, it certainly was a high number. Thus, one might wonder why Suriname had
so many slaves. As mentioned in chapter one, Suriname rapidly flourished and increased in
size. According to Postma, “the colony's plantations numbered 80 in 1684 and had grown to
128 by 1704.”84 Suriname thus needed many slaves to work these fields. Another reason why
Suriname needed so many slaves, was that in plantation colonies until around the 1750s, the
percentage of deaths was much higher there than in colonies which did not specialize in sugar.
A planter in Suriname in 1706 emphasized this fact by stating that “there are here about 160
plantations which on average each lose six slaves per year. This comes to a loss of at least
1,000 slaves each year, which shows that this land devours Negroes at a rate . . . that the
importation can barely keep up with the losses due to death and runaways.”85
79
Kolchin, American Slavery, 22.
Ibid., 5.
81
Ibid., 6.
82
Ibid., 30.
83
Stedman, Narrative, xiv.
84
Postma, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 183.
85
Ibid., 184.
80
19
2.1.2 Nineteenth Century
The institution of slavery seemed more vivacious than ever after the abolishment. There was
hardly a significant decline in the trading of slaves between 1826 and 1850, it decreased by
only five percent.86 So, it was not only hard to accomplish but also hard to imagine that
slavery would be eliminated in the nineteenth century, since so many people and institutions
were involved and benefited from it.87 Even some excerpts from the Bible acknowledge
slavery.88 African inferiority had always been a generally accepted belief among Europeans
already since the fifteenth century.89 Europeans did not bring home many slaves to their
native country, however they did use them in their colonies abroad.90 According to Powell
“Europeans insisted that they were entitled to continue benefiting from the substantial
investments they had made in the slave trade and in slave-based plantations.”91 Landowners
were certain that slavery was necessary for their commerce and ventures to be successful.92
Finally in 1807, the British were the first to terminate the slave trade. A few decades
later, in 1833, British Parliament enforced a law that freed the slaves. The British’ antislavery
movement started around the 1650s, with the notion that all human beings, thus including
slaves, were entitled to natural rights. The remarkable thing was that the conservative British
started this whole process, while they still had a significant role in the trading of slaves.93 The
quest of the British to abolish slavery on an international level was partly biased. A failure by
other countries to abolish slavery would place the English planters “at a disadvantage in
respect of their non-English competitors because without the supply of African slaves the
English plantation colonies would suffer a shortage of labour while the French, Spanish,
Portuguese and Dutch colonies would be unaffected.”94 At first, the British believed that
slavery itself should not be abolished. They assumed that plantation owners would treat their
own slaves with more respect once new slaves were not coming in anymore. However, when
the British outlawed the trading in humans, it appeared logical to them that the elimination of
slavery in general would be the next quick step. For the British this became reality, not
86
Seymour Drescher, Abolition: a History of Slavery and Antislavery (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2009), 245.
87
Jim Powell, Greatest Emancipations: How the West Abolished Slavery (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2008), 21.
88
Ibid., 23.
89
Ibid., 20.
90
Ibid., 20.
91
Ibid., 20.
92
Ibid., 34.
93
Ibid., 25.
94
Piet C. Emmer, The Dutch Atlantic Slave Trade 1500-1850 (New York: Berghahn Books,
2006), 117.
20
however for the Dutch.95 Emancipation was not really a topic in the minds of the Dutch.96
Socialist Rudie van Lier stated that in Suriname, “while the number of humane slave owners
increased in the nineteenth century under the influence of the Enlightenment and liberalism,
… neither of these two currents brought about any drastic changes in the slave colony.”97
Despite the fact that the trading of slaves was forbidden in 1807, the Dutch colony of
Suriname continued to permit slavery after 1848.98 Even though the consequences of the
abolition of slavery in the West Indies were known by the Dutch, for instance that the profits
and thus the economy in general would start to drop, it was impossible for them to avoid this
process after England, France and Denmark led the way.99 Finally, in 1863 the slaves in
Suriname became emancipated, however until 1873 an apprenticeship system was
maintained.100
Slavery was justified by the fact that the colonies needed labor to work their fields to
provide for their mother country. The import rates of slaves were thus very high, especially in
the eighteenth century, due to deaths and runaways. Especially in Suriname, it took very long
for slavery to end: it still ran at full blast until at least the 1870s. Of course, Surinamese
planters felt the flare of the discussion about ending slavery in general heating up, but they
postponed it as long as they could. Even though the lives of the slaves presumably
ameliorated in the nineteenth century, due to abolishment of the slave trade, one can still
conclude that where slavery is found, cruelty exists.
