General Information
Virtual Guide
Education Support
Stories
Send an e-card
Links

Check in

Check out

N. Room N. Guest

Virtual Guide | Slavery | Shipment

History | Slave Trade | Shipment | Surinam
Slavery & Abolition in the USA | Slavery Today

The beginning of the Dutch slave trade

Although the Spanish crown granted monopolies to the transport and selling of African slaves for the colonies in the new world, interlopers also claimed their share. Enterprising people saw chances to buy or capture slaves in West Africa and to transport them at their own expense to colonies in the new world. The demand for slaves was tremendous, which resulted in inaccurate control of transport permissions of the suppliers. At first, Dutch captains scarcely took part in this human trade. In 1596, more than a hundred captives were brought to Middelburg. By order of the States of Zeeland the slaves were released, supposedly because they were baptized. Although at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Dutch had several trading posts along the coast of Guinea, they were hardly interested in the slave trade. The in 1621 established West India Company, WIC, paid more attention to privateering as a way to cause harm to Spain (with whom it had waged war since 1568).

For many years a struggle was fought for the foundation of the WIC,which, in 1619, even led to the execution of the mighty Secretary of State, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. Van Oldenbarnevelt was against the formation of the WIC be-cause he believed that it would further antagonize the Spanish, with whom he tried to reach a peace settlement. The foundation of a company that controlled the complete Dutch trade and shipping industry in the Atlantic sea, was an initiative by the Antwerp salesman Willem Usselinx. In 1606, the States General made plans for the realization of the West India Company. However, these plans were thwarted through the peace negotiations with Spain. The Spaniards demanded the withdrawal of the Dutch from Asia and the Atlantic area, in exchange for recognition of the Republic as a sovereign state. During the peace negotiations, the Secretary of State, Van Oldenbarnevelt, refused to give concessions concerning Asia, but did withdraw plans for the formation of the "WIC". This resulted in an armistice for twelve years.
Not everybody in the Republic was happy with the result of these negotiations. The armistice actually caused a strong revival of trade with the southern part of Europe and Brasil. Traders who did business with West Africa, experienced tremendous damage caused by the armistice. With the war postponed, the Portuguese (which was under Spanish rule at that time) had their hands free to protect their commercial interests in West Africa. Several Dutch ships fell into the hands of the Portuguese, who decapitated the crewmembers without mercy. One of the opponents to peace with Spain was Prince Maurits of Orange Nassau, who had, by marriage, interests in the African trade. Opposition against Van Oldenbarnevelt grew and in August 1618, led to his destruction. A dubious court of law pronounced Van Oldenbarnevelt guilty of treason against the Republic. He was executed in May 1619 in the city Court Yard of The Hague. With his death, one of the most important obstacles for the realization of the WIC was literally removed.

Dutch privateers sold slaves captured on Spanish and Portuguese ships to the colonies in the new world. Thus it was possible that, less than ten years after the unsuccessful slave auction in Middelburg, the Spaniards ordered a load of slaves from Dutch traders on the island Trinidad, who were delivered on the spot. The privateers sold captured slaves to foreign colonies, such as the British colony in Virginia, where a Dutch captain delivered twenty slaves in 1619. They were also brought to Dutch colonies on the Wild Coast and Brazil. At the end of the sixteenth century, Zeeland colonists established colonies at the Guyana's, where they cultivated tobacco and cotton with the help of native slaves and a few Negros. After 1623, small numbers of slaves were also shipped to the Dutch colony "New Netherlands" with New Amsterdam (now Long Island, Brooklyn and New York).

During the first fifteen years of its existence only one ship of the West India Company was equipped for slave transport. The company was hardly interested in the slave trade. In 1631 a WIC captain did not even know what to do with a load of 400 slaves he had captured in the Caribbean sea.

In 1637 the conquest of the Portuguese fort d'El Mina on the coast of Guinee, West Africa, gave the WIC a strong position concerning the slave trade. The slave trade of the WIC developed into a flourishing business. Till the loss of Penambuco in 1654, the company transported more than 25,000 slaves from Africa to the Dutch colonies in Brazil.

