From Isolation towards Integration

Front matter

VERHANDELINGEN

VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR ТААТ», LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE

SILVIA W. DE GROOT

Introduction

2. 3.

Subject and sources .

Historical survey . ( ; The office of postholder after 1835.

1. 2:

The postholders and their superiors

Personal description of Ch. L. Dhondt and his attitude to the Maroons .

Personal description of A. Kappler .

. Personal description of M. Montecattini ыз ә

The postholder’s administrative duties .

A hunting accident (1848) The distribution of gifts (1849-1850) .

Modification in 1856 of the supervisory regulations of the Political Treaty of 1837 .

The institution of a salary for the Paramount Chief (1857)

The Bonni Maroons released from the tutelage of the Djukas (1860)

Missionary activities .

26 36 40

43 48 53

68 81

VIII FROM ISOLATION TOWARDS INTEGRATION

IV. MIGRATORY MOVEMENTS OF THE DJUKAS

1. Government measures .

2. The Djukas and their contacts with the inhabitants of the plantation area .

3. The Djukas and their Е with the runaways . CONCLUDING REMARKS .

NOTES

LIST OF LITERATURE REFERRED TO

DOCUMENTS

89 98

DJUKA: PARAMAKA: BONI: SARAMACCA: MATUARI: KWINTI:

SURINAM

Atlantic Ocean

—— y Poramaribo

Location of the Different Maroon Groups:

on the on the on the on the on the on the

Tapanahoni and Cottica Rivers Marowyne River

Lawa River

Suriname River

Saramacca River

Saramacca and Coppename Rivers

IX

Atlantic Ocean

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Poromoribo

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Military Posts

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XI

LEGEND TO MAP OF EASTERN SURINAM (HISTORICAL) ON OPPOSITE PAGE

DJUKA:

BONI: SARAMACCA:

Location of Maroon Groups:

on Djuka Creek and the Tapanahoni and Cottica Rivers

on the Marowyne and Lawa Rivers

on the Suriname River

Military Cordon (completed 1776).

Military Posts: Gelderland, Hughesburg, Imotapi, Oranjebo, Piket 19 and Brandwacht; and, on the Marowyne (Dutch side): Prins Willem Frederik (at the river mouth) and Armina.

Trails:

From the Cordon to Armina — military trail, used by Black Chasseur mutineers in 1805.

From Hughesburg and Tempati Creek to Djuka Creek — used by Maroons and the peace negotiators (1758-1760 and after).

СНАРТЕК 1

INTRODUCTION

1. Subject and sources

This survey of sources is intended as a contribution towards the understanding of the historical and sociological aspects of the contacts between Negroes and whites in Surinam during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, especially those between the runaway Negro slaves and the Government in Paramaribo. After an arduous, exhausting campaign lasting well over 50 years, the white colonists finally made peace with each of the three main groups of Maroons, viz. the Djukas or Aucaners, the Saramaccaners and the Matuaris, in 1760, 1762 and 1767 respectively.

As stipulated in the peace treaty, relations between the two parties were maintained directly through a military official called “posthouder” (postholder), who was stationed among the Maroons by the Government, lived among them and represented the authorities with them. His duties consisted in seeing to it that the stipulations of the peace treaty were observed and sending reports on this to his superior, from whom in turn he received his instructions, likewise in writing. His findings, opinions and recommendations were of the utmost importance to the Government, which to some extent based its policies regarding the Maroons hereon. One of these policies concerned the maintenance of the voluntary isolation of the Maroons until about 1845. To safeguard the colonists against the perpetual danger of attack by large groups of Maroons, a pass system was introduced so as to keep the number of people travelling down the rivers strictly within the limits stipulated in the peace treaty.

After 1845 (i.e., during the period immediately preceding the emancipation of the slaves іп 1863) the Government began to change its views, to try and consolidate its relations with the Maroons, and to encourage them to abandon their life in isolation and settle in the cultivated parts of Surinam. It was hoped that they might thus be drawn into the labour process.