A range of mixed races existed in Suriname, since whites often had relationships with
blacks. The goal of this chapter is to indicate in what ways the lives of the colored people
differ from the blacks. To what extent was skin color vital to gain a higher status in eighteenth
and nineteenth century Suriname? These paragraphs below will shortly focus on the various
categories of black and colored people, and their status in Suriname.
In Suriname there was a difference between African slaves and creoles. African slaves
were directly brought from Africa to work as slaves in the West Indies, such as in
Suriname.101 Creoles were born in Suriname, and were thus born into slavery. Many creoles
existed in Suriname and could have been black or mulat, the last ones born from one white
parent. Surinamese planters favored creoles over African slaves, since the former were born
95
Emmer, The Dutch Atlantic Slave Trade, 126.
Ibid., 14.
97
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 10.
98
Drescher, Abolition, 282.
99
Emmer, The Dutch Atlantic Slave Trade, 128.
100
Ibid., 128.
101
Ruud Beeldsnijder, ‘Om Werk van Jullie te Hebben.’ Plantageslave in Suriname, 1730-1750 (Utrecht:
Bronnen voor de Studie van Afro-Surinaamse Samenlevingen (BSA), 1994), 123.
96
21
into slavery, they were “highly skilled, accustomed to the country, healthier,” and “did not
suffer from nostalgia for Africa.”102 Creoles were hard-working slaves and profitable for their
masters. Besides fieldwork, slaves were also needed for house-chores. These jobs were mostly
reserved for the lighter-skinned slaves, such as mulats. However, a mulat was not the only
term for a lighter-skinned person. In Suriname, there was a variety of terms indicating the
intermixture of whites with blacks (mostly white men with black women). In Suriname,
according to Brana-Shute, “the general distinctions were white, black, and mixed or
‘colored.’”103 The mixed people can be divided into many different categories. Brana-Shute
mentions the following (Dutch) categories in eighteenth and nineteenth century Suriname:
“neger (black and black), karboeger (black and mulat), mulat (black and white), mesties
(white and mulat), kasties (white and mesties), poesties (white and kasties) and blank (white
and white).”104
Most of these colored people were still slaves, however some were manumitted by
their masters and became free people of color. Van Lier considered these free people of color
as a non-essential group. They were unimportant in a society where whites made the rules and
slaves worked the plantations to produce for foreign markets.105 Nevertheless, there were free
people who became craftsmen and, together with the Jews, belonged to the small middle class
in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.106 After the abolishment of slavery in 1863, the
group of free people of color started to grow, especially in the city of Paramaribo.107
To conclude, it made a huge difference in Suriname to what color type you belonged.
In principal, the whiter the better. If a slave had a lighter complexion, the chances were higher
that he got manumitted. However, free blacks (negro or mulat) were not whites, and therefore
they were still seen as inferior to whites.
Beeldsnijder, ‘Om Werk van Jullie te Hebben.,’ 125.
Rosemary Brana-Shute, The Manumission of Slaves in Suriname, 1760-1828 (Gainesville: The University of
Florida, 1985), 226.
104
Ibid., 227.
105
Van Lier, Samenleving in een Grensgebied, 96.
106
Ibid., 96.
107
Oostindie, Het Paradijs Overzee, 12.
102
103
22
Part II
Visual Analysis
23
3. Eighteenth century Surinamese society as seen by the artist John Gabriel Stedman
The publication of Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted
Negroes of Surinam was a result of the widespread conception of Suriname as a cruel slave
colony. To what extent this view corresponds with historical reality is discussed in this
chapter. It is certain that Stedman stayed quite a while in the colony of Suriname, therefore
one can assume that his impressions are obtained from first-hand experience. In this chapter,
an analysis of Surinamese society and its inhabitants is made based on Stedman’s pictures and
text. The extent to which his written material corresponds with the visual material will also be
examined.
As stated in chapter two, black slaves were needed to work the plantations or for other
purposes. Why these slaves should come from Africa is explained by John Gabriel Stedman:
“the quantum of sugar, &c. will be had, and must be provided by negroes, natives of Africa,
who alone are born to endure labour under a vertical sun.”108 Stedman was a Scottish
servicemen who accepted the “desperate ressourse of going as a common sailor to North
America or the Mediterranean, or even up the Baltick incognito for a voyage not longer than 9
months.”109 However, instead he got stationed in Suriname for a few years to combat the
fugitive slaves. Once Stedman arrived in Suriname and experienced life there, he called
Suriname a “Bloods Spilling Colony.”110 Runaway slaves and slave revolts were a common
phenomenon in Suriname, also known as ‘marronages.’111 It was in general much easier for
African slaves in Suriname, compared to other colonies, to run away and hide from their
plantation owners due to the dense tropical forests. In 1773, Stedman arrived in the colony to
help suppress the slave revolts. Stedman and his corps, were “sent to Suriname by the Dutch
States-General to assist the beleaguered local troops then fighting against marauding bands of
escaped slaves in the eastern region of the colony.”112
Stedman led a contrasting life in Suriname. He was quite often invited into the richly
decorated homes of plantation owners. However, as a serviceman he experienced “extended
ordeals of frustration, danger, malnutrition, sickness, and death” and close contact with
slaves.113 An advantage of living in different sceneries was that Stedman spoke many
languages and could understand almost all the inhabitants of Suriname, from whites to
108
Schorsch, Jews and Blacks, 6.
