Tegen de grens van emancipatie

Nickeries reactie op de Britse emancipatie, 1820-1842

Samenvatting

This article explores the responses of different social actors in Nickerie (Suriname) to the British slave emancipation in 1834. Nickerie is separated from British-Guyana by the river Corantijn, which figured as a border between slavery and emancipation after 1834. Biased colonial historiography has structurally overlooked and misrepresented the consequential tensions. This article employs a renewal narrative and geographic focus to reconstruct the dynamics of Nickerie’s plantation society. First, an analysis of government officials’ journals will be used to illustrate that British emancipation hindered government authorities and planters, since slaves deserted and planters’ privileges were restricted. Next, individual lifecycles within this social structure will be traced back by integrating quantitative information from slave registers, almanacs, and emancipation registers in both British and Dutch colonies. It appears that British slaves were brought to Nickerie, whereas British and Dutch planters made profit of the confrontation between two systems.