THE MANUMISSION OF SLAVES IN SURINAME, 1760-1828 BY ROSEMARY BRANA-SHUTE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1985 Copyright 1985 by Rosemary Brana-Shute . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The primary research for this study was funded by Fulbright-Hays grant G007604022 from the U . S . Office of Education in 1977 which made possible a year in the Algemeen Ri jksarchief in the Hague, as well as a month in the United Kingdom's Public Record Office in their new home in Kew. I would have been unable to conduct the necessary searches in those institutions without the help of their very able staffs. No doubt there are many who deserve special mention here, and I ask those I have omitted to forgive my oversight. At the Algemeen Ri jksarchief my deepest appreciation must go to those who were especially supportive and patient: Drs. G. W. van der Meiden, Dr. M. P. H. Roessingh, Drs. Ben Slot, and Mevr. M. van Marie. I wish them to know I remember they made it possible for me to collect the data that are so crucial to this study My gratitude also extends to Gerard A. Nagelkerke, a dedicated and humorous bibliographer at the Caribbean library of the Koninklijk Instituut van Taal-, Land-, and Volkenkunde in Leiden. Mr. Walter Gordijn, the former director of Sticusa, was always generous with his time and library. Mr. H. Vontsteen, i i i of the Zuiver Wetenschappeli jk Onderzoek (ZWO) foundation, arranged for the loan of a microfilm reader during ray stay in the Netherlands. Prof. Dr. J. Th . de Smidt of the Universities of Leiden and Amsterdam is an extraordinarily busy scholar, yet he alv/ays found time to respond to my questions about Dutch legal history. Prof. Dr. H. U. E. Thoden van Velzen of the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Prof. Dr. Harry Hoetink of the Institute of Caribbean Studies, both at the University of Utrecht, were always accessible and wise in their advice; I hope someday to be able to repay some of their many kindnesses. All research and no rest constitutes a prescription for disaster, especially when the Dutch weather is almost consistently a wash of gray and damp. For good food and wine, excellent company, and a general bucking up of spirits, I am delighted to thank a number of friends, especially our old friends from Suriname, Frank and Wiesje Bovenkerk. Mildred Rienhart was generous to a fault. Lo and Emma Brunt, and Dr. George Winius of the Leiden University Center for the Study of European Expansion and Margriet Winius are remembered fondly for the same good reasons, as is Dr. Gigi Santov/ to whom I owe a special acknowledgment. While she was with the National Bureau of Census in the IV Netherlands, she was both consultant on the fine points of coding and friend, the very best of company. The Libraries of the University of Florida have a very fine staff, and some of them were extraordinarily persistent in finding me arcane materials. Mr. Sherman Butler of the Reference Department was once the head of the Interlibrary Loan Office; he was uncomplaining about the flood of requests I submitted, and I have always wondered if I was inadvertently the cause of his transferring to another branch in the library! Ms. Rosa Mesa, the director of the Latin American Collection, and Mr. Robert Howe, previously the reference librarian for that collection and now with the Library of Congress, were both helpful and flexible in offering assistance, and I remain appreciative. The now disbanded Latin American Data Bank of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida provided funds for key punching and verification, and the North East Regional Data Center processed the data. Michael J. Evans and Steve Dicks •A got me started with the data analysis. For double-checking some of my translations from Dutch, I am grateful to Rosemarijn Hoefte, and V . especially to good friends from Suriname, Martha Kelley, Drs. Ed Sedoc, and Dr. Betty Sedoc-Dahlberg My dissertation adviser. Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History, Lyle N. McAlister, deserves and has my gratitude in full measure. He has been an exemplary teacher of Colonial Spanish America and of character, integrity, humor, and patience. The cooperation of the other distinguished members of my committee is fact, and I would like Professors Helen I. Safa, Arthur L. Funk, and R. Hunt Davis to know I appreciate their contributions. The preparation of the final draft was greatly facilitated by a grant from the College of Charleston. Ms. Kelly Hood of the Division of Audiovisual Production of the Medical University of South Carolina prepared all the figures. Neither last nor least is my husband, Gary Brana-Shute. He knows best the help he has been, and I think he knows I have depended on him. He did much of the drudge work, in particular printing the final copy, a tortuous, miserable task we naively