Stedman, Narrative, xxi.
110
Ibid., xiv.
111
Ibid., xiv.
112
Ibid., xxi.
113
Ibid., xxvii.
109
24
blacks.114 This of course helped him experience life in Suriname to the fullest. Stedman kept a
diary while he was there, and used it for his Narrative. Ironically though, Stedman’s daily
reports in his diary are somewhat different from his Narrative. He began writing his book in
1778, after his return from Suriname. Throughout the writing process he developed a different
lifestyle: he had settled in England and got a loving family of his own.115 According to the
editors of Stedman’s Narrative, Richard Price and Sally Price, the book “should be read in
part as Stedman’s retrospective and somewhat idealized vision of his youth in Suriname,
written from the perspective of a significantly changed personal situation.”116 However, he
only idealized his own love affairs and the institution of the ‘Suriname Marriage,’ the other
records in his Narrative seemed to have matched the stories in his diaries.117 “While his
diaries depicted a society in which depersonalized sex between European men and slave
women was pervasive and routine, his 1790 manuscript transformed Suriname into the exotic
setting for a deeply romantic and appropriately tragic love affair.”118 So, in general we can say
that Stedman was still trying to stay close to his experiences in Suriname, and the Narrative
can thus be seen as historical fact and used as a relevant primary source.
Stedman was an artist who was very explicit and unequivocal in his writings and his
drawings. His first detailed description was a very contrasting one. To begin with, he
mentions the charming nature of Suriname when he just arrived: “the Air was perfumed with
the most odoriferous Smell in Nature by the many Lemons, Oranges, Shaddocks &c with
which this Country abounds.”119 However, not much later, he sees a “Young Woman in
Chains simply covered with a Rag round her Loins, which was like her Skin cut and carved
by the lash of the Whip in a most Shocking Manner.”120 This woman simply did not carry out
a certain task assigned by her master. As a punishment she received whippings and she
needed to carry along the weight for several months.121 Stedman was very intrigued by this
woman and thus decided to sketch his view of her on paper (see picture below).
114
Stedman, Narrative, xxvii
Ibid., xxxii.
116
Ibid., xxxii.
117
Ibid., xxxii.
118
Ibid., xxxv.
119
Ibid., 38.
120
Ibid., 39.
121
Ibid., 39.
115
25
John Gabriel Stedman. “A Female Negro Slave,
with a Weight chained to her Ancle,” Suriname (1770s).
As mentioned earlier, Stedman’s text is based on first-hand accounts. He had a sharp eye for
details and he wrote down what he saw. Of course he also reported second-hand stories he
heard from others. However, these stories were so elaborate that they are still very
significant.122 An example of such a second-hand account will appear in the quote below.
Stedman was very aghast by the several executions of slaves he had seen in his still recent
stay in Suriname. When a man came up to him, he soon experienced that these executions
were very common.
“Tho / said he/ Sir – you are but a new comer from Europe – and know very little about the
african Slaves without which you would testify both less feeling and Surprize – Not long ago /
continued he/ I saw a black man hang’d alive by the ribs, between which with a knife was first
made an insision, and then clinch’d an Iron hook with a Chain – in this manner he kept living
three days hanging with his head and feet downwards and catching with his tongue the drops
of water / it begin in the rainy season/ that were flowing down his bloated breast while the
vultures were picking in the putred wound, notwithstanding all this he never complained and
122
Stedman, Narrative, xv.
26
even upbraided a negro for crying while he was flog’d below the Gallows.”123
John Gabriel Stedman. “A Negro hung alive by
the Ribs to a Gallows,” Suriname (1770s).
Even though, the above picture is sketched by Stedman after an unverified story from another
person, the pictures still corresponds with an earlier, but mostly with later accounts of
Stedman himself.
As mentioned earlier in this research, Surinamese Jews were known to be the most
harsh planters. There is not a lot of evidence available to support this statement, however in
the 1796 edition of his Narrative, it is stated that “the Dutch are not the only guilty; but that to
most other nations, and particularly the Jews, is owning this almost constant and diabolical
barbarity.”124 The editors Richard Price and Sally Price of the 1790 edition of the Narrative,
acknowledged that the 1796 edition has been changed quite a lot by its publisher.125 However,
in the 1790 edition, the Jewish planters are somewhat negatively displayed by Stedman. He
particularly has a strong aversion against the Jewish planters’ wives.126
123
Stedman, Narrative, 103.
