New manumission regulation is issued in Paramaribo

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 contemporary colonial record dates the Dutch takeover to 27 February 1816, following British rule. This transition restored Dutch colonial administration but did not emancipate people held in...

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...

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...

On 3 September 1832 a fire began in a Paramaribo dwelling. Suriname Global Group identifies the escaped enslaved men Kodjo, Mentor, and Present as responsible and interprets the arson as resistance to...

The blaze that began the previous night spread through central Paramaribo and destroyed dozens of properties. Colonial accounts made property loss and public order central, while its association...

The Suriname manumission index records Betje’s release on 6 November 1832. Her entry names her mother as well as the estate and people who stood surety. The required guarantee of 400 guilders...