Church Slavery in Dutch Colonial History

Abstract While the interest for the involvement of Dutch churches with colonial slavery has grown over the past years it has not yet been attempted to systematically collect and analyze ecclesiastical ownership for the Dutch colonial empire. This paper hopes to tempt scholars in doing so, by making a first exploration of ecclesial ownership (churches, ecclesiastical institutes and ministers) in one former Dutch colony—Suriname. With respect to Suriname the present paper focuses on two churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk) and the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde/Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk), which was the public church of the Netherlands. On the basis of the material found, it is argued that the investigated Dutch churches were completely and wholeheartedly part of the slavery system. Finally, the article formulates a number of questions for future research on church slavery in the Dutch colonial empire.