Governor Crommelin warns that only peace can save the colony

On 31 July 1667, the Treaty of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and confirmed that Suriname would remain under Dutch control. The agreement transferred a colony whose plantation economy...

On 22 February 1757, enslaved people at the La Paix timber plantation on the Tempati River rose in revolt. The uprising spread across plantations in the region, with cooperation between people who...

A report dated 1 April 1757 described the Tempati uprising and warned that news sent to the Netherlands should not needlessly alarm investors. The colony’s rulers faced a contradiction: the revolt...

In a letter dated 6 June 1757, former colonial officials warned of a worst-case outcome if the uprising was not suppressed. Their fears included loss of property and the possibility that Europeans...

In a letter dated 11 September 1759, Governor Crommelin again argued that peace with the Ndyuka was necessary to save the colony. The campaign to force Maroon communities back under plantation...

At a negotiation recorded on 6 January 1760, an unnamed Ndyuka spokesperson defended Maroon attacks on plantations. The surviving colonial record gives the date but not the speaker’s name. The...