Tempati uprising begins at La Paix plantation

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...

In a letter dated 14 February 1754, Governor Wigbold Crommelin acknowledged that colonial forces could not defeat the Maroons and argued that peace was necessary to prevent the colony’s collapse....

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...

A record dated 20 February 1760 documents Boston Band’s role in negotiations with Dutch colonial representatives. Boston, a formerly enslaved man who had become a leader among the Ndyuka, advocated...