Vink, Creole Jews, 117.
125
Stedman, Narrative, xlviii.
126
Vink, Creole Jews, 117.
124
27
“This day I was also informed of some Cruelties which I must Still relate before my
Departure, as motives to deter others from the abominable Practices. Some at which Humanity
must Shrink and Seeken – what Reader will believe that a Jewes (s) from a Motive of
Groundless Jealousy /for such her Husband made it to appear/ - I say who can believe that this
unprecedented Monster put an end to the life of a young and beautiful Quadroon Girl, by the
infernal means of plunging a red hot Poker in her Body, by those parts which decency forbids
to mention, while for a Crime of such a very [sic] hellish nature, the Murderer was only
banished to the Jew Savanah, a Village I shall afterwards describe besides paying a trifling
fine to the Fiscal who is a Magistrate.”127
Stedman has multiple other stories about cruel planters in his Narrative. And he never got
used to the misery that was bestowed upon these slaves. Such as the story below. The picture
underneath it is the Samboe girl Stedman is talking about and of which he made a drawing.
“The first Object that attracted my Compassion was / while visiting in a neighbouring Estate /
tied up with both Arms to a tree, a truly beautiful Samboe Girl of about 18, as naked as she
came to the World, and lacerated in such a shocking Condition by the Whips of two Negro
Drivers, that she was from her neck to her Ancles literally died over with blood – It was after
receiving 200 lashed that I perceived her with her head hanging downwards, a most miserable
Spectacle,”128
127
128
Stedman, Narrative, 115.
Ibid., 264.
28
John Gabriel Stedman. “Flagellation of a Female
Samboe Slave,” Suriname (1770s).
Stedman was so disgusted by the view of this young Samboe girl, which is a mixture between
a Mulatto and a black, “being of a deep Copper-Colour’d Complexion, with dark hair that
curls in large ringlets, those Slaves both Male and female are generally handsome, and mostly
imploy’d as Menial Servants in the houses of the Planters &c.”129 As mentioned in chapter
two, domestic slaves, such as this Samboe girl, were more prone to sexual exploitation. The
reason why this girl was whipped was because she did not receive with open arms the
affectionate gestures of her master, for which undisciplined behavior he believed she needed
to be punished.130 Since Stedman could do nothing about it, he left the scenery “leav[ing] the
detestable rascal like a beast of prey to enjoy his bloddy-feast til he was Glutted, while from
that Day [he] swore to break off Communication with all overseers.”131 Even though Stedman
despised the planters for inhumanely treating their slaves, he did not promote antislavery
sentiments. Near the end of his Narrative, when looking back on his years in Suriname, he
simply mentions the way he believes Suriname should be ruled and how slaves should be
129
Stedman, Narrative, 266.
Ibid., 266.
131
Ibid., 264.
130
29
treated by their masters in Suriname, which would be beneficial for both masters and
slaves.132
“Let the Governor & Principal magistrates be Chosen in Europe, let them be Gentlemen of
Fortune & Education, & above All, men of liberal ideas […] - Let these men be handsomely
Rewarded from that Nation whom they So materially Serve, and the Colony whom they so
Conspicuously Protect, but let their Salaries be Stipulated, without depending on the blood &
Sweat of the miserable Africans – then let Such men enact impartial Laws by which the negro
slaves are to work no more than theyr fair task, by which they are not to be Rack’d, tormented,
wantonly murdered, & infamously Rob’d of all that is dear next to their Life /Viz/ their wives
& Daughters &c., Laws by which they are to be Properly fed, & Attended when Sick or
indisposed, & above all Laws that will Permit them to get a Hearing – Permit them to
Complain, & enable them to Prove by witness the Grievances to which they Allude, & that
will Right them by a Judge & impartial Jury even partly Composed of their own Sable
Countrymen – By a Judge & Jury that will give Eye for eye & tooth for Tooth, that will not
only Protect the innocent & Punish the Guilty, but even Reward Virtue & merit in a Slave – In
those days nations will feel the benefit of their Colonies, then Planters will Grow rich, &
overseers Grow Honest – in those days Slavery will only consist in the name.”133
It becomes clear that Stedman left Suriname way before the Dutch emancipated their slaves.
The slaves lived in appalling conditions, and it seemed that their lives were not ameliorated
any time soon. Stedman witnessed all of this, described it in his book and made sketches of it.
