The Wolf, the island and the sea: truancy and escaping slavery in Curacao (1837–1863)

ABSTRACT

Between 1837–1863, the government on the Dutch colony of Curacao registered the escape attempts from all enslaved persons on the island. By combining the structured information of the ‘register of runaway slaves’ with other sources, it becomes clear that running away during slavery was a multi-faceted phenomenon. The 1,613 registered escape attempts included not only escapees, trying to flee the island, but also a majority of truants who fled temporarily but stayed on the island. Escapees were mostly young men, who normally worked in groups and had to prepare their attempts well, in order to have a chance to escape the island. An analysis of the profiles of truants show that they were a wide range of persons, from pregnant women to elderly people, fleeing alone or in groups. All these people not only needed an opportunity to flee, but also a place to go to. Together, they created a ‘maroon landscape’, a mental map of opportunities available to enslaved people. Their mental landscape did include locations, people and circumstances on Curacao, but also the sea surrounding it. Moreover, seasonal effects like harvest time and changes abroad altered the ‘maroon landscape’ continuously and lead to an adjustment of behavior, which is most obvious after the abolition of slavery in nearby Venezuela in 1854.

KEYWORDS:

• Slavery
• truancy
• escape
• Caribbean
• Curacao
• maritime marronage

Acknowledgments

This research is part of the Historical Database of Suriname and the Caribbean project, www.ru.nl/hdsc. The research for this paper was made possible by the Platform Digitale Infrastructuur SSH (www.pdi-ssh.nl), project ‘Diversity and dynamics. The population of Curacao 1839–1950’. We would like to thank the National Archives of Curacao for their support and the unknown referees of History of the Family for their valuable insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Karel (35), Alexander (29), Martijn (24), Bastiaan (48). Louis (21) and George Mercel (24) enslaved by H. van der Meulen, Martis (33) and Flora (17) of C.Z. de Haseth, Simon (33), Clement (24) and Sem (17) of P.F. de Haseth, Martes (31) and Belli (33) of C.L. van Uijtrecht, Adam (21) of P. Danies and George (23) of the widow Rochemont. National Archive of Curacao (NAC) 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 29–31. The free men were called Theodorus, Martijn Pierre, Boniface and Hendrikus, according to Slengarde’s report: NAC 005-3-09 stukken betreffende opsporing slaven die met de schoener Wolf zijn gevlucht, (July–August, 1841).

2. NAC 005-3-09 stukken betreffende opsporing slaven die met de schoener Wolf zijn gevlucht, (July–August, 1841).

3. After the escapees entered the city, it turned out that the large ship was not a Dutch warship, but a French merchantman.

4. Curaçaose Courant, August 7, 1841, page 3. Translation is done by the authors, based on the Dutch text: ‘By de aankomst van de boot van de JAN ERNST aan de stad St. Domingo, zag men al dadelijk verscheidene der weggeloopene slaven onder de nieuwsgierige menigte.— Twee derzelver, slaven van den Heer PH. DE HAZETH, schepelingen van de WOLF, schenen tegen wil en dank weggevoerd te zijn; want met tranen in de oogen hebben zij gebeden met hunnen meester terug te mogen keeren; doch het gouvernement wilde zulks niet toestaan. Zij zullen allen zich berouwen dien stap te hebben gedaan; want de meeste hunner, zoo niet allen, hebben het uit brooddronkenheid gedaan. Zij waren hier in de beste omstandigheden, en schoon slaaf, hadden zij als zee- en ambachtslieden, vele vrijheden en wonnen veel gelds. Zij zijn nu vrij, maar moeten vier jaren lang als soldaat, of arbeider aan de publieke werken, het gouvernement dienen.’

5. NAC 005-3-09 stukken betreffende opsporing slaven die met de schoener Wolf zijn gevlucht, (July-August, 1841).

6. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 32–33; NAC Slavenregister Curacao InvNr 55, folio 339.

