Dutch administration resumes in Suriname

On 20 November 1772, colonial forces captured Fort Buku after finding a concealed route through the marsh. The Zwarte Jagers, known as Redi Musu, helped the expedition; they were enslaved men...

A letter dated 22 March 1776 records Colonel Louis Henri Fourgeoud’s assignment to protect the colony against Boni and Baron. Dutch authorities continued costly expeditions after the fall of Buku,...

A colonial meeting record dated 18 January 1786 states that Ndyuka leader Pambu promised not to support the Aluku. The Ndyuka had their own treaty relationship with the Dutch, and colonial officials...

A colonial dispatch dated 3 March 1793 records an expedition in which Boni was killed. The National Archives identifies the report as a record of his death, while another modern account dates the...

The settlement of 13 August 1814 arranged the return of Suriname to the Netherlands. European states negotiated control of territory and slave-trade rules; enslaved people and Indigenous communities...

A proclamation issued in Suriname on 12 January 1819 prohibited fitting out slave ships, participating in the trade, and importing enslaved people into American Dutch possessions. It restricted...

A proclamation dated 3 November 1819 established the Anglo-Dutch Mixed Commission Court in Paramaribo to hear slave-trading cases. The court gave the anti-trafficking regime a local institution, yet...

On 23 March 1832 colonial authorities adopted a regulation governing manumission, or an enslaver-authorized release from slavery. Freedom remained dependent on enslaver action and government approval,...

The new manumission rules took effect on 1 April 1832. Freedom was processed through enslavers and the colonial state, not recognized as a right held by enslaved people. The rules formalized a pathway...

On 14 August 1832, the colonial record lists the manumission of Adelaide, recorded with the family name Pompenstein. The entry connects her freedom to a legal proceeding involving an estate and its...