However, he was not in favor of the abolition of slavery. The fact remains that he came to
Suriname as an active combatant of the maroon rebellions. But it can certainly be said that
Stedman revised his earlier thoughts about slavery. Maybe this had something to do with his
relationship with Joanna, a mulatto girl. He described her as a young girl with a “face full of
Native Modesty and the most distinguished Sweetness – her Eyes as black as Ebony were
large and full of expression, bespeaking the Goodness of her heart.”134 It is obvious that
Stedman felt the need to protect her and care for her, after reading his worried statement:
“When reflecting on the State of Slavery altogether, and my Ears being Stund with the Clang
of the Whip and the dismal Yels of the wretched Negroes on whom it was inflicted SlingSlang from morning till Night and when considering that this might one day be the fate of the
132
Stedman, Narrative, 594.
Ibid., 594.
134
Ibid., 88.
133
30
Unfortunate Mulatto Maid [Joanna], should she chance to fall in the hands of a Tirrannical
Master or Mistress (…).”135
The quote above suggests that Stedman started to reconsider the institution of slavery.
John Gabriel Stedman. “Joanna,” Suriname (1770s).
A common affair in the institution of slavery was the arrival of slaves and then the subsequent
selling of them. This also occurred in Suriname. In the picture below one can see black men,
women and children arriving in Suriname. That these blacks just reached their final
destination is noticeable by the ships that dropped them off, which are still anchored in the
harbor. Again, Stedman seems to feel the pain in which these black people must have been.
According to Stedman they were “atomatons (…) of skin and bones.”136 He even compared
them to “walking Skeletons covered over with a piece of tand leather.”137
135
Stedman, Narrative, 90.
Ibid., 166.
137
Ibid., 166.
136
31
John Gabriel Stedman. “Group of Negros, as imported to
be sold for Slaves,” Suriname (1770s).
Stedman certainly believed that blacks were no less human than whites, even though they did
not have much to say in the colony of Suriname. Murdering of blacks was not allowed, but
when it became clear who was responsible (mostly a white person), the only punishment
consisted in the payment of a certain fine.138 However, most of the time there was no evidence
of the crime. Stedman stated that “the Murder first requires to be properly proved, which is
extremely difficult in this [Suriname] Country, where no Slaves evidence is admitted – Such
are the laws of the Legislature in Dutch Guiana.”139 But, the fact that blacks were humans
according to Stedman, did not immediately meant that they were the equals of white people.
Stedman repeatedly represented the hardships of blacks throughout his book.
However, he also noticed that there was a distinction between certain shades of black. In the
picture below a Quadroon girl is being showed. According to Stedman, quadroons were “very
much respect on account of their affinity to Europeans.”140 Their shade could be described as
somewhere between a white and a mulatto person. Quadroons were offered good jobs, such as
138
Stedman, Narrative, 266.
Ibid., 267.
140
Ibid., 241.
139
32
a “Joyner, a Silversmith, or a Jeweller” for boys, and “waiting Women” for girls. 141
John Gabriel Stedman. “Female Quadroon Slave of Surinam,” Suriname (1770s).
That the Quadroon girl in this picture is of a higher status, compared to other slaves, can be
seen by her clothing style. She is an attractive looking girl who wears a nice dress and a pretty
hat. According to Stedman this was a common thing for Quadroons. They are “generally very
handsome, and well-behaved, and being /both Sexes/ not divested of Pride they dress with a
great degree of neatness, and even elegance (…).”142 Besides the segregation between white
and black, there also existed a division among blacks.
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Stedman was not an abolitionist. However, he
had a different view of slavery than the average white person in Suriname. Stedman’s last
statement and equivalent picture in his book, will also be used as the ending of this chapter.
To me, this statement clearly marks his thought on the institution of slavery and life in
Suriname during the eighteenth century. The picture below, according to Stedman, is an
“Emblematical Picture of Europe Supported by Africa & America Accompanied by an Ardent
141
142
Stedman, Narrative, 242.
Ibid., 242.
33
Wish that in the friendly manner as they are Represented they may henceforth & to all
Eternity be the Prop of each other.”143
John Gabriel Stedman. “Europe supported by Africa & America,” Suriname (1770s).
Stedman wishes that all the inhabitants of Suriname, which were people of mixed races (only
three shades of them shown in the picture above), should be each other’s cornerstone. They
cannot function without the help of each other. Furthermore, Stedman wanted people to see
through the difference in skin color. “We all only differ in the Colour but we are Certainly
Created by the same hand & After the Same Mould.”144
To conclude, it becomes clear that blacks (slaves) in the eighteenth century were still
very much seen as inferior to whites and encountered many hardships and inhumane
punishments in the colony of Suriname. Nevertheless, there already existed a clear
stratification between the different shades of blacks in eighteenth century Surinamese culture,
on top of the main disparity, white and black. Some slaves could be better off, due to their
lighter complexion. According to Stedman, the harsh conditions of slaves were caused by
143
144
Stedman, Narrative, 618.
