Which period are we exactly talking about?

• 1667 - 1873:
  • Enslaved Africans:
    These people had a HORRIBLE life. At first they were enslaved, but not only that, they were beaten if they did something wrong (like ‘stealing’ food or failing to meet requirements etc.). The Dutch were the WORST slave masters. Yes your read that right WORST. Worse than the French, British, Spanish and Portuguese. Suriname was known to be the worst colony to be enslaved. Enslaved people in other countries were threatened to be shipped off to Suriname if they didn’t behave. The treatment was so bad, that some of them fled into the jungle and frequently raided the plantations to free other enslaved. Their descendants are now called the Maroons. Other countries in this area don’t have Maroons, except Jamaica. Though, their story for fleeing has to do with the fact that the Spanish were caught off guard by the Brits and the window to flee was opened. Though in Suriname it was because of bad treatment
  • French colonist:
    In the beginning many French came to Suriname. After Calvinism and Protestantism was banned again in France, they fled to places like the Netherlands and their colonies. It’s known that while not friendly towards the enslaved, they personally longed to go back home. That’s why they gave their plantations names to out their feelings of having to flee. Names like L’ Hermitage, Tout Lui Fout, Peu et Content etc.
  • Dutch and German colonist:
    Many of them were soldiers, that earned some money and bought a plantation. They became very rich and lived very broad. They had parties with loads of food, they had the most expensive European clothing of the time etc. These people were the worst towards the enslaved.
  • Jewish colonists:
    These people had a form of autonomy in Suriname. They even had their own town (Jodensavanne), that had their own jurisdiction, police force, laws etc. Jews became very rich from slavery and they weren’t friendly towards the enslaved too.
• 1845–1853:
  • This is the period of the Dutch farmers (Boeroes) coming to Suriname. Slavery was coming to an end and the Dutch colonial elite was searching for replacements. They thought farmers could take over the job. Though they didn’t want the enslaved to see white people doing the same work as them. They were afraid it might give them ideas to rebel, because they’d think their masters could do the work themselves too. So they put the Boeroes far away from the capital and other plantations. They dumped them on the plantation of Voorzorg. The Dutch government didn’t care about them after that. They promised them many things like housing, cattle, land, good drainage etc. 202 people had to stay in 9 tiny wooden structures. Many died from dysentery and yellow fever (in 1853).
• 1853–1873:
  • Chinese immigrants:
    To replace enslaved, they imported Chinese indentured laborers. Their situation wasn’t much better than the enslaved. They were beaten and tricked by the European colonists. They were promised money after their contract ended, but many couldn’t read. Their master falsely added extra debt on their contract so that they could work for them without pay, to pay of the “debt ”. They weren’t allowed to meet with other Chinese so easily. If their contract was over, they weren’t allowed to buy land. So they had to stay in these shacks at the edge of the city. The Dutch didn’t care about them, but over time they did become very influential businessmen.
  • Madeiran immigrants:
    Like the Chinese, they were indentured laborers too. They were beaten and many died on the hands of their fellow Europeans. Other Europeans were beaten by other Europeans. They were seen as inferior and the Dutch didn’t care about their situation. They did eventually manage to become influential like the Chinese too.

1873–1939:

• Indo-Surinamese immigrants:
  Between 1873 and 1916 many Indo-Surinamese immigrants came to Suriname as indentured laborers, just like the Chinese. They had a sad life too and many died. The uprising of Mariënburg is a good example of how horrible the Dutch were. The director of the plantation, slept (raped) the wife of one of the workers. This wasn’t the first time it happened. The husband of the woman raped sharpened his machete a few days and then went over to the director and killed him by chopping him into pieces. An uprising followed and all men were killed in front of their wives by the Dutch military. To hide what they did, they buried them and threw acid on their bodies to dissolve their bones.
  The Dutch were so horrible, that the British even stopped sending Indians to Suriname. The Dutch were not happy with all the ‘ethical’ rules Britain had put up for the Dutch to follow. So then they brought another group alongside the Indo-Surinamese.
• Javanese immigrants:
  Like the Chinese and Indo-Surinamese indentured laborers, the Javanese came to Suriname too and their situation wasn’t better than any group. They were worse off than the Indians to say the least. The Javanese came from another Dutch colony and the Dutch didn’t have to follow any ‘ethical’ rules put up by others. The Javanese had a horrible life during the indentureship period.
• 1954–1975:
  • In this period Suriname became a country, within the kingdom of the Netherlands, on paper. In reality it was still a colony. However, life of many Surinamese improved. Indo-Surinamese, Creoles and Javanese had political control in Suriname. Creoles, Chinese, Madeirans, Boeroes and Jews, did have the better positions though. They were financially more stable than the Indo-Surinamese and Javanese. The Javanese, were generally also more poor. However in the 70’s, those three big groups and the other smaller groups (except Maroons) were being treated somewhat equal. In the 70’s the colonial attitude of the Netherlands became less and they also pushed for independence.

This is what life was like for Surinamese during Dutch rule.