Not only large trading companies, but also many individual citizens of Zeeland were directly or indirectly involved: as investors, crew members, suppliers, shipbuilders or clergy. Traces of this history can be found in nearly every town and village in Zeeland. Yet this aspect of the past remained underexposed for a long time. Only in recent decades has awareness grown that this is not a closed chapter, but a shared history that continues to affect social inequality, racism and representation.
Image on the left: ‘List of dead Negroes Ao. 1733’ from the ‘klad(negotie)boeck’ (draft ledger) kept during the voyage to Angola and Curaçao aboard the frigate Hof van Zeeland. Paper inserted at the front of the ‘Negotieboeck’. Zeeland Archives, MCC Archives, access 20, inv. no. 575.
Page from the logbook of the voyage of the ship Geertruyda en Christina to Guinea and Suriname (1783-1785). On Thursday, 26 August 1784, sailor Willem van Heumen from Rotterdam passed away. His death is depicted in a small drawing in the margin. Beneath his head is an empty hourglass with two wings (time flies), beneath two bones and his name. Two days later, an enslaved person died. His death is also noted in the margin. The drawn head now has frizzy hair, and the hourglass, wings and his name are missing; on Saturday, 28 August 1784, a “male slave”, number 3, died. Zeeland Archives, MCC Archives, access 20, inv. no. 429.
MCC ships off the coast of Middelburg.