BAM - Find your way around the archives of the MCC – Eyewitnesses to the slave trade
In 2023 it will be 160 years since the Netherlands formally abolished slavery in Suriname and the Caribbean. From July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, extra attention will be paid to this event throughout the kingdom during the Commemoration Year of the History of Slavery. One of the activities is this course.
In Middelburg, two trading companies were active in the transatlantic slave trade: the West India Company (WIC) and the Middelburg Commercial Company (MCC). Almost the complete administration of the MCC has been preserved. This provides a lot of information about the company and the course of slave voyages. The entire MCC archive has been digitized and can be consulted online.
Archivist Anneke van Waarden-Koets shows you how to search the MCC archive and especially what - sometimes unexpected - documents you can find in it. The voices of enslaved Africans are heard in some documents. Eyewitnesses of the transatlantic human trafficking tell about life on board a slave ship through letters, journals and reports. You will then receive a tour of the exhibition of the same name in the exhibition of the Zeeuws Archives.
Information
Teacher: Anneke van Waarden-Koets
Course location: Zeeuws Archief, Hofplein 16, 4331 CK Middelburg
Course fee: €25.00