On the 1st of July in Amsterdam at the commemoration of the abolition of slavery on that date in 1863, 160 years ago, King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands offered his apology for the role of the State of the Netherlands and its West Indian Company for the practice of slavery in its Caribbean and South American colonies. For 300 years Africans were abducted, cruelly deported and inhumanely put to work on the Dutch plantations on the Caribbean islands of Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba, Sint Maarten and on the South American mainland Suriname. The Dutch participation in the slave-trade consisted of approximately 600.000 persons.
Moreover he asked for forgiveness as to the passivity of his own family, the house of Oranje-Nassau, in respect to this practice during this period, due to the benefits they obtained from it. These excuses were directed at the inhabitants of the said territories that are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Suriname which gained independence in 1975. He mentioned the present day consequences of the tradition of slavery reflected in racism and discrimination still present in Dutch society. This commemoration is meant to be part of the struggle against this.
On the 1st of July in Amsterdam at the commemoration of the abolition of slavery on that date in 1863, 160 years ago, King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands offered his apology for the role of the State of the Netherlands and its West Indian Company for the practice of slavery in its Caribbean and South American colonies. For 300 years Africans were abducted, cruelly deported and inhumanely put to work on the Dutch plantations on the Caribbean islands of Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba, Sint Maarten and on the South American mainland Suriname. The Dutch participation in the slave-trade consisted of approximately 600.000 persons.
Moreover he asked for forgiveness as to the passivity of his own family, the house of Oranje-Nassau, in respect to this practice during this period, due to the benefits they obtained from it. These excuses were directed at the inhabitants of the said territories that are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Suriname which gained independence in 1975. He mentioned the present day consequences of the tradition of slavery reflected in racism and discrimination still present in Dutch society. This commemoration is meant to be part of the struggle against this.