thought would flow effortlessly from the computer. For another Particular act, however, I wish to thank him publically; he brought me to Suriname for the first time, and we discovered it together. Our first two VI . years there, in 1972 and 1973, were among the best in my life, and they remained vivid to me even in dimly lit corners of the Dutch archives. Those years added more to my insight and understanding, as limited as they are, than all the books and lectures on Suriname I could have absorbed. Which leads me directly to those who first taught me about Suriname: those Surinamese who first welcomed us there, taught us Sranan Tongo, and spent many, many hours talking and listening and correcting and explaining and laughing and repeating until they were satisfied we were finally beginning to understand. The lines of communication have remained open, strengthened by periodic visits. This study originated with them, and in my own wish to understand the origins and development of the neighborhood and neighbors of which we were a small part for a time. Their impression on me informed the way I understood what I read in the archives, and what I read showed me vividly how close the past and present are in them even today I wish I could find someone other than myself to thank for any errors of omission, commission, or interpretation which remain in these pages, but in truth I cannot. Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES xi LIST OF TABLES xii A NOTE ON USAGES xiv ABBREVIATIONS xxii ABSTRACT xxiii CHAPTER page ONE INTRODUCTION The Study of Manumission 1 Sources for the Study of Manumission in Suriname 10 The Requesten 16 Methodology and Sampling 19 Supplementing the Requesten 30 The 1760-1828 Period 34 Notes 37 TWO THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT The Wild Coast 41 The Chartered Society of Suriname 47 Laying the Foundation of the Plantation Colony 52 From Boom to Bust: 1667-1773 56 The Decline of the Plantations 69 The Growth of Paramaribo 74 Notes 84 THREE THE LETTER OF THE LAW The Early Years 101 The Law of 1733: The Legal Prototype 106 Amending the 1733 Manumission Law 115 Notes 133 viii FOUR A TAX ON FREEDOM Taxing the "Priceless Gift" 139 The "Street Guardians" 147 Illegal Manumissions: Piekie Njan 150 1828 to Emancipation 160 Notes 173 FIVE THE PROCESS OF TRANSITION A Numerical Overview of Manumission Requests 176 The Duration of the Court Process 177 The Court's Manumission Caseload 182 Decisions 186 Court Denials of Freedom 189 The Frequency and Distribution of Manumissions 201 Notes 209 SIX THE MANUMITTED Missing Data 220 Gender 222 Color 226 "Red Slaves" 232 Age Groups 240 Occupations 252 Religion 255 Origins 264 Notes 275 SEVEN THE MANUMITTERS Defining the Manumitters 290 A Profile of the Owners 293 Agents and Allies for Slaves 307 Conditions Imposed on Future Freedom........ 316 Conditions Imposed on Owners 326 Notes 335 EIGHT STATED MOTIVES AND SILENT PROCESSES Considering Motives 343 Holland as "Free Soil" 349 A "Humane Deed" 352 Repaying a Debt 352 Rare or Multiple Reasons 356 Kinship 358 Self-Purchase 364 Service and Affection 373 Testaments 377 Notes 383 NINE CONCLUSIONS 390 Notes 402 BIBLIOGRAPHY 403 BIOGRAPHY 425 X LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE page 11:1 Maior River Systems of Suriname 95 11:2 Expansion of Plantation Agriculture 96 11:3 Paramaribo, circa 1800 97 V:1 Total Slaves Manumitted as a Result of a Petition 213 V:2 Total Cases Decided by the Court of Policy During 34 Years Between 1760 and 1828 214 VI: 1 Slaves for Whom Manumission Was Adjudicated: Percent Female by Year 283 VI:2 Color of Slaves Manumitted, 1760-1826 284 VI:3 Percent Slaves Coming From Plantations, According to Manumission Petitions ( 1 760- 1826 ) 285 XI LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 11:1 Population Trends, 1787-1863, Indicating Growth of Paramaribo 98 11:2 Population Trends, 1738-1830, Indicating Growth of the Free Colored and Free Black Population 99 V:1 Duration of Court Process for Slaves 215 V:2 Total Number of Slaves for Whom Manumission Requests Were Decided per Year 216 V:3 Number of Slaves Compared to Number of Requests 217 V:4 Numbers of Slaves to be Manumitted, by Court Session and Month (1760-1826) When Petitions Were Submitted 218 V:5 Percent of Slave Population Manumitted During Select Years 219 VI: 1 Gender and Color of Slaves Manumitted, 1760-1826 286 VI:2 Age Groups of Slaves to be Manumitted, 1760-1826 287 VI: 3 Color and Origin of Slaves Manumitted 288 VI:4 Gender and Color of Slaves Manumitted, by Origin 1760-1826 289 VII:1 Slaves Manumitted by Female Owners, Numbers and Percents, 1760-1826 339 VII:2 Slaves Manumitted by Black or Colored Owners, Numbers and Percents, 1760-1826 340 VII:3 Gender and Color of Owners, 1760-1826 341 VII:4 Free Adults by Gender, Color, and Legal Status in Suriname in 1805 and 1830...