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Karwan Fatah-Black

It was there that a small but growing community of freed slaves, living in a semi-clandestine world, would ultimately lay the foundations for what became modern Suriname. Until now, historians have often focused on the lives of slaves and their owners on the plantations, as well as their ongoing conflicts with the Marrons, the ex-slaves who had fled into the jungle. Slavery’s contours in the colonial city have largely been overlooked. Drawing on archived personal documents, Fatah-Black colourfully unveils a world where owners, slaves, ex-slaves and foreign sailors from across the globe, regularly intermingled and traded what they could – where those who owned property and those who were property were difficult to distinguish.Initially composed mostly of women who had borne their owner’s children, as well as ex-soldiers drafted to fight the Marrons and recapture runaway slaves, this freed community has largely been cast by Surinamese historians as collaborators for achieving freedom within a racist system.Fatah-Black seeks to set the record straight: those who did find their way to freedom and to the city were able to amass property and together buy the freedom of family members and friends.Though rare, ‘manumission’ (the freeing of slaves) formed an essential aspect of slavery around the world by affording a sense of humanity to slaveholders and hope for those still enslaved. It would play a key role in Suriname. On the eve of slavery’s abolition in Suriname in 1863, the free non-white community had grown to almost half the number of those still enslaved.What were the obstacles and challenges faced by a community living on the peri­pheries of accepted society? How did the issues faced by these freed slaves anticipate life in Suriname after slavery’s abolition in 1863? How did they pave the way for that emancipation?Paths through Slavery is an indispensable contribution to the discourse surrounding the international slave trade history as well as our understanding of modern Suriname.

'Paths through Slavery' presents a fine additionto the historiography of slavery.

A wonderful book that shines a new light on the history of slavery and its legacy.

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Eigendomsstrijd

In 'Paths through Slavery', Karwan Fatah-Black definitively reorients our under­standing of slavery and emancipation in Suriname by drawing our attention to the edges of the bustling port city of Para­maribo during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Paths through Slavery

Camilla de Koning

The Netherlands is unique among the colonising countries for its wealth of archival material on the transatlantic slave trade. However, testimonials by the enslaved remain glaringly absent, which has resulted in a skewed image of the past. Though difficult, researchers Karwan Fatah-Black and Camilla de Koning attempt to access the reality behind the colonisers’ vision by putting the diverse realities of life in slavery in focus. To recreate the everyday experiences of the enslaved, about whom we often miss the most basic information, requires reading between the lines, filling the gaps in the documents we do have, and rethinking which facts are important. Following historical lives of enslaved men, women and children, the authors reconstruct the journey from abduction and sale in West Africa, through the harrowing passage and life on the plantations in the Caribbean, to the fates of those who fled into the jungle or rebelled, and finally the fraught road to freedom through manumission. In the process, we see how the enslaved carved out worlds of their own. Smaller individual and greater collective acts of resistance return time and again, testifying to courage in the face of horrific oppression. Fatah-Black and De Koning bring new facts to light and provide historical context where needed. Far from discounting the archival material we do have, Eyewitness of Dutch Slavery powerfully brings us one step closer to telling the whole story of transatlantic slavery.<ul><li>Through personal stories, the facts are made all the more powerful</li><li>Hones in on the role of women, and especially midwives, on the plantations</li><li>Authors present the complex historical and economic circumstances accessibly, depicting with empathy the reality of slavery for a broad audience</li><li>Highlights the autonomy of people trapped in slavery </li></ul>RightsMartijn Prins m.prins@singeluitgeverijen.nl

Astonishing stories about subjects you don’t often read about when it comes to slavery: about giving birth on slave ships, the role of midwives and about branding.

It tells the woeful story of their fate, from in Africa to their hard lives on the plantations. The abuse, the hunger, but also the uprisings and attempts to free themselves.

A history of slavery, from the perspective of the enslaved

Ooggetuigen van de Nederlandse slavernij. Van overtocht tot opstand

‘We must guard against the temptation to let colonial sources speak for themselves. We must not allow the wool to be pulled over our eyes by the powerful of yore, but rather try to uncover how things really worked in the past.’

Eyewitnessess to Dutch Slavery — From Passage to Uprising

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