The Dutch Atlantic: Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation

246 Pages·2011·1.66 MB·English

by  Kwame Nimako

The Dutch Atlantic
Decolonial Studies, Postcolonial Horizons
Series editors: Ramon Grosfoguel (University of California at Berkeley), Barnor
Hesse (Northwestern University) and S. Sayyid (University of Leeds) Since the
end of the Cold War, unresolved conjunctures and crises of race, ethnicity,
religion, diversity, diaspora, globalization, the West and the non-West, have
radically projected the meaning of the political and the cultural beyond the
traditional verities of Left and Right. Throughout this period, Western
developments in ‘international relations’ have become increasingly defined as
corollaries to national ‘race relations’ across both the European Union and the
United States, where the reformation of Western imperial discourses and
practices have been given particular impetus by the ‘war against terror’. At the
same time hegemonic Western continuities of racial profiling and colonial
innovations have attested to the incomplete and interrupted institutions of the
postcolonial era. Today we are witnessing renewed critiques of these
postcolonial horizons at the threshold of attempts to inaugurate the political and
cultural forms that decolonization now needs to take within and between the
West and the ‘non-West’. This series explores and discusses radical ideas that
open up and advance understandings of these politically multicultural issues and
theoretically interdisciplinary questions.
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THE DUTCH ATLANTIC
Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation
Kwame Nimako and Glenn Willemsen
First published 2011 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © Kwame Nimako and Glenn Willemsen 2011
The right of Kwame Nimako and Glenn Willemsen to be identified as the authors of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 3108 9 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3107 2 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 8496 4615 4 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1484 1 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1483 4 EPUB eBook Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest
sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental
standards of the country of origin.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Published with the assistance of NiNsee
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed digitally by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK
and Edwards Bros in the United States of America
In loving memory of
Glenn Frank Walther Willemsen (1948–2008)
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Stephen Small, UC Berkeley
Preface
Artwell Cain, NiNsee

1 Introduction, Goals and Issues
Introduction and Goals
Context and Concepts
Importance and Relevance
Overview of Chapters

2 Transatlantic Slavery and the Rise of the European World Order
The Age of Banditry (1492–1648)
Sovereignty and Chattel Slavery (1648–1789)
Citizenship, Slavery and the ‘Free Soil Ideology’
Science and Chattel Slavery

3 Chattel Slavery, Sugar and Salt
Slavery and the Making of Global Economy
Slavery and Sugar
Sugar and Suriname
Pacification and Resistance

4 Abolition without Emancipation
European and Systemic Context
From Regulation to Intervention
Modalities of Abolition: Progressive Control versus Transformative Change
Abolition and Citizenship

5 Trajectories of Emancipation: Religion, Class, Gender and Race
Religion and Emancipation
Class and Emancipation
Gender and Emancipation
Race and Emancipation
The Immediate Aftermath of Abolition

6 The Legacy of Slavery: The Unfinished Business of Emancipation
Memory and Dignitarianism
Commemorators and Commemoration
Integration and Multiculturalism
NiNsee as a Contested Project
Museums and Galleries
Reparations
Anniversaries and Apologies

7 Conclusion: Parallel Histories and Intertwined Belonging
Some Conclusions
A Final Note

Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
The word ‘debt’ has different meaning in different settings. In the world of
economics, finance and money, being in debt to a person or institution is an
indication that you are in deep trouble; it means the person or institution you are
indebted to has some power or control over you. However in other social
relations and settings, being indebted reflects an appreciation of the humanity
and generosity of others to you. It is in the latter context that I wish to express
my indebtedness to the following people.
Let me begin by thanking Carla Willemsen-de Vries and Tamira Willemsen,
the wife and daughter respectively of the late Glenn Willemsen, for allowing me
to continue a project Glenn and I initiated before he passed away. They know
that, after more than 25 years of close friendship and collaboration with Glenn, I
was well placed to continue this project on his behalf. Carla and Tamira
entrusted me with this work in Glenn’s name in the belief that I would do justice
to him. I hope I have not disappointed them.
I discussed this project with Eddy Campbell, then interim director of NiNsee,
in August 2008. To facilitate its realization, he agreed to support it, giving me
access to NiNsee’s facilities and covering part of the cost. His successor, and the
current director of NiNsee, Artwell Cain, gave his full backing when he assumed
office in 2009. As friend and colleague, Artwell has consistently offered
invaluable support. Ronny Rens, the office manager at NiNsee, and Denice
Soekra, the executive secretary, gave me the necessary administrative support to
facilitate my work. I discussed the project with Frank Dragtenstein and
Humphrey Lamur in NiNsee corridors whenever the opportunity arose. My
conversations with Cees Luckhardt enriched my understanding of salt
production on Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles.
I would like thank a number of institutions and organizations which Glenn and
I visited, either together or separately, for the opportunities they gave us to make
presentations about material related to this book and for the feedback and
comments received from panel respondents and audiences. These institutions
include: the Center for Global Studies and the Humanities, Duke University; the
Institute for Postcolonial and Transcultural Studies, University of Bremen; the
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, Yale