The present paper deals with this changed attitude after 1845, as well as with the efforts, uncertain at first, to improve the relations with the Maroons as reflected in the correspondence between the Government and the “postholders”, in particular the postholder among the Djukas or Aucaners, who lived along the Marowyne, Cottica and Commewyne Rivers.

The voluminous correspondence between the postholders and the Government is kept at:

1. the “Algemeen Rijks Archief” (General State Archives) in The Hague for the period from 1760 to 1845; and

2. the “Lands Archief” in Paramaribo for the period from 1845 to 1963.

2. Historical survey

In Surinam, plantations have constituted the most important form of economic organization ever since 1650, when the Englishman Francis Willoughby, the Earl of Parham, took possession of this area and founded a European settlement here. The labour needed for the large-scale cultivation of such staples as sugar in the beginning, and coffee, cacao, cotton, tobacco and indigo later on, was supplied by slaves, after whites — non-slaves — had proved unsuitable for the heavy work involved in both Surinam and other subjugated tropical territories from the outset. Initially Indians were also used for plantation work, but in the long run they, too, proved unsuitable. However, in the 16th century the Portuguese began tapping an enormous reservoir of comparatively cheap and easily obtainable slaves in Africa.

The Dutch, after conquering Brazil in 1634 and expelling the Portuguese from the West African coastal area not long afterwards, began supplying the entire area from Brazil to the southern part of North America with this form of labour. In November 1668, when Surinam was taken over by Abraham Crijnssen of Zealand, the latter reported the presence of 714 slaves, not including women and children.

An initial period of confusion, during which both the States of Zealand and the States General claimed sovereignty over Surinam, came to an end in 1682, when Zealand sold the colony to the West India Company for 260,000 florins. This Company formed a “‘triumvirate”? with the City of Amsterdam and Cornelis van Aerssen, Lord of Sommelsdijk, as the other two partners. This “triumvirate”, styling itself the “Geoctroyeerde Societeit van Suriname” (Chartered Society of Surinam), hereupon took charge of the administration of Surinam.

The slave trade to Surinam was carried on by the Dutch West India Company, established in 1621. After the signing of the Treaty of Miinster in 1648 and the loss of Brazil in 1654 it had had to compete with English and French companies, however. The Company had thereupon lost its former power and glory, and in 1674 was converted into a new West India Company (W.I.C.).

On this occasion it was financially reorganized and a new charter, to be revised every 25 years, was drawn up by the States General. This charter of 1674 gave the new W.I.C. the sole right of trade, especially as regards slave trading, in the Netherlands colonies in the West Indies. In point of fact, the importation of slaves was made compulsory for the Company in the Charter drawn up in 1682. The reason for this was that “‘slave-running”’ was becoming increasingly difficult and also less profitable because of growing competition. On revision of the Charter in 1730, the compulsory supply of slaves came to 2,500 a year; the numerous complaints of plantation owners about shortages of slaves testify that the W.I.C. was not meeting its obligations in this respect, however. As was to be expected, the monopoly was abolished in 1784, while private traders had meanwhile been admitted to the trade on special conditions from 1730 onward.

The Chartered Society, under the supervision of the States General — which were bound in the case of either internal or external aggression to come to Surinam’s aid — continued to exist until 1795, when the administration of Surinam was taken over by a “Committee for the Colonies and Possessions on the Coast of Guiana and in America” until 1801, succeeded by a “Council for the American Colonies and Possessions” from 1801 to 1816.

The administrative regulations (1) ? laid down in the Charter of the Surinam Society of 1682 were put into execution by the Governor, Cornelis van Aerssen, Lord of Sommelsdijk, who saw to the further details in Surinam itself.

The Governor, who was the highest official in the colony, was appointed by the W.I.C. subject to the approval of the States General and the Prince of Orange. He administered the colony with the assistance of a “Political Council” (‘‘selected from among the most prominent, prudent and moderate of the colonists”). The office of First Councillor was held by the Commandant or commander in charge of fortifications and the military. Furthermore, a fiscal sat on the Council in an advisory capacity. In 1764 the Political Council was split up into two separate Councils: a Council of Policy and a Criminal Law Council. The Council of Civil Justice constituted a separate body. The members of these Councils were selected by the Governor from pairs of lists drawn up by the colonists. This arrangement remained essentially the same until 1816.