Although d'Elmina was the main slave port of the WIC, the company possessed several trading posts and slave forts on the African coast before the conquest of d'El Mina. Among them was the island of Goree near the coast of Cabo Verde, today's Dakar Senegal. The role of the Dutch on this island in the transatlantic slave trade was relatively small but cannot be neglected.

The Portuguese used Goree as a stopover on their way to the West Indies. They called it "Ile de Palma". Soon the Portuguese abandoned the small island that was frequented by trading boats of various European nations. In 1627 the Dutch bought the island from the local ruler and named it Goree (good harbor). They had to fight several times to keep the island. The Dutch settled and built two forts. Fort Orange and Fort Nassau. The main articles of trade were slaves, salt, ostrich feathers and Arabic gum. Zeeland's admiral, Michiel Adriaanszn de Ruvter, conquered the island twice, established his private housing and took a large share in the slave trade activities together with the other major shareholders such as the Stadholders of Orange Nassau.
In 1677, the French conquered Goree. In the eighteenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the French and the British fought for possession over this island. After the abolition, the British lost interest in Goree. Goree became the headquarter of the naval division, that was responsible for curbing the slave trade.
In I 978 the island was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. While other places in Africa witnessed the dispatch of far larger numbers of slaves to the Americas, every square feet of Goree (from which 60.000 Africans were herded onto the slave vessels in the course of two centuries) is a constant reminder of this abominable trade.

West Indies Company

The first West Indies Company, the WIC, was founded on the 3rd of June, 1621. Its 19 members, the so-called 'Heeren XIX', formed the board. The most important members were the 'Chambers' of Amsterdam and Zeeland. The threefold activities of the WIC were: piracy, colonization of new territories and trade. Initially piracy was and later trade in African gold and slaves became the most profitable activity. In 1674, WIC's large debt due to multiple attempts to conquer Spanish and Portuguese colonies and trading posts in the 'New World' and Africa resulted in the reorganization and liquidation of the WIC. Immediately thereafter a new WIC was formed with a board reduced to ten, the so-called 'Heeren X'.

The second WIC was mostly interested in trade. The exclusive right on trade in the Caribbean region and the Atlantic continued with a slight variation: the company no longer had a monopoly. Private merchant ships were allowed into the territory, yet had to pay heavy taxes to the WIC. Initially the company made a reasonable profit, but after 1680 it incurred nothing but losses. The lack of sufficient cash needed to provide trade for slave ships and to maintain the forts along the African coast, was the major obstacle. When the company lost its asiento; i.e. the exclusive right to transport slaves, it fate was sealed. The company managed to stretch its money losing existence until 1791; then the 'Staten Generaal', the Parliament of the United Republic of the Netherlands, decided not to prolong its mandate.

Those who where maimed while in service of the West Indies Company, could count on substantial compensation:
For the loss of the right arm 800 guilders
For the loss of the left arm 500 guilders
For the loss of a leg 450 guilders
For the loss of both legs 800 guilders
For the loss of an eye 300 guilders
For the loss of both eyes 900 guilders
For the loss of the left hand 400 guilders
For the loss of the right hand 600 guilders
For the loss of both hands 1000 guilders

By comparison: a soldier on a sailor earned 8 guilders a month. Many of them died of their wounds anyway, so that the payments by the company were very limited.

