Slavery

In South America, slavery was the norm. The native people proved to be in limited supply and consequently people from Africa were imported as slaves to work on the plantations. The plantations were producing sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton and were exported for the Amsterdam market.

In 1713, for instance, most of the work on the 200 plantations was done by 13,000 African slaves. Their treatment was bad, and slaves had escaped to the jungle from the start. These Maroons (also known as “Djukas” or “Bakabusi Nengre”) attacked the plantations in order to acquire goods that were in short supply and to find themselves women.

Notable leaders of the Surinam Maroons were Alabi, Boni, Joli-coeur and Broos (Captain Broos). In the 18th century, three of the Maroon people signed a peace treaty, similar to the peace treaty in Jamaica whereby these people were recognized as free people and where they received a yearly tribute that provided them with the goods they used to “liberate” from the plantations.

A contemporary description of the war between the Maroons and the plantation owners in Suriname can be found in Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam by John Gabriel Stedman.

Suriname was occupied by the British in 1799, after the Netherlands were incorporated by France and was returned to the Dutch in 1816, after the defeat of Napoleon.

Emancipation

The Dutch abolished slavery only in 1863; although the British had already abolished it during their short rule. The slaves were however, not released until 1873; up to that date they conducted obligatory but paid work at the plantations. As soon as they became truly free, the slaves largely abandoned the plantations where they had suffered for several generations, in favour of the city, Paramaribo.

In the meantime, many more workers had been imported from the Dutch East Indies, mostly Chinese inhabitants of that colony. After 1873, many Indian laborers where imported from India. This emigration was ended by Mohandas Gandhi in 1916. After that date, many laborers were again imported from the Dutch East Indies, especially Java.

On 23 November 1941, under an agreement with the Netherlands government-in-exile, the United States occupied Dutch Guiana to protect bauxite mines. In 1954, the Dutch placed Suriname under a system of limited self-government, with the Netherlands retaining control of defense and foreign affairs.

Independence

In 1973, the local government, led by the NPK (a largely Creole, meaning ethnically African or mixed African-European, party) started negotiations with the Dutch government leading towards full independence, which was granted on 25 November 1975.

The severance package was very substantial, and a large part of Suriname’s economy for the first decade following independence was fueled by foreign aid provided by the Dutch government.