Slavery

SLAVERY

« Slavery is when a person, called a slave, is treated as the property of another person or an organization like the WIC. They had no rights and nothing to say about themselves.

Slavery was already used by Ancient Romans and Greeks. At first, the Romans didn’t have that many slaves. In that time, when you won a war the people who lost became the property of you, so after the Romans won many wars they had loads of slaves. That’s why every roman army had slave traders who sold the slaves on slave markets. This was the beginning of slave trade.

In the 17th century it also happened a lot that the poor people looked for protection by the rich, which caused the poor to become the property of the rich. Someone could also become slave as a punishment if they had too many debts. This was called debt slavery. In times of hunger, people could sell themselves or their wife and children to become a slave. If your parents were slaves you became a slave by birth.

THE WEST INDIA COMPANY

« The West India Company, set up in 1621, ran the West Indies trade, including the slave trade. The WIC ships left Vlissingen, Middelburg or Amsterdam, loaded with goods like weapons, textiles and rum. With these goods the Dutch sailed to Africa and traded the goods for the slaves. With the slaves, they sailed to the West Indies, where they traded the slaves with the French and Spanish who had their plantations on the colonies. The Dutch got goods like tobacco, sugar and cotton from the French and Spanish and with that they sailed back to the Netherlands.  This created a trade triangle: from the Netherlands to Africa to the West Indies.

TYPES OF SLAVES

«There are different types of slaves. With this we mean the type of job they do. There were slaves that worked in the army, but also slaves who did the housework, worked on plantations or in mines. But there are many other types of slaves.

The household slaves had a better life and more freedom than other slaves. The slaves who did the housework also had the chance to earn money and buy their freedom. Working on plantations and in mines were the toughest jobs. Slaves who worked in mines had it the worst, they almost didn’t see any daylight and inhaled dangerous substances. Because of that they didn’t live that long. Slaves that worked on plantations had to work very long and didn’t get enough sleep. Sometimes a slave fell asleep during work, if that happened they were strictly punished.

It didn’t happen very often, but sometimes slaves worked for artists or craftsman. These slaves were seen as a student and had to do chores for their master. Compared to the other kind of slaves this slaves were very lucky and were treated well.

SLAVE TRADE

« When the Europeans found America, they needed a lot of workers to work on their plantations. First, they used the Indians for this but they weren’t strong enough or used to do this kind of work. Or they got sick because of the diseases the Europeans brought to America. That’s why in the 16th century the first Europeans went to Africa to get slaves and in the 17th century this happened in enormous amounts.

At first, the Europeans robbed villages and took the people who lived there with them to work as slaves. In Africa, slavery was very normal. The only people who were completely free were the African royals and rulers. The Europeans got a trade contract with the Africans, because of this they got the slaves from them and didn’t have to get them themselves, like they did before. The merchants preferred slaves from the north-west coast, because they thought that those slaves were the strongest and most trustable.

When the ships arrived in Africa, they unloaded the goods from the ships. When everything was out, carpenters made a special deck for the slaves below the top deck. When they got the slaves, they brought them to the coast to stay there in prisons from the Europeans to wait for a ship to come and get them. Before they brought the slaves to the ships they were branded with the logo of the WIC. They did this to prevent the slaves from being stolen by other organizations and to recognize the slaves when they tried to run away or escape.

They took 500 slaves on the ships, sometimes even 600. Because more slaves meant more profit. The demand for slaves was so big that it was difficult to get enough slaves. Because of that, Dutch ships sometimes sailed 6 to 7 months along the coast of Africa until the ship was full.

When they had enough slaves, they started preparing for the big trip over the Atlantic ocean. Fresh drinking water, fruit, vegetables, but also living sheep and goats were taken to slaughter during the journey. To prevent panic they often left at night, when the slaves were sleeping and couldn’t realise that they were leaving their country of birth and would never see it again.

FROM AFRICA TO THE WEST INDIES

«The journey from Africa to the West Indies was a real hell. A lot of slaves threw up, got sick or died. Bad diseases broke out, like malaria and scurvy. The floor of the ships were often covered in blood and spit that it almost looked like a slaughterhouse. It even happened that in the morning a dead slave was attached to a living slave. The slaves were so close together that the heat and the smell were unbearable. For months they were stuck in a very small space where they couldn’t even stand up straight. They were handcuffed to each other and chained to rings on the sides of the ship.