7. An online search in the Dutch newspaper website www.delpher.nl shows only one or two of these advertisements each year. See for examples De Curaçaosche Courant of September 14, 1839, November 22, 1845, and August 21, 1858.

8. The ‘register of runaway slaves’ is not yet online available: Nationaal Archief Curaçao (NAC), 005 Archief Koloniale Overheid, 3 Arbeidszaken, inv. 8 Register van weggelopen, teruggekeerde en opgevatte slaven, juli 1837–mei 1863.

9. Nationaal Archief Curaçao (NAC), 005 Archief Koloniale Overheid, 3 Arbeidszaken, inv. 12–18 and inv. 31, idem, 16 Openbare Orde, Inv. 48–79 and inv. 80–110.

10. Nationaal Archief Nederland, 2.02.09.08 Inventaris van het archief van de Algemene Rekenkamer 1814–1919: Comptabel Beheer, 223–248 Stukken tot opheffing der slavernij in West-Indië 1863–1868: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/2.02.09.08/invnr/%40235~223–248

11. NAC Slavenregister Curacao InvNr 59 folio 875, InvNr 55 folio 303, and InvNr 54 folio 167.

12. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 56. The location of Leonard’s escape is unknown.

13. Among the free population, the sex ratio was 0.75 and both in the city and the countryside women were a majority. This suggests that many Curaçaoan men worked abroad, for example as sailors. The calculation of the sex ratio of the enslaved population of Curacao in 1845 is based on: Nationaal Archief 1.05.12.02 Inventaris van de archieven van Curaçao, Bonaire en Aruba, (1771) 1828–1845 (1914) inv 172 Bevolkingsstaten van Curaçao, 1 januari 1845.

14. Enslaved persons were registered with first name(s) only, because enslaved persons were not allowed to have surnames in the Dutch West-Indies.

15. ‘Flora, dochter van Martina, 17 jaar, 5 voeten, aangezigt langwerpig, voorhoofd gewoon, oogen zwart, neus plat, mond groot, kin lang, haar zwart en kroes, wenkbraauwen zwart, merkteeken: gebogen knieën, gebrekkelijk aan de teenen’. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 30.

16. Bastiaan: ‘brutaal en valsch uiterlijk’. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 29; Alexander: ‘lelijk van aangezigt’. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 53.

17. ‘twee buitengewone groote borsten’. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 47.

18. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 32.

19. Parlement II Zitting 1857–1858. Verslag van het beheer en den staat der Koloniën over i854, wat de West-Indien en de Kust van Guinea betreft. (Verslag wegens Curacao en onderhoorigheden), M. de slavenbevolking.

20. “geboren in ’t bosch (datum onbekend)”. NAC slavenregister InvNr 56, folio 517.

21. NAC 005-3-08 Register weggelopen slaven folio 63.

22. Parlement II Zitting 1857–1858. Verslag van het beheer en den staat der Koloniën over i854, wat de West-Indien en de Kust van Guinea betreft. (Verslag wegens Curacao en onderhoorigheden), M. de slavenbevolking.

23. Gouvernementsdispositie 28/12/1843 nummer 397/252. Enslavers paid a tax of two guilders a year for each enslaved person in their possession (GB 1828 no. 120).

24. The law stipulated that enslavers received 200 guilders for each enslaved person they owned when slavery ended. However, the government would not pay if the enslaved person had run away for more than a month.

25. Curaçaose Courant, August 7, 1841, page 3.

26. ‘Het herhaald overnachten buiten de plantage, zonder toestemming van den meester’. In the final years of slavery in Curacao, this was a fairly heavy sentence. Of the 81 persons who were sentenced for repeatedly staying away or trying to escape between 1857 and 1863, fifteen received between 8 and 30 lashes. Most people sentenced for repeated escapes were imprisoned or chained for 4 to 30 days. NAC 005-3-31 Register van door de politie gestrafte slaven, 1857–1862.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Platform Digitale Infrastructuur SSH.