Emancipation law is published in Suriname

A record dated 12 May 1862 lists Doris, registered as Theodorus Stam, as manumitted from the government-owned plantation Catharina Sophia. Born in 1808, he had lived most of his life under slavery...

Parliamentary records identify 1–6 July 1862 as the opening stretch of deliberations. The government tied abolition to slaveholder compensation, recruitment of contract labor, and ten years of state...

The manumission index records Alida Philippina, formerly Alyda Philippina, as freed on 19 July 1862. Born in 1792, she was about seventy. The archive says W. Huisen requested her freedom and was...

The Dutch emancipation law was promulgated on 8 August 1862, setting 1 July 1863 as the date slavery would formally end. In Suriname, the statute compensated enslavers while freed people received no...

A resolution dated 11 September 1862 records the manumission of Harry Joseph (enslaved name Henry, born 1861) and his brother Philip Albert (born 1859). Both were identified as sons of Johanna...

Carel Albert Elshot was recorded as manumitted on 31 October 1862, the year of his birth. The archive identifies Charlotte as his mother and notes that he had a brother, Fredericus Wilhelmus. A...

Gustaaf Theodorus Prener, born in 1861, was manumitted on 12 December 1862. The entry records Anna as his mother. This release came only months before general emancipation, but it did not make the...

The archive records George Frits Prix, born in 1841 and the son of Louisa, as manumitted on 9 April 1863. J.H. Kruse acted “for freedom,” and the record lists George as a house servant. This...

On 22 May 1863, Jacquelina Henrietta Grave was manumitted from plantation Barbados in Beneden Cottica. Born in 1855, she was eight years old and the daughter of Elisabeth Louisa Grave. J. Bronner...

On 1 July 1863, the Dutch law emancipated enslaved people in Suriname. The National Archives estimates roughly 45,000 people were freed across the Dutch Caribbean that day. In Suriname, adults aged...