From 1799 to 1814 — except for one short interval in between — Surinam was a British protectorate, the only difference being that the Governor was now appointed by England.

In 1816 this administrative system was supplanted by a new one, which remained in force until 1828. Hereby the Governor General, appointed by the King, had the greatest executive power; he was assisted by a Court of Policy and Criminal Law, of which nine members were appointed by the Governor and nominated by the colonists, that is to say, by those who owned plantations, and “consequently those who are most concerned in the welfare of the country”, as before. However, the ultimate authority lay with the mother country, which ruled the colony through the Colonial Department.

The colony fared badly in almost every respect after this time. For instance, the new administrative system proved unsatisfactory and complaints came pouring in, so that in 1828 J. van den Bosch, who had been sent to the West Indies as Commissioner General especially to investigate the situation, drew up plans for a new administrative system, whereby all the West Indian colonies were centrally governed by a single Governor General residing in Surinam. The Court of Policy and Criminal Law was replaced by a “Supreme Council of the West Indian Possessions”, which governed both Surinam and Curaçao together, these two becoming separated again in 1845.

The system of representation by colonists was abolished. The executive power came to reside almost completely in the Governor. The Supreme Council consisted of four members, viz. the Attorney General, the Comptroller General of Finance, the Councillor-Commissioner for the Native Population and the Commissioner of Crown Domains. The function of Secretary of the Supreme Council was fulfilled by the Government Secretary.

This system also proved unsatisfactory and was revised as early as 1832. The Supreme Council was converted into a Colonial Council which was composed of the Attorney General, who was also Colonial Treasurer, and six of the most prominent residents, which meant that the colonists were given a somewhat greater say at least in executive matters. These members of the Council could be elected in the old way from among “owners of plantations resident in the colony, or the agents of owners”. As most plantations in those years had been mortgaged in the Netherlands by their owners, they were run by agents of the mortgage banks, so that few of the members of the Colonial Council were in fact plantation owners, but most were agents. Although this system of administration also had certain adverse effects on the colony — this “plantocracy” of conservative absentee owners being opposed to all change in the existing conditions — it was not until the abolition of slavery that any really worthwhile innovations were introduced. The only measures to be taken in this period were a few financial ones designed to save the country from total ruin.

The most important factors shaping the character of the colony of Surinam can be said to be firstly the fact that it was regarded as an Overseas possession of the mother country, and secondly that it was a slave colony.

The two principal groups bent on making profits out of the country were the Directors of the Chartered Society and the colonial plantation owners. The existence of these two interest groups side by side gave rise to a perennial conflict between the Government and the colonists that began when colonization first started and grew steadily worse after that. Although the Society, with its charter for governing the colony and the backing of the States General, was able most of the time to carry its plans through, it was conscious of its dependence on the colonists. In spite of the obstruction of most Government decrees, mutual complaints by and against the Governor and members of the Council, quarrels about the succession, petitions to the States General and the Directors of the Society, violent personal feuds, and so on, an unstable kind of equilibrium was even so maintained, so that for over a century huge fortunes were made by members of both parties. They were fortunes from which Surinam itself was never to benefit, however.

The fiercest and best-known conflict was that between Governor Mauricius (appointed in 1742) and a large group of the more prominent colonists. It assumed such proportions as to cause Mauricius to be recalled to the Netherlands, where he was cleared of all blame. He nevertheless did not return to the Colony. This violent conflict, in which almost everyone in Surinam became involved, continued to exercise an influence on Surinam affairs for many years after.

