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In Search for Justice

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In Search for Justice IN SEARCH FOR JUSTICE Legal and judicial inequality in eighteenth-century Suriname Imran Canfijn [email protected] Research MA thesis Colonial and Global History Leiden University, s0926256 Supervisor: Dr. K.J. Fatah-Black Co-reader: Prof.dr. M. van Groesen Word count: 70.643 2 Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 8 1. CONTEXTUALISING EARLY MODERN SURINAME’S COLONIAL LEGAL SYSTEM 25 1.1 THE POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF THE COLONY .............................................................................. 25 1.2 LEGISLATIVE FOUNDATIONS ....................................................................................................... 29 1.3 CRIMINAL LAW ............................................................................................................................ 33 1.4 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ................................................................................................................ 37 2. THE COLONIAL JUDICIAL SYSTEM ............................................................................... 40 2.1 THE RAAD-FISCAAL ..................................................................................................................... 41 2.2 THE COLONIAL COURTS: CRIMINAL VERSUS CIVIL COMPETENCES.............................................. 43 2.3 THE COUNCIL FOR MINOR AFFAIRS ............................................................................................ 45 2.4 THE CIVIL COURT ........................................................................................................................ 46 2.5 THE COURT MARTIAL ................................................................................................................. 49 2.6 CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN THE GOVERNING COUNCIL ....................................................................... 51 2.6.1 The accusation ..................................................................................................................... 52 2.6.2 Gathering precedent information ........................................................................................ 52 2.6.3 Summons and apprehension ................................................................................................ 53 2.6.4 Interrogation ........................................................................................................................ 54 2.6.5 Indictment ............................................................................................................................ 57 2.6.6 Reaching a verdict ............................................................................................................... 58 2.6.7 Execution of the sentence ..................................................................................................... 62 2.7 A SUPREME COURT ACROSS THE OCEAN ..................................................................................... 64 3. TOLERANCE FOR COLONISTS: (FOREIGN) WHITES AND JEWS ............................... 67 3.1 RIGHTS FOR WHITES .................................................................................................................... 68 3.2 THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH ............................................................................................... 73 3.2.1 Autonomy of the Dutch Reformed Church ........................................................................... 73 3.2.2 The Dutch Reformed Church and its administration of justice ........................................... 74 3.2.3 Colonial litigation for whites: a model for criminal justice ................................................ 76 3.3. THE SEMI-PRIVILEGED POSITION OF THE JEWS ........................................................................... 78 3.3.1 Jewish autonomy .................................................................................................................. 78 3.3.2 The Mahamad and its administration of justice .................................................................. 82 3 3.3.3 Jews in colonial justice ........................................................................................................ 86 4. THE UNFREE: SLAVES ...................................................................................................... 90 4.1 A MARGINAL POSITION ................................................................................................................ 91 4.2 JUSTICE ON PLANTATIONS ......................................................................................................... 101 4.2.1 Justice among slaves .......................................................................................................... 101 4.2.2 Domestic jurisdiction ......................................................................................................... 104 4.3 SLAVES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE ................................................................................................... 110 4.3.1 Victims ............................................................................................................................... 112 4.3.2 Suspects ............................................................................................................................. 120 5. NEITHER FISH NOR FOWL: MANUMITTED PEOPLE AND FREEBORN .................... 130 5.1 THE ACQUISITION OF FREEDOM ................................................................................................. 131 5.2 THE POSITION OF FREE NON-WHITES WITHIN A WHITE-DOMINATED SOCIETY .......................... 133 5.3 FREE NON-WHITES IN COLONIAL JUSTICE .................................................................................. 138 5.3.1 Victims ............................................................................................................................... 139 5.3.2 Suspects ............................................................................................................................. 141 5.3.3 Contesting liberties ............................................................................................................ 148 6. UPON THE FRINGES OF THE LANDS: AMERINDIANS AND MAROONS ................... 152 6.1 AMERINDIANS ........................................................................................................................... 153 6.1.1 Amerindian sovereignty ..................................................................................................... 153 6.1.2 Autonomous administration of justice ............................................................................... 156 6.1.3 Amerindians in colonial justice ......................................................................................... 157 6.2 MAROONS .................................................................................................................................. 159 6.2.1 Maroon sovereignty ........................................................................................................... 159 6.2.2 Autonomous administration of justice ............................................................................... 162 6.2.3 Maroons in colonial justice ............................................................................................... 164 CONCLUSION: IN SEARCH FOR JUSTICE ......................................................................... 167 ARCHIVAL SOURCES ........................................................................................................... 180 PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES ........................................................................................................... 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 187 UNPUBLISHED SECONDARY SOURCES ............................................................................................. 194 DIGITAL SOURCES ........................................................................................................................... 194 4 APPENDICES ......................................................................................................................... 195 APPENDIX I: LIST OF APPOINTED RAAD-FISCAALS .......................................................................... 195 APPENDIX II: LIST OF APPOINTED DEPUTY RAAD-FISCAALS ........................................................... 196 APPENDIX III: STATISTICS OF SUSPECTS ......................................................................................... 197 APPENDIX IV: STATISTICS OF VICTIMS ........................................................................................... 200 APPENDIX V: STATISTICS OF OFFENCES .......................................................................................... 203 APPENDIX VI: STATISTICS OF VERDICTS ......................................................................................... 205 5 Acknowledgements This thesis started in January 2015 when Karwan Fatah-Black reached out to me with the request to conduct a preliminary investigation into the archives of the Surinamese Governing Council and Civil Court. As his research assistant, I started to index a few sample years of the judicial records, first in his research project ‘Paths through slavery: urban
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