10 objects with a connection to slavery

The spices used in this pie were obtained by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), often through violence and slavery. Nutmeg, for example, came from the Banda Islands, part of the Maluku Archipelago. The Dutch took these islands by force in 1621. Enslaved people had to cultivate and harvest the nutmeg.

The neighbourhood around Kloveniersdoelen, the building in Amsterdam where this painting was made, was also home to an African community. Some came to the city to work as servants, others were sailors or political envoys.

This painting reveals that African children were already taken to the Dutch Republic as early as 1615. That’s almost 10 years before the Dutch became actively involved in human trafficking in West Africa. An African child, probably a servant, can be seen standing on the middle ship. 

The man on the bench is smoking a pipe. Most tobacco was cultivated in the Americas by people in slavery. It was this system of forced labour that meant Dutch people could smoke their daily pipe, and become rich at the same time through the tobacco trade.

Governor-General Johan van Hoorn returned to the Dutch Republic from Batavia, the colonial capital in Java, with a cargo of household items including this small box, as well as several enslaved servants. The servants returned to Batavia after the trip, where one of them, a woman named Hester van Makassar, built up a life as a free woman. 

In 1793, a lawyer named Hendrik Constantijn Cras stood on this pulpit and spoke out against slavery. He said he believed there would be serious consequences if slavery wasn’t rapidly abolished. In fact it would be another 70 years before that happened. 

Tula, an enslaved man living in Curaçao, drew inspiration from the French enlightenment ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity. He made the case for equality for himself and his peers, which led to the biggest uprising of enslaved people in the Dutch Antilles.

Occasionally, enslaved people on plantations were allowed to hold a du, or dance party. They used these gatherings to criticize the masters or organize resistance. 

The Dutch also used forced labour at the trading post on the Japanese island of Deshima. They brought the enslaved people here from other parts of Asia. 

Prior to Dutch colonial slavery, there were people of colour living across Europe in all walks of life. This African man is possibly Christophle le More, the bodyguard of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.