Ibid., 618.
34
cruel planters. However, even though Stedman mentions that the Jews are the most cruel
plantation owners in Suriname, he did not single them out throughout his book, especially not
in his drawings. He sporadically mentions them in his text, but he mostly writes about the
barbarities bestowed upon the slaves by the Dutch planters in general. It is obvious that during
Stedman’s stay in Suriname, the thought of emancipating the slaves was not yet prevalent in
the minds of the (white) people, and the same goes for Stedman. However, he could have
been a forerunner of the abolitionists.
35
4. Nineteenth century Surinamese society as seen by the artist Pierre Jacques Benoit
Pierre Jacques Benoit was, just like Stedman, a European. He was born in Antwerp in 1782
and initially educated as a goldsmith. However, Benoit desired a more adventurous lifestyle of
extensive travelling, and made drawings of the places he visited.145 Suriname was one of the
places Benoit visited in the West Indies. It is not quite clear when he was in the colony,
however on the basis of certain data and events, it seems that he was there in the 1830s.146 He
tried to represent the life in the cities, such as Paramaribo in his pictures, but also the life on
the plantations. Benoit had a special interest in the blacks and Indians in Suriname. Though
Benoit was against the manumission of slaves on different grounds, mostly for economic
reasons, he still believed that the shocking trade in humans should be banned.147 Furthermore,
he believed there was insufficient attention for the Dutch colony of Suriname. So, with his
work, Benoit wanted to arouse renewed interest in the colony.148 In what way did he try to
achieve this, and how is the change of Surinamese society from the eighteenth to the
nineteenth century reflected in Benoit’s nuanced representation of Suriname? In this chapter,
an analysis of Surinamese society and its inhabitants is made based on Benoit’s pictures and
journal. To what extent his text corresponds with his pictures will also be discussed.
The book, Journey Through Suriname, is not only of “artistic value, but also of
historical value,” according to Silvia de Groot.149 De Groot has provided Benoit’s book with
an English introduction to make it accessible to a broader public. She states that although
Benoit’s pictures aroused great interest, however his text is just as important and maybe even
more significant.150 Benoit’s pictures are very charming, picturesque and romantic, however
only partially based on the truth according to De Groot.151 The text on the other hand reveals
his more genuine thoughts.
Benoit disagreed with Stedman about the treatment of slaves in Suriname. Stedman
emphasized the cruelty of the slave owners, while Benoit believed that the slaves were
actually treated with mildness and care. In reaction to Stedman’s statements about the cruel
and barbaric treatment of slaves, a French coeval confirms Benoit’s opinion:
145
Pierre J. Benoit,. Reis door Suriname: Beschrijving van de Nederlandse Bezittingen in
Guyana, trans. Chris. Schriks and Silvia. W. de Groot (Zutphen: De Walburg
Pers, 1980), 87.
146
Ibid., 16.
147
Ibid., 13.
148
Ibid., 13.
149
Ibid., 292.
150
Ibid., 292.
151
Ibid., 292.
36
“One must believe that such facts are exceptions, even in Dutch Guyana. As for me, I must say
that in the places I have visited, I never found anything that looked like these stupid
barbarities. Although the stick is used on the field, it is, as elsewhere, an instrument of the
criminal law which is applicable to the negroes, however it is in their own interest that the
colonists do not make abuse of this.”152
Even though Benoit accused Stedman for being too negative in his portrayals of the lives of
slaves in Suriname, he still could not “avoid picturing the harsh and cruel daily existence of
the slaves and explaining why they run away, revolt against their masters and are filled with
hatred towards the whites.”153 A good example of where Benoit brings up the tough life of
slaves is in his description of The Dou:
“The favorite dance of Negroes and slaves is the Dou. They forget all about spade and whip,
weariness and suffering, carried away by the rhythm of the band composed of drum and
tambourine, a plank on which the rhythm is thumped out with two sticks, and a sort of guitar
made of half a calabash. This is accompanied by singing while dancing women beat the
measure with maccaris (calabashes filled with seed). It is an amazing sight to watch them
moving, body and head approaching and drawing away from each other without shifting or
raising their feet.”154
“These gay Negroes in their fine clothes are the same people who have to go back the next day
and for the rest of the week to their heavy labour, to be treated like cattle, in the unbearable
heat, exposed to their masters’ caprices and the cruelty of the ‘bastiaan’ or Negro overseer.”155
152
Benoit, Reis door Suriname , 73.
Ibid., 87.
154
Ibid., 92.