The slave hunt in Africa

At the end of the eighteenth century about 80,000 Negro slaves a year had been transported across the Atlantic Ocean. The majority were bought by European slave traders from local rulers or traders, who were called "statees". About 34 percent of the Negros became slaves due to wars, 30 percent were kidnapped by other Negros during incursions, 11 percent were sold as slaves after being condemned for an imaginary crime and about 7 percent was sold as slaves by a relative or an acquaintance. Especially inland, slaves were bartered for salt, an expensive commodity for which some were prepared to exchange one of their wives or children. Sometimes a family sold a child when it had nothing to eat.
Not only captured Negros became victims of the European slave trade. Kings of kingdoms along the coast committed raids on each others villagers on a regular basis to obtain slaves. During such raids old men and women, but also little children (who were considered worthless) were killed without mercy. The same happened to slaves that could not be so1d. Sometimes African kings committed raids on their own villages to fulfill the demand for slaves.
It rarely happened that Europeans kidnapped African Negros. Most of the traders (especially when they worked for national companies, such as the British RAC or the WIC) saw the importance of maintaining a good relationship with African traders and kings. Kidnapping Negros would damage the income of the African traders and thus the good relationship between both parties. But individual interlopers were more interested in making a quick profit and they did commit these crimes. Many of them paid with their life.

Recently six forts have been rediscovered in the inlands of Ghana and Burkina Faso. These forts served as a gathering place and holding tanks for kidnapped Negros. The forts were built about 400 kilometers inland, and could accommodate several thousand prisoners. During excavations at fort Loropeni (no more than a ruin) many objects were re-covered with the mark of the French and Dutch West India Company. A strong indication that soldiers of these companies made use of these forts for their raids.

Kings and leaders that controlled the slave trade, often appointed an African leader, called a "caboteer". They collected the slaves that were bought or captured inland and brought them together with the "statees" to the coast, usually a hundred people at a time. Journeys of sixty of eighty days were not exceptional. Most of the time, slaves were chained two or three together and forced to carry water, corn, ivory, hides or even stones on their heads to prevent attempts to escape.

Slaves were harshly used in Africa before they were bought by Europeans.... 'severely and barbarously treated by their masters, who subsist them poorly, and beat them inhumanely, as may be seen by the scabs and wounds on the bodies of many of them when sold to us. They scarcely allow them the least rag to cover their nakedness, which they take off them when sold to Europeans; and they always go bare-headed...When dead, they never bury them, but cast out their bodies into some place, to be devoured by birds, or beasts of prey.' (James Barbot, slave captain).

During the long journeys many died from exhaustion, shortness of food or diseases such as dysentery. A rough estimation made at the end of the eighteenth century mentioned that half of the prisoners did not reach the coast. Others died in the slave forts during the waiting period for transport ships. Some stayed almost five months in dark and overcrowded cells.
Most of the forts along the coast were built with the authorization of the local African leaders. The company that made use of the fort would pursue a monopoly on the local trade. In exchange, guarantees were given that the occupiers of the fort would help to defend the locals against attacks by other African tribes. Forts on the African coast did not mean that Europeans controlled the territory. In practice, the Africans controlled communications between garrisons as well as the surrounding area. Only they knew the routes through the tropical rain forest to the northern markets. Routes Europeans would not enter for fear of tropical diseases, such as the African sleeping sickness and malaria.
Life in the forts was controlled by a constant confrontation with fear of dying and the severe treatment of the slaves, both by African slave traders as well as white slave buyers. The residents of the forts hardly had any contact with the local inhabitants and were totally unfamiliar with local conditions. Excessive use of alcohol happened frequently. Palm oil and palm wine, rum, brandy and gin were standard means to suppress melancholy and fear.

The Sea Voyage

It rarely happened that any slave captain made more than four slave transports from the African coast. With a couple of trips he could earn enough money (for example by selling the slaves he transported at his own account) to buy his own ship. Apart from the officers, a doctor was often aboard, but, since this was not a legal rule, many slave ships economized on medical assistance. The ordinary seamen on slave ships were often young men from the dregs of society that led a trivial life, caused by low wages and bad conditions on board, and a constant threat of death. Often young men were doped in pubs and lured aboard. Liverpool was especially notorious for such practices, and many innkeepers made an extra income from slave captains.

