Nijmegen city administrators in the 17th and 18th centuries benefited from colonial slavery because of their great political influence and the city's favorable location. This is according to research by Radboud historians. The book 'Nijmegen & Slavery. Public Administration and Personal Profits, 1596-1873' was presented at the Nijmegen Municipality on March 19.
Historians Coen van Galen and Joris van den Tol and junior researchers Luc Meijboom and Lianne Wilhelmus conducted the research on behalf of the Municipality of Nijmegen. They carried out extensive archival research on the economic and political involvement of the municipality and the city councillors in slavery. “This book shows the history of the city from a completely new perspective”, claim Van Galen and Van den Tol.
Bigger role
Until the end of the Dutch Republic in 1795, Nijmegen city councillors exercised above-average influence within the States General, which governed the Republic. Van den Tol: “Nijmegen was the primary city, in the primary province.” Due to the prominent position of the Gelre region, Nijmegen mayors such as Matthias Lambertus Singendonck often chaired the committees that prepared important decisions for the States General, including on colonial affairs. In this role, they represented the interests of slave traders and advocated for new plantation colonies independent of slavery. In addition, the garrison town of Nijmegen was an important place for recruiting soldiers for the colonies. The city council facilitated this and charged a fee per recruited soldier.
The councillors and other Nijmegen residents were also economically involved in slavery, as investors and colonial traders. This was mainly due to the city’s position along an important trade route between the Dutch port cities and the German hinterland. Some residents supplied timber or oxen to the colonial trading companies - the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (WIC). Others processed or sold goods that were made by slaves. And some Nijmegen residents invested in plantations and trading companies.
Various Nijmegen mayors also held the reins of the VOC and WIC, allowing them to partly determine colonial policy. They also received financial compensation for this and helped their friends and family find jobs in the colonies. A number of Nijmegen mayors were slave owners themselves and requested financial compensation for the ‘loss of their human property’ after the abolition of slavery in Suriname and the Antilles in 1863.
Racism-based worldview
Decisions made in Nijmegen had direct consequences for the lives of enslaved people in America, Africa and Asia, according to the researchers: ”Decisions on investments and on increasing the workload on plantations significantly influenced the lives of people who had to work as enslaved persons. Nijmegen’s influence on the life of Ceango, an enslaved man in Suriname, was even more direct. He was prosecuted by Jan Willem Engelbert de Man and Coenraad Rappard, the sons of Nijmegen regents, for escaping too often. They demanded in court for Ceango's leg to be cut off, so that he could no longer flee.”
“Ultimately, Nijmegen residents from all layers of society were directly and indirectly involved in slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries”, conclude the researchers. “Thousands of Nijmegen residents from all walks of life left for the colonies on VOC and WIC ships. That is more than from any other city in Gelderland, even more than from Arnhem and Zutphen combined. But even those who stayed home were indirectly involved. They used colonial products, such as spices, sugar and coffee, that were produced by enslaved people and kept themselves informed about news on slavery in the colonies through word and print. Councillors and residents had a racism-based worldview that made slavery acceptable and possible.”
