Rice Cultivation and the Struggle for Subsistence in Early Colonial Suriname (1668–1702)

Abstract The Black Rice Debate discusses the agency of enslaved Africans in rice cultivation in the Americas from the seventeenth century onward. With regard to Suriname, it was considered highly unlikely that rice grew there before 1730 and that Africans at that time knew how to grow rice. This contradicts Maroon oral history, which dates circa 1690 as the time that their first ancestors escaped into the interior forests with rice. Based on Dutch archival records, we show that rice was present in Suriname before the Dutch conquered the colony in 1668. Shortly afterward, it became a staple food as a means to mitigate the ongoing food scarcity. Enslaved Africans played a crucial role in the establishment of designated plantations to grow subsistence crops. Archival records also indicate that conditions were present as early as 1686 for enslaved Africans to escape slavery, bringing rice with them. Our research highlights the importance of connecting archival data to geographical, botanical, and oral history research to reveal misrepresented historical actors, such as enslaved Africans.