Also "Negros ladinos" - Negro slaves born in the new world - worked as seaman on these ships. Captains often took Negros from the West African coast aboard as guardians or overseers of the captives and let them sleep between the captives to prevent them from quarrelling.
Most slave ships transported between two hundred and four hundred slaves, but with exceptions in both directions. Especially in the beginning companies had large slave ships built, but ship owners learned that these were not economical. Such ships had to dock at many ports along the African coast to collect enough slaves to fill the hold. The long rambles along the coast resulted in high death rates among slaves as well as crewmembers and there was also the constant threat of revolt among the slaves as well as escape attempts. In practice, small slave ships could bring their load to the new world at less expense, so they were fearsome opponents for the ships of the major companies. The average passage took about two to three months with peaks of 25 days up to nine months.

Before going aboard, the slaves were brand marked and baptized. For this purpose the forts had appointed a roman priest or a minister, who did not speak the language of the captives. The hasty mass baption did not contribute much to Christianity. Upon arrival in the South American port of Carthagena, some slaves testified that, before boarding the slave ship, a nice priest had sprinkled water over their heads to bring some relief against the burning sun.

Not only the slaves were treated harshly on board the slave ship. The eighteenth century was a violent period: a human life was of little value. The real or supposed necessity of treating the Negros with rigour gradually brought a numbness upon the heart and rendered those who were engaged in it to indifference to the suffering of their fellow-creatures. The sailors were also treated with little humanity. Officers certainly treated sailors as badly or worse than they treated the slaves, captains often with criminal sadism. A cabin boy was flogged cruelly for breaking a glass of the captain. The seamen often slept on deck 'and they die on deck'. 'I have been on a number of ships' remarked one sailor 'and always found the same treatment as we had on board of our own, that is, men dying from want of provisions, from being hard worked and from being inhumanely beat.' The food of the sailors was not much better either in quantity or in quality to that of the slaves. Sometimes the captain ordered the meat of the sailors to be given to the slaves. A dead slave represented loss of money, a dead sailor just the loss of two hands to work the slave-ship.

"I would have jumped over the side but could not ... the crew used to watch us very closely, and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners, most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating ... I had never seen amongst my people such instance of brutal cruelty, and this was not only shown, to us blacks, but also to some whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw ... was flogged so unmercifully ... that he died as a consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute ... The shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable." Olaudah Equiano, 1756.

Deaths among the sailors was rarely less than a fifth of the crew, sometimes more. Analysis of the Dutch slave trade suggests that about 18 percent of the crew died on all their recorded voyages -in comparison with 12 per cent of the slaves. Something like the same statistic must have been true of the English trade. The higher death rate among the crew was partly due to the longer time they spent on board the ships. Sometimes so many lives were lost, that the captain was forced to use slaves from his cargo to do the work.
Trading with the caboteers differed much from coast to coast, but also per century, as can be seen from this narrative of a slave trader. 'Een man en een mooie vrouw weren geruild voor en rol tabak, een stuk pijpkoraal, een wapen, 3 manchetes, een koperen donderbus, 24 zakdoeken, 5 metalen plaatjes, 3 flessen rum.'
Most slavers would, to save extra charges by the sellers, bring the captives to the ships at first opportunity. It is hard to imagine what went on in the hearts of the poor souls, who, coming from the African inland, saw for the first time the sea, the ships with their glittering white sails and the strange creatures with their blistered, red faces, strange clothes and language.

'The first object which saluted my eyes was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor.. .These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up, to see if I were sound, by some of the crew, and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too, differing so much from ours, their long hair and the language they spoke.. .united to conform me in this belief. Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my country.. .When I looked round the ship and saw a large.. copper boiling. .1 no longer doubted my fate. .1 fell motionless on the deck and fainted.' Olaudah Equiano. He was brought in 1760 as a slave to the West Indies.

Throughout Africa was the widespread suspicion, that the white (or 'red' people) were presumably followers of the Lord of the Dead, Mwene Puto (an Angolan devil). They thought that these followers had seized the slaves in order to eat them. Some Africans were certain that the red wine which the Europeans drank so merrily derived from the blood of the blacks, that the olive oil which they used so carefully came from squeezing black bodies, and even that the strong-smelling cheese of the captain's table were part of the Negro's brains. Many Africans also thought that the Europeans were people who had no county and who lived in ships.