155
Ibid., 92.
153
37
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “The Dou,” Suriname (1830s).
What is remarkable about Benoit, is that he continuously states that the slaves are treated well,
that “most of the masters do what is in their power to make slaves’ lot tolerable,” and that
“many colonists are guided rather by humane motives than by business considerations and try
to win the confidence of the slaves.”156 However, it sure did not look like the masters did
whatever they could for their slaves when looking at the picture below. The morning after the
dance they walk with bowed heads and “dreary and beatened” faces to work.157
156
157
Benoit, Reis door Suriname , 92.
Ibid., 37.
38
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “Slaves on their way to work,” Suriname (1830s).
Benoit considers his book, that was published in 1839, as “the most unbiased and complete
work that was ever published about the colony.”158 However, it seems that Benoit’s book was
more biased than he thought it was. Chris Schriks, the editor of the book, confirms this by
stating that it becomes clear when one observes the authentic work of Benoit, that he was a
“romanticist to whom exaggeration, exaltation and superlatives were not strange.”159 Benoit is
in ecstasy when he gives an account of the coast of Suriname upon his arrival: “my
companion was still several miles at sea, when the coast of Suriname unfolded before our
eyes as a broad and beautiful painting. Nothing can match the variety of emotions upon the
sight of this coast, so rich in nature, evokes in the mind.”160 Benoit is very elaborate in his
description upon his arrival in this new colony.
Benoit believed that there was not much cruelty to be found in Suriname against the
slaves. His opinion was that the slaves were actually treated with respect, so he did not value
the work of Stedman too much.161 However, in the 1830s, when Benoit came to Suriname,
around 60 years later than Stedman, things had changed for the better for the slaves in the
Dutch colony.162 As mentioned earlier, the British abolished the trading of slaves in the
beginning of the 1800s, which might have influenced the plight of the slaves in Suriname.163
For example, masters needed to spare the slaves they still had, since they could not receive
new ones anymore.164 An example of a drawing by Benoit that shows that slaves are respected
and treated well by their masters is seen in the picture below.
158
Benoit, Reis door Suriname , 16.
Ibid., 14.
160
Ibid., 27.
161
Ibid., 15.
162
Ibid., 15.
163
Ibid., 15.
164
Ibid., 15.
159
39
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “Planter on his way to a near-by plantation,” Suriname (1830s).
In this picture, the master clearly trusts his slaves. He is walking in between his two slaves
who are armed. The fact that he is in the middle, could display the fact that the master does
not really feel superior to them. On the other hand, the white man wears nice clothing,
compared to the slaves who are almost naked, indicating a status difference.
Compared to Stedman, Benoit has many pictures of happy and relaxing blacks. For
example, in the pictures below, a black woman is taught how to dance and black people are
playing billiards.
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “A Native dancing-master instructing a negro
slave-girl and a creole girl,” Suriname (1830s).
40
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “Negroes enjoying a game of biliards.”Suriname (1830s).
In these scenes above, it seems that the life of slaves was not that harsh. At least they had
some leisure time they could spend at will.
When Benoit arrived in Suriname, things had already changed radically in the decades
before. The variations in class still existed, however the differences were not that great
anymore. Jews, blacks and others all lived and worked in the same area. So, in many of
Benoit’s pictures there is interaction between whites and blacks. Of course there were still
rich people, but the real wealthy Jewish planters from Joden Savanne were hard to find.165
Actually, as mentioned in chapter one, there were not many Jews left in the community of
Joden Savanne near the end of the 1700s. Many Jews moved to the city of Paramaribo in
order to make a living, or they simply left the colony in search for a better life.166 The
remaining Jews were thus not really part of the plantocracy anymore, most of them were now
small traders or carpenters.167 In the picture below one can see whites and blacks working
close to each other. There is a ‘vette-warier,’ or a retail shop, and there is a ‘snerie,’ or a
tailor. The retailer is clearly a Jew, as indicated by his name ‘Isak Abraham Levy Aron. The
tailor is probably a free negro or a slave employed by his master.
165
Vink, Creole Jews, 125.
Benoit, Reis door Suriname, 41.
167
Vink, Creole Jews, 125.
166
41
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “Shopkeeper and Tailor,” Suriname (1830s).
This picture is from Saramaccastreet. According to Benoit, Saramaccastreet was the “busiest
and largest commercial center of the city,” and is compared to the Kalverstreet in
Amsterdam.168 The most notable shops in that street were called vette wariers and were
mostly owned by the Jews. Their expertise was “to attract buyers and to do businesses with all
classes of the population either by sale or by exchange.”169 It is unclear what Benoit was
trying to show with this picture. He could have intended to depict the Jew and the black
merchants as equals. What is clear though, is that they both had to work hard for a living.