Surinam’s status as a slave colony was also responsible for tension in its society. For slavery, i.e., the use of human beings as “mere instruments in the production process” (III), to be accepted as an insti-

tution a number of arguments were necessary. The two main rationali-

zations here were:

1. Slavery is not in contradiction with Christian doctrine.

2. The Negro is inferior to the white man. This was supposedly evident from many of the Negro’s characteristics: his customs were “barbaric” (i.e., un-Christian), he only worked under coercion, he was vindictive, slow-witted and sexually promiscuous.

Armed with a feeling of superiority that was bolstered by these convictions, the plantation manager was confronted with a slave force that outnumbered the whites 25 times in 1738, 15 times in 1786 and 6 times in 1830. It certainly had to be coerced into working, and was furthermore hostile, either overtly or covertly, towards the masters. In spite of his ideology and inevitable feelings of superiority, the slave owner lived in constant fear of slave risings, a fear that was far from groundless.

In a society of this kind, in which the white masters were subject to enormous tensions, it is not surprising that “unbalanced, quicktempered and touchy” personalities with “maniacal tendencies” developed, personalities with “psychopathic traits” (IV). On the plantations these tendencies not infrequently found an outlet in monstrous atrocities and acts of cruelty.

Although the residents of the colony were convinced that the slaves could be made to work only through the exertion of rigorous severity and unremitting force, they realized at the same time that it was in the interests of the plantation owners themselves to keep the abovementioned excesses within reasonable bounds; after all, they were dependent on the slaves for the achievement of their goal: the amassing of wealth. The numerous ordinances and regulations issued by the Government bear witness to this awareness, while their regular repetition shows that it was necessary time and again to remind forgetful slave owners to moderate their cruel punishments.

The slaves of Surinam never united to stage a large-scale uprising, as was the case elsewhere (Berbice, Haiti, etc.), but many threw off the yoke of slavery by running away in large groups. They fled into the forests or up rivers and creeks, there to build villages and cultivate land. But this was not enough, necessity and vindictiveness driving them back to the settled parts of the colony to launch attacks on plantations and carry off women, food, implements and weapons.

Even at the time of Lord Parham there were reports of runaway slaves, and whenever Indian slaves were used, these also escaped into the forests or up the rivers (the Suriname, Saramacca and Coppename Rivers). Both Maroons and Indians continually harassed the plantations. The best-known group of these Maroons, led by Chief Jermes, who settled first at Para Creek and later on on the Coppename River, numbered a few hundred already at that time.

Governor van Sommelsdijk, who arrived in Surinam in 1683, in that same year made peace with the Indians, who, after being declared free, no longer interfered with the colony’s affairs. A year later, in 1684, a peace settlement with the Maroons on the Coppename followed, and of this group, too, nothing more was heard. But the number of runaway slaves, and accordingly the unrest in the colony, increased.

After a rising on a Jewish plantation in 1690, in the course of which the owner was killed and all the slaves escaped into the forest, the colonial administration was forced to take more effective measures to prevent the loss of valuable slaves and defend the colony against plundering raids by the Maroons.

Many different attempts were made. Even under Governor van Sommelsdijk an armed citizens’ guard had been instituted. It was divided into 11 companies (including one Jewish one) for the districts, and 3 to 5 for Paramaribo, and undertook patrols against the Maroons; these were not very successful, however, so that from 1730 onward regular soldiers were also used. The penalties for running away became increasingly severe, this becoming punishable by death after 1721. The rewards for the apprehension of Maroons were regularly increased. Wolbers (V) states that in 1685 the reward for apprehending and returning a runaway slave was fixed at 5 florins; in 1687 it was increased to 300 pounds of sugar if the slave had been deliberately hunted down, and only 100 pounds of sugar if this was not the case; in 1698 it was increased to 25 florins and 50 florins. In 1717 permission for tracking down Maroons was granted to all colonists, and the reward for the discovery of the location of Klaas and Pedro villages was fixed at 1,500 florins, that for the discovery of the whereabouts of other Maroon villages at 600 florins, and that for tracking down an inhabitant of any of these villages at 10 florins.

