Land of hope and dreams: slavery and abolition in the Dutch Leeward islands, 1825–1865
The asymmetry of laws concerning the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves in the Atlantic world in the early-to-mid nineteenth century led to a range of responses on the part of inhabitants of the Dutch Leeward islands of Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Martin. These ranged from activism, adaptation, accommodation to, as this article highlights, maritime marronage on the part of the enslaved population of these islands. The Dutch Leeward islands have been understudied in the historiography of abolition and emancipation but, as this article will argue, they should be included into the larger story of how abolition was experienced on the local, regional, Atlantic, and international stages. By all accounts, the night of the 27th of April 1844 was dark and cloudy in St. Eustatius (also known as Statia), the tiny Dutch Leeward island. 1 1. The islands are known as the ‘Windwards' ( Bovenwindse eilanden ) in Dutch. For consistency's sake, they will be referred to as th