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Jakarta Post

Abolition of slavery

In the latter part of the 18th century, public calls to abolish slavery started resonating in colonial European powers such as England and France

Linawati Sidarto (The Jakarta Post)
Mon, October 5, 2015

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Abolition of slavery

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n the latter part of the 18th century, public calls to abolish slavery started resonating in colonial European powers such as England and France. England abolished slavery in 1833, followed by France in 1848.

Baay said that while there were certainly individual abolitionist voices in the Netherlands, '€œstrong, organized protests against slavery never took place [in the Netherlands]'€.

Nevertheless, a number of prominent religious and liberal figures started lobbying the Dutch parliament for abolition in the middle of the 19th century.

Despite staunch opposition from colonial administrators, the Dutch government finally abolished slavery in its Asian territories in 1860, followed by its American colonies in 1863. After 1860, however, slavery continued to exist for years in the Indonesian archipelago, albeit on a greatly reduced scale.

Baay and Van Rossum both say they are astounded by the large number of slaves in the Dutch colonies.

'€œThe sheer numbers of slaves really surprised me,'€ says Baay, who has written a number of books about colonial history. The violence surrounding the slaves'€™ existence is also shocking.

'€œWe always hear about the brutality of slavery in the Americas. However, the slaves in the Dutch East Indies didn'€™t have a much better life.'€

The obscurity of Asian slavery in Dutch history is all the more surprising since the heritage of slavery in its American colonies has been widely debated. For years, July 1 has been commemorated as Abolition Day in the Netherlands, marking the day slavery was banned in the West Indies on July 1, 1863.

One reason for this, the authors say, might be that Atlantic slavery has a tangible legacy: its descendants.

'€œIn America, descendants of slaves are very visible. This group forms a common voice that wants to make sure that their dark past is not forgotten,'€ Van Rossum suggests.

This, however, is not the case with the descendants of the slaves in the former Dutch East Indies. '€œOnce freed, the Asian slaves blended in with the local community. They often didn'€™t look so markedly different from the locals,'€ Baay says.

Both authors point out that there is nonetheless abundant archival material on slavery in the Dutch East Indies, from court records to diaries of traders, sailors and travelers.

'€œThere is so much more research that can be done in this area, both in the Netherlands and Indonesia,'€ Baay remarks.


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