But all these measures were to no avail, and the number of fugitive slaves continued to rise, especially after 1712, when a panic caused among the colonists by the invasion of the French Admiral Jacques Cassard led them to send their wives and children into the forest, accompanied by their slaves. The women and children afterwards returned, but a large number of slaves chose to remain in the forests and there joined the existing groups of Maroons. In 1738 the number of Maroons was estimated at 6,000. At that time there were about 400 plantations, and about 50,000 slaves and 2,000 whites !

These figures show that by that time more than 10 per cent of the slaves had run away. This percentage remained more ог less constant until about 1830, i.e., for almost a century, after which both the number of plantations and that of slaves decreased. The number of Maroons, however, increased by about 1,000 during that time, coming to about 8,000 in 1863.

In 1730, after the plantations had suffered numerous attacks, a number of expeditions were undertaken, resulting in the discovery and destruction of the notorious Klaas and Pedro villages on the Saramacca River. Eleven Maroons were executed, and “these were dealt with rather severely, in the hope that such an example would have a deterrent effect on their accomplices and would diminish the tendency to abscond among the slaves” (VI). One of them, “the Negro Joosje”, was accordingly sentenced “to be pierced through the ribs with an iron hook and hanged from the gallows, there to remain thus until death shall ensue, whereafter the head will be served and impaled and the body left as a prey for the birds”, and a few others “to be bound to a stake and burnt to ashes over a slow fire, and while burning to be pinched with redhot pincers” (УП).

However, in 1749, since the “expeditions, not having had the desired effect, were doing more harm than good, while they served to increase the arrogance not only of the Maroons, but also of the slaves, and were making the tracks through the forest leading to the Maroons known to them” (VIII), Governor Mauricius, who had been in Surinam since 1742, decided to take other measures, “namely, to find out whether it was possible to make any kind of peace or conduct any negotiations with the Maroons (in the same way as the Lord of Sommelsdijk had done with the Indians and the Coppename Maroons during his term of office, and as the English had made peace with the Chiefs of the Maroons in 1739, after the Island of Jamaica had been exposed to the same danger through the impudence of Maroons as Surinam), forasmuch as, however successful any expedition might be, it would have no effect other than the destruction of a few villages and the death or capture of a few of their inhabitants, with any such advantages lasting but a few, indeed, sometimes only one or two years, after which time they fully recovered their strength and original number of villages, as has been proved on several previous occasions. Могеover, experience has taught that all these expeditions not only were attended with insurmountable difficulties, but furthermore were very costly, inasmuch as the expenses for each commando came to more than a hundred thousand guilders, including compensation for slaves and hire as well as other expenses, while at the same time this great expense, trouble and danger were in no way rewarded, in the sense that the principal aim of the expeditions, namely the extermination of that pernicious scum, the runaways, or the reduction of their power to the point where further harmful undertakings were impossible, was never realized. The Governor is therefore of the opinion that the best and most efficient way of accomplishing this would be by undertaking one giant expedition and, even after taking one or more villages and inflicting a crushing defeat on them, making peace sword in hand, as the saying goes” (IX).

Moreover, Mauricius intended to “respect the peace with those who had been set apart by the Peace, and to please them in every way, and persecute those outside the scope of this Peace without giving quarter”, and “divide them, and, if possible, sow dissension among them.” (X).

In spite of the opposition of the members of the Council, who could not see the use of making peace at all and shrank from the expense of such a “giant expedition”, Mauricius persisted and effected his immediate purpose. After an expedition of 1,000 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant-Captain Carel Otto Creutz to the Saramacca, resulting in the destruction of three villages and the adjacent cultivated lands, contact was established with Chief Adoe and his roughly 1,600 subjects. The negotiations were successful and the Peace with them was based on the 1739 treaty with the Maroons in Jamaica. Creutz departed after promising that presents would be sent in confirmation of the Peace. But now the members of the Council, who had been opposed to the conclusion of peace to begin with, raised objections to the plan to send Louis Nepveu and thirty soldiers with presents to Adoe. They considered the expense too high and thought that a few whites led by a man by name of Picolet (a member of the Council) and accompanied by twenty carriers would be sufficient. The result was disastrous: the group was attacked by a discontented chief, Zam-Zam, and massacred down to the last man. Adoe, who waited for the presents in vain and concluded from rumours of the conflict in Paramaribo that the Peace was merely a ruse to attack him again, resumed the war, and the attacks on plantations continued undiminished. On the plantations themselves there were now also bloody uprisings. In the fifties the area around the Commewyne and its tributaries the Cottica, Perica and Tempati was a centre of unrest. In 1757 there was a big rising in Tempati, whereby the slaves of the timber plantation adjoining the river refused en bloc to be transferred to a different kind of plantation and escaped into the forest.

