Slave Trade on Curacao

In 1662 The Dutch West India Company successfully helped make Curacao a centre for the Atlantic Slave Trade and one of the largest slave depots in the Caribbean they brought over slaves from Africa at this time under a contract with Spain which was called Asiento. They sold the slaves to wealthy plantation owners on curacao, the slave trade meant the island of curacao became prosperous which meant all the colonial buildings that you will see today on the islands were built for the plantations, the architecture of these buildings are quite stunning the buildings are so historic that the capital of Wilemstad was awarded a place on UNESCO’s world Heritage list, some of the plantation estates which are scattered around the island have been restored and can be visited. By 1788 there had been about 500,000 African Slaves which had arrived on the island, the journey for the slaves was not a pleasent one and they were left to recouperate at specially built camps called Sorsaka and Chincho Grandi (now called Groot St. Joris) after these months and when they were well enough they were sold on at a depot at Asiento. The island never produced sugar, coffee or tobacco as would be expected, instead they produced food for local inhabitants and to feed the slaves which were being held to be sold on to elsewhere, the usual produce would be things like beans sorghum and corn, there were also some livestock on the plantations.

The Slaves were treated very badly by the plantation owners and endured harsh treatment and appalling living conditions on the islands, they were punished frequently and also threatened, slaves used to make up their own language and music ad would turn to religion to help them deal with the rough times they frequently had. In 1795 Tula; a slave on the Island lead a slave revolt which lasted for more than a month. Now he is thought of as a brave fighter for human rights. Tula spent weeks preparing the revolt and in August 1795 he led 40-50 slaves from a plantation called the Knip Plantation and advised the owner that these slaves no longer worked for him, they then proceeded to walk to the jail and free 22 other slaves. The plantation owners were so concerned about this that they retreated from their plantations and went to the city leaving the businesses unmanned. Whilst this was happening another slave who was called Loius Mercier led another group of slaves to freedom and this happened in neighbouring plantations over the island until there were over a thousand slaves walking away from their plantations. The leaders of the groups were eventually captured and executed although one group did manage to defeat troops at Port Marie and the others hid out in foothills. The island dipped into a century of economic decline after the abolition of the slave trade in 1863, when the abolition came into force however there were only around 7000 slaves which were freed. Most slaves viewed freedom as a declaration and still stayed with the plantations working as share croppers.

There are some beautiful buildings which were linked to the plantations on Curacao and also there is equally nice PROPERTY FOR SALE IN CURACAO, just imagine living on this breathtaking historic island and being able to explore all the wonderful history it has to offer.

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