Once on board, the male slaves were all put in irons, two and two shackled together, to prevent their mutiny and swimming ashore. The women and children were often allowed to go freely about the ship, although there wasn't much room on the ship, often being loaded to maximum capacity with slaves and food and water for the long ocean voyage.

Although slavery was an institution known centuries before the first European captain landed on the African West coast, was it the sea, the vast, mysterious, terrifying green sea of darkness which gave the Atlantic slave trade its special drama. As long as the African coast was still in sight, the male slaves remained shackled. Most attempts to escape or revolt were undertaken during this part of the trip, also most suicide attempts. Slaves sometimes tried to kill themselves through starvation. It was necessary sometimes to force the slaves to eat by knocking out the teeth of them or by using a pair of scissors. The blades were forced between the teeth and then the attached thumbscrew was turned in order to force the jaws apart.

Their was probably at least one surrection every eight to ten journeys. Most such risings occurred when the ship was still off the coast of Africa or close to it, at the time of embarkation, or between embarkation and sailing. But there were also some at open sea. Usually the surrections were mastered by the crew without serious losses to themselves. The leaders were always punished harshly and in most cases killed.

'The ringleader of the revolt had his right hand cut off and shown to every slave. Next day, his left hand was cut off, and that, too, exhibited. On the third day, the man's head was cut off, and the torso hoisted onto the main yard, where it was displayed for two ..... . .the head was cut off and thrown overboard.., for many of the blacks believe that, if they are put to death and not dismembered, they shall return again to their own country after they are thrown over-board.' (report of an English slaver).

The slaves on the slave decks had no room to turn themselves, or room to lie at ease. The slaves that were out of irons were locked 'spoonways' and closely locked to one another. It was the duty of the first mate to see them stowed in this manner every morning; those, which did not get quick-ly into their places were compelled by the cat (a sort of whip). The closeness of the place added to the number of slaves in the ship, the heat of the climate, the constant perspirations and the stench of blood and faeces of the sick captives, made the air soon unfit for respiration, and brought on a sickness among the slaves of which many died. The most common fatal diseases among slaves were dysentery and smallpox.

The slaves under great difficulty of breathing; the women, particularly, often got upon the beams, where the I gratings are often raised with banisters, about four feet above the combings.. .to give air, but they are driven down, because they take the air from the rest.' report from an English slaver.

Officers and crew (and passengers if there were any) also travelled in narrow circumstances on board these ships. The sailors would sleep wherever there was room for them, if possible in a hammock. If the ship was overloaded, they even slept in the boats, on the decks or in gangways. The officers and the captain would often make less room for themselves by loading as many personal slaves as they could beneath their bunks or in their cabins.
After about eight days the ship usually would be out of sight of land, and the slaves would be allowed on deck. Great efforts were then made to maintain good spirits as well as good hygiene. The captives would be organized in groups for the cleaning of the ship. They were required to sing while doing it. Vinegar was used to clean the slave deck after it was well scrubbed with brooms. Female slaves were often asked to work the corn mill. The slaves were encouraged to dance and sing. Sometimes by means of a whip. 'We often at sea in the evening would let the slaves come up into the sun to air themselves, and make them jump and dance for an hour or two to our bagpipes, harp and fiddle,'
The Dutch slave ships were in general the best managed ones. Although the number of slaves sometimes amounted to six or seven hundred, by careful management and good hygiene the Dutch slave ships had the lowest mortality rate among European slave traders.
The Portuguese ships were never overcrowded and the sailors were chiefly Negros ladinos (born in the Americas), who spoke their language and whose business it was to comfort and attend to the captives on the voyage. On the other hand, the hygiene on a Portuguese ship was almost non-existent. The great difference was the attitude of the black slave sailors to the captives. A black captive was not an unusual person, he was just one more suffering soul in God's inexplicable scheme, whereas for the white Protestants of the North, Africans were as exotic as they were alarming.