There they joined a group of Maroons that had earlier run away to Djuka creek, a tributary of the Marowyne. Together they formed a group of about six hundred, which launched regular attacks on plantations, carrying off weapons, implements and women, but at the same time leaving at every plantation letters signed by a certain Boston indicating that they were prepared to make peace.

Governor Mauricius, who was in the long run unable to cope with the antagonistic colonists, returned to the Netherlands in 1751. His successor was Governor Spörcke, who died a year later; after some difficulties about his succession, Governor Crommelin was appointed in 1753. He struck trouble with the same Council members of whom Mauricius had been a victim for almost a year. However, after Mauricius’ rehabilitation, he was able to nominate new members to the Council. For a while he was on good terms with these, but fresh difficulties soon arose. The colony was in great financial difficulties, which — together with the ever-increasing unrest created by the attacks of the Maroons — made it imperative for definite steps to be taken. The military force was strengthened, in spite of strong opposition from Council members, as were also a number of defence works, while several military posts were built.

In 1758 it was resolved to respond to the offers of peace by the Maroons on Djuka Creek (II). After sending two trusted Negro slaves, Coffy and Charlestown, to them first, in order to see whether the Maroons were sincere, two whites, James Abercrombie and J. Rudolph Zobre, set out with gifts and a draft of the conditions of peace. They were received with great solemnity. The two envoys had to swallow a number of reproaches concerning the misbehaviour of the whites on the plantations, and also because the presents included no powder or shot, for which they had asked especially. Furthermore, the great bravery of the Maroons in defending themselves was pointed out to them. However, this was followed by the acceptance of the peace treaty in principle. A new list of gifts, which were to be sent a year later, was drawn up, and in April 1759 the same two envoys duly set out again for Djuka territory accompanied by nine or ten soldiers and 60 carriers. А truce was made which was to last a year. In September, 1760, a Government peace delegation headed by Major E. Meyer left Paramaribo. It also included Abercrombie and Zobre, two hundred and six soldiers, two surgeons, and slaves carrying rations and gifts. The parties met at the appointed meeting-place, Steenkreek near Djukakreek. Peace was ceremonially concluded on 10th October, 1760. The eloquent Boston took the necessary oath, also on behalf of chiefs “Pamo, to whom the land belongs”, and “Araby, who lives in Jouka”, whereafter the oath was confirmed according to both the Negro and the white custom

This peace treaty again was based on the treaty concluded with the Maroons in Jamaica in 1739 (ХП).

The articles that are relevant for our survey run as follows (XIID:

They shall remain without restriction in the places at present inhabited by them, and all the necessary adjoining land, provided this is no closer than at least two days’ or ten hours’ travelling from any plantation; if, however, they wish to settle anywhere else, whether this be further upstream or elsewhere, they shall be bound to obtain prior permission from the Government of these territories, the same applying if they wish to prepare building-timber for purposes of sale upstream in accordance with the local custom.

If any slaves should defect to them after the Amnesty and the Treaty and the signing thereof, they, the Maroons, shall be bound to return the same and surrender them to the whites without exception, for which they shall receive a due reward in money or kind, in accordance with an agreement to be made especially about this, namely ten to fifty Dutch guilders for every slave so returned. For convenience sake they shall be allowed to surrender the same to the nearest white for delivery to the nearest Council member or Citizens’ Guard Officer, whereupon the reward shall be paid out to them forthwith.