Abstract
With this book, Ramona Negrón and Jessica den Oudsten have made an important contribution to the historiography of the Dutch transatlantic slave trade. Through scrupulous research, the authors have pieced together the history of the Amsterdam private slave trade as it developed after 1730. Until now, this period has been dominated by research on the Middelburg Trading Company, the single biggest participant in the Dutch private slave trade. The rich archive of the Middelburg Trading Company has overshadowed the involvement of a large group of smaller firms in the slave trade, for which sources have been lacking. This makes the discovery of the archival records of the ‘slave-trading empire’ of father and son Jochem Matthijs and Coenraad Smitt, the biggest slave traders in Amsterdam, all the more valuable. The Smitts organized roughly 40 per cent of all slave voyages departing from Amsterdam, transporting an estimated 11,000–13,000 enslaved Africans to Suriname between 1730 and 1779.
The book maps this unresearched part of the Dutch slave trade well. It centres on multiple aspects of the itinerary of the slave ship ‘t Gezegende Suikerriet, covering shipboard life for both crews and captives, as well as some of the buyers in Suriname, where the captives ended up. This is further complemented by a history of the firm itself, the social background of the European crews, and more general elaborations on the Amsterdam private slave trade. Occasionally, the authors mingle in larger (Dutch) historiographical debates, such as the violent character of shipboard life. Although this should no longer come as a surprise to any historian, Negrón and Den Oudsten convincingly show that the instructions issued by shipowners to prevent assaults on the captive Africans did not prevent violence from being omnipresent on private slave ships. Crew members were well aware of the illegitimacy of using unjustified violence, which was a reason for them to seek to justify or downgrade their violent actions in legal disputes.
The true value of the book, however, lies in its thorough display of how to use notarial archives. These particular sources have become easily navigable through a large digitization project by the Amsterdam City Archive. The authors’ acquaintance with them through their work at the Archive makes this book a good companion for scholars who wish to use notarial archives to study the slave trade or maritime trade more generally. Although these sources may be somewhat disappointing for those interested in the lived experience of the captive Africans subjected to the slave trade, Negrón and Den Oudsten show that notarial deeds can provide a wealth of background information on the European crews and merchants involved in the trade. The book abounds with social portraits of individuals involved in the slave trade of the Smitts. This is a welcome change of perspective on a topic that is still dominantly viewed in terms of profitability. It allows the authors to touch on a variety of interesting areas. Among others, it allows them to show the connections between different sectors of the Dutch slave trade. Captains working for Jochem Matthijs and Coenraad Smitt sometimes worked for the Dutch West India Company or the Middelburg Trading Company, showing how knowledge of the slave trade travelled throughout the commercial landscape of the Dutch Republic.
More interestingly, the focus on individual social backgrounds shows the close ties between European migration and commercial trade in the Dutch Republic. This was not exclusive to the low-earning sailors who came from Scandinavia and Germany; the Smitts themselves came from Hamburg and Dresden, while most of the captains and officers came from regions outside the Dutch Republic as well. The migrant background of many of the actors in the trade raises interesting questions about the functioning of the slave-trading business in Amsterdam. Was this a cluster of German-speaking merchants? And how different was it from the private slave trade in Zeeland? Occasionally, the reader is left somewhat disappointed that larger questions such as this remain largely unanswered. This can be attributed to the decision by Negrón and Den Oudsten to cover all aspects of the Smitts’ participation in the Amsterdam private slave trade. In so doing, the book provides a complete overview of the Smitts’ commercial enterprise. It leaves open to question, however, what it tells us about the Amsterdam slave trade more generally, and how it fits into the larger story of the eighteenth-century Dutch slave trade.
These critical points notwithstanding, Negrón and Den Oudsten have unlocked a novel, hitherto unresearched part of the Dutch eighteenth-century private slave trade. Although the book does not radically alter our understanding of the slave trade, the broad range of topics and readable writing style make the history of the Amsterdam private slave trade accessible to the (Dutch-speaking) general public. The appendices provide an oversight of all private slave traders based in Amsterdam, which will be useful for researchers who wish to investigate further other aspects of the Amsterdam slave-trading business. All in all, this book serves as a good point of departure for future research on the Amsterdam private slave trade for amateurs and professionals alike.