Curaçao, Netherlands, Slave Registers and Emancipation Registers 1839-1863

Source Information

Ancestry,com. Curaçao, Netherlands, Slave Registers and Emancipation Registers 1839-1863 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry,com Operations.Inc., 2023.
Original data: Curaçao, Netherlands, Slave Registers and Emancipation Registers 1839-1863

About Curaçao, Netherlands, Slave Registers and Emancipation Registers 1839-1863

About the Curaçao Slave Registers, 1839-1863

General collection information

This collection includes information about people who were enslaved on the island of Curaçao between 1839 and 1863. Curaçao is an island in the Caribbean Sea located about 70 miles off the coast of Venezuela and next to Aruba. This collection includes an index of both the Slave Registers between 1839 and 1863 and the Emancipation Registers of 1863. It doesn't include images of the original documents. The headings and entries are written in Dutch.

Using this collection

Records in this collection may include the following information:

  • Enslaved person's name
  • Enslaved person's gender
  • Name of enslaved person's mother
  • Name of the slave owner
  • Birth date
  • Document dates
  • Document notes

    • Here are some Dutch words that may be helpful to read the index:

  • Naam is the Dutch word for "name."
  • Geslacht is the Dutch word for "sex."
  • Vrouw is the Dutch word for "female."
  • Moeder is the Dutch word for "mother."
  • Eigenaar is the Dutch word for "owner."
  • Datum is the Dutch word for "date."
  • Geboorte is the Dutch word for "birth."
  • Overleden is the Dutch word for "dead."
  • Gekocht van is the Dutch word for "bought from."
  • Verkocht aan is the Dutch word for "sold to."
  • Uitgevoerd is the Dutch word for "registered."
  • Gemanumitteerd is the Dutch word for "manumitted."

    • This collection can be used to confirm that your ancestor was an enslaved person living in Curaçao at a specific time during the mid-1800s. As the mother's name was typically recorded these records can be useful in tracing families along the matrilineal line.

    The Emancipation Registers include the surname of the newly emancipated person and any change of name that occurred at that time.

    Some names in the registry may appear to be Spanish or Portuguese in origin as a variation of Papiamento is spoken in Curaçao. Papiamento is a creole language based in multiple languages including Portuguese and Spanish.

    Collection in context

    The index is a collection of information derived from primary historical sources. It was created by the National Archive of Curaçao, and the original primary source documents are housed at the archive in the capital of Willemstad.

    Curaçao was a Dutch colony during the time that these enslavement registers were created between 1839 and 1863. During this time colonial law required the registration of all enslaved people. Slave owners had to report any birth, death, transfer of legal ownership, or manumission of an enslaved person.

    The population of Curaçao was about 19,000 when the Dutch government abolished slavery in 1863. About one-third of the population of the island was freed from slavery that year. Enslavers were financially compensated for the loss of their enslaved people, but the newly emancipated people were given nothing. Some formerly enslaved people moved to Willemstad to find work, but others got caught in a racist tenant farming system that kept them in perpetual debt to their landlords. Post-abolition, many freed Curaçaoans migrated to neighboring lands to find work.

    Bibliography

    National Archive of Curaçao. "Slave Register." Accessed October 12, 2022. https://www.nationaalarchief.cw/api/picturae/slavenregister/persons

    Radboud University Faculty of Arts. "Historical Database Suriname Curaçao." Accessed October 12, 2022. https://www.ru.nl/hdsc/history/curacao/#.