3-011-582 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Views in Dutch Guiana: Government-House-Square, Paramaribo, Surinam, 1864. Illustration '...from the portfolio of the "Scenery of the Netherlands' West Indies"...published by Buffa and Sons of Amsterdam...On the first day of July, 1863, the Dutch colony of Surinam was the scene of great festivity and rejoicing among the African or slave portion of its inhabitants, for on that day the system of slavery came to an end. It had been enacted by the Legislature of Holland that all the slaves in this colony should be purchased by the Government...and restored to freedom. The birthday of their liberty was celebrated, not by conviviality and riot or by taking revenge upon their masters, but "mutual congratulations were the order of the day, expressed in such language as showed that, to the emancipated slaves, liberty was too serious a gift to be regarded as a day for a holiday."...many of the plantations in Surinam are the property of British subjects, the greater part of whom reside in England, leaving their property to the charge of stewards. It must be confessed with shame and regret that some of these English proprietors...had most tenaciously resisted every attempt made by the Dutch Government to emancipate the slaves in Surinam'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.