As mentioned above, the tailor in the picture could be a free negro or a slave who
worked in a shop that was still owned by his master. They were mostly hired by whites and
engaged in vendor or artisan jobs, such as “carpenters, locksmiths, shoemakers, wigmakers,
tailors, dairymen, greengrocers, fishmongers,” or salesmen. Of course, some jobs were more
for women, such as street vendor, or milk-lady. In the picture below you see three female
saleswomen, selling toilet-goods. The woman on the left is a creole, in the middle there is a
negress and the woman to the right is an African kaboegroe. According to Benoit this is “a
son or daughter between mulatto and negress or between negro and mulatto woman).170
168
Benoit, Reis door Suriname, 35.
Ibid., 35.
170
Ibid., 116.
169
42
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “Female street-vendors,” Suriname (1830s).
In the picture below, one can see a fish-wife selling fish on the left, a creole dairymaid in the
middle, and a woman selling vegetables to the right.
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “Female street vendors,” Suriname (1830s).
When looking at the above pictures, many different shades of black can be recognized.
According to Benoit, Suriname consisted of a wide variety of inhabitants. “In every fifty
persons one sees, there are hardly two with the same complexion.”171 This could indicate that
171
Benoit, Reis door Suriname, 33.
43
white and black people had mutual relationships. Furthermore, most of these female-vendors
in the pictures wear fancy clothing, this is at least noticeable in the first picture. However,
according to Benoit they had to give away all their earnings to their masters. But he states that
it “would be more just, if the slave could keep a portion of what they earn. Now they steal in
order to satisfy their ‘evil tendency’ to buy flashy clothes and indulge in merrymaking.”172 So,
as indicated by Benoit, these elegant clothes were probably made or bought by stolen goods
or money.
There were also many creoles working as artisans. The population of Suriname existed
mostly of creoles (free or slave). Benoit characterized them as “vivacious and intelligent but
lazy, irresponsible and work-shy.”173 In the picture below one can see a creole slave as a
wigmaker on the right, followed by a slave-boy carrying the supplies.
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “A Wigmaker,” Suriname (1830s).
The fact that this creole wigmaker has an assistant makes Benoit call the creoles lazy.
However, is this not what whites did all the time? Benoit states that the creole slave should
rather take advantage of the surplus of money he brings to his master, than spending it all on a
slave of his own. However, Benoit mentioned earlier that the slaves had to give away all their
earnings, but now it seems as though they could keep a portion of the earned money.
Even though the slave trade was abolished in Benoit’s time, many slaves were still
172
173
Benoit, Reis door Suriname, 91.
Ibid., 91.
44
being sold at auctions. In the picture below, one can see a female slave and her children being
sold.
Pierre Jacques Benoit. “Female slave being sold,” Suriname (1830s).
According to Kolfin, the author of Van de Slavenzweep & de Muze: Twee Eeuwen
Verbeelding van Slavernij in Suriname, this picture was a euphemism of the dark side of
slavery.174 At first sight, it does not seem like something terrible is going on in the picture.
However, when one reads into the background story of this woman, this was a really sad day
for her and her children. This creole woman was promised her freedom by her white master
and lover. However, on the day of her manumission, her husband died and she and her
children were sold back into slavery again. According to Benoit “the sale was a sad and
heartbreaking sight and the dismay was hard to describe. Everyone who knew the poor
woman, and already considered her as a free and lawful wife, had tears in their eyes.”175 It
certainly did not look like this in Benoit’s picture.
To conclude, Benoit’s visual representations of Suriname are very cheerful and
colorful. His text on the other hand sometimes describes quite the opposite. Furthermore,
Benoit occasionally had the tendency to contradict himself. His descriptions can thus only be
seen as speculations. Still, it could certainly be true that blacks and slaves had a better life in
Suriname in the 1830s, compared to the eighteenth century when Stedman lived in Suriname.
They must have heard about the emancipation of slaves in the surrounding colonies. At that
174
Elmer Kolfin, Van de Slavenzweep & de Muze: Twee Eeuwen Verbeelding van Slavernij in
Suriname (Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 1997), 64.
175
Benoit, Reis door Suriname, 65.
45
time, Benoit believed that it would have taken another hundred years before slavery would be
completely abolished. Of course, he was not quite right, since it only took a few more
decades. He was not against slave emancipation in principle, but he did not know how
“Europe could be kept supplied by the colonial products that had grown indispensable to its
population.”176 The solution, according to Benoit, would be that masters should treat their
slaves in a humane manner, “since it is to them that they owe their fortunes.”177 And that is
what the slave owners did, according to Benoit.
176
177
Benoit, Reis door Suriname, 96.
Ibid., 96.
46
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