Indexes on Slavery History Aruba and Sint Eustatius Online

On 30 June 2023, the databases Aruba: slavery and emancipation, 1840–1863 and St. Eustasius. Slave owner registers and emancipation register, 1862–1863, were launched on the websites of the Archivo Nacional Aruba (ANA) and the National Archives of the Netherlands (NAN). These make it easier for citizens to conduct research into slavery on Aruba and St. Eustasius, for instance by searching for the surnames given to their ancestors after the Dutch Abolition of Slavery in 1863.

In the Aruban database, the enslaved population of Aruba can be traced over the final 25 years of slavery on the island, until the Dutch Abolition of Slavery in 1863. This population amounted to around 1,000 people, of whom 450 were liberated in 1863 (one fifth of the Aruban population). To create the database, a broad range of archival sources were used, including the emancipation register from 1863, slave owner registers, registers of the births and deaths of enslaved people, petitions and notarial instruments featuring information on the purchase, sale and manumissions of enslaved people.

The database of St. Eustatius gives an overview of every person who lived under and was liberated from slavery in its final year on the island. The database includes around 1,200 people; over two-thirds of the population of St. Eustatius at that time. The information that can be found in the database includes first names, the surnames given in 1863, family trees, professions, religions and the names of slave owners and plantations. The database is based on the slave owner registers (lists of people per slave owner) and the emancipation register of St. Eustatius.

The publication of the dataset on Aruba was an initiative of ANA Director Raymond Hernandez and Coen van Galen of Radboud University/Historical Database Suriname Curaçao (HDSC). The execution of the project lay in the hands of Rosa M. Arends (ANA), Wouter Raaijmakers and Matthias Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge (both HDSC), with advice from Edric Croes and Johny van Eerden (ANA) and Peter Scholing (Biblioteca Nacional Aruba).

The publication of the dataset on St. Eustatius was a joint initiative of Nadine Busby-De Graf (Census Office, Oranjestad), Johan van Langen (National Archives of the Netherlands) and Coen van Galen. It was executed by Wouter Raaijmakers and Coen van Galen (HDSC).

Within the International Heritage Cooperation programme the National Archives of the Netherlands cooperates with institutions in the Netherlands and partner countries to make more sources about the Dutch colonial and slavery past available online for researchers and other interested parties. Previously published databases include the slave registers of Suriname in 2018-19, and the slave and emancipation registers of Curaçao in 2020.