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A new exhibition illuminates the history of Dutch slavery economist.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from economist.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Telling Stories of Slavery, One Person at a Time A new exhibition in Amsterdam reconstructs personal histories to confront the Netherlands’ extensive and little discussed involvement in the international trade of enslaved people during the colonial era. Eveline Sint Nicolaas, left, and Valika Smuelders, curated the exhibition “Slavery” at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.Credit.Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times By Nina Siegal June 4, 2021, 5:07 a.m. ET AMSTERDAM An ornate tortoise shell box with a real gold nugget on its lid has long been on display in the Rijksmuseum. Considered a high point of Dutch rococo craftsmanship, it was a gift to Prince William IV from the Dutch West India Company in 1749, when he was named the group’s governor. ....
An anonymous painter s Enslaved Men Digging Trenches (c1850), part of Slavery at the Rijksmuseum Credit: Rijksmuseum Hanging from the ceiling at the Rijksmuseum, like a beautiful chandelier, are hundreds of sparkling blue glass beads. They’re thought to have been used as currency by people enslaved by the Dutch on the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. Local legend has it that the beads were thrown into the sea when, after a series of mass escapes, the slaves won their freedom. Today, when those same beads re-emerge from the waves, some see them as precious trophies. This deep-blue painted room is part of Slavery, an extraordinary new exhibition launched this week at the Rijksmuseum, which delves for the first time into this aspect of Dutch history. Through artefacts, church records, letters, paintings, maps, oral history and songs, it tells the stories of 10 people whose lives were involved in slavery – as slave holders, enslaved people and freedom fighters. ....