Book on Overijssel’s slavery past included in the Nationaal Archief Suriname

The more than 200-page book contains 25 historical stories and five interviews with descendants of enslaved people. The publication addresses Overijssel’s ties to colonial slavery in the East and the West, from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, with some later extensions.

Historian Coen van Galen, affiliated with Radboud Universiteit and the Historische Database Suriname en Curaçao, stresses the significance of that history in his foreword. “With a book like this, we acknowledge our past and do justice to surviving relatives. It should be a warning of how easily entrepreneurial spirit can degenerate into exploitation. Particularly when we no longer see people as fellow human beings.”

Inspiration for documentary

For Leter, it was a revelation that people from Overijssel owned plantations in Suriname, including Peperpot and ’t IJland. That discovery inspired her to conduct further research and forms the basis for her next film, expected to be released in April 2027.

Leter is taking part in a film project by Stichting Rakonto. The project is to produce twelve short documentaries, so-called mini-chronicles, about Overijssel’s slavery past. In films of no more than ten minutes, participants show, among other things, how families, cities and trading houses profited from plantations and human trafficking in Suriname and the Caribbean.

Leter recalls the history lessons on slavery at primary school and mulo school as abstract. “The lessons were very abstract at the time; now I feel it is time to delve into the subject and see where I end up.”

According to her, the book offers valuable information for history students and other interested parties. She hopes the donation will also lead to new contacts. “I secretly hope that this will also set in motion an exchange and even a collaboration between the NAS and the Overijssel Academie.”

Addition to archive collection

Deputy director Audrey Hofwijks received the book on behalf of the NAS. She calls the publication a valuable addition to the existing material on the slavery past.

“It appealed to me enormously, because I believe much more needs to be done with the slavery past,” Hofwijks said. She refers, among other things, to publications on plantation history and works by Helstone and Lamur, in which people can look up names.

For Hofwijks, too, the involvement of Overijssel plantation owners in Suriname was new information. She hopes the book will increase interest in historical research and encourage visitors to search the NAS archives for other connections. According to her, the publication is now available to the public.

Trade, plantations and resistance

The book addresses various aspects of Overijssel’s slavery past in five chapters. It covers ties with the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) and the West-Indische Compagnie (WIC), plantation owners and the compensation payments of 1863.

In addition, the publication describes companies and industries with colonial ties, including the cotton and tobacco trade and Zwolle’s role as a transit port. The Black presence in Overijssel and resistance to slavery also receive attention.

The stories show how the colonial slavery past is also part of the history of this eastern Dutch province.