Invisible pieces of the Groningen Heritagescape
In our previous blog, we visited sites related to the invisible heritage related to Moluccans in the Netherlands. We are again going to take a look at invisible cultural heritage. This time, as you might have guessed from the title, in Groningen, the capital of a province of the Netherlands of the same name. We toured the city to explore the history it has with Slavery another form of Dark Cultural Heritage that has been omitted and ignored resulting in its invisibility. This history, which is not only a part of the history of Groningen but of the Netherlands has been slowly forgotten, hidden in plain sight. However, a Modern historian and co-author (with Margaret Fokken) of the book “Sporen van het Slavernijverleden in Groningen” (Traces of the History of Slavery in Groningen), Barbara Henkes has joined forces with the project, Mapping Slavery NL to acknowledge this heritage in the province of Groningen and is currently continuing this work in the capital of the province of Friesland, Leeuwarden. Henkes with her expertise led us on this tour of the city.
This time the weather was in our favour and the distances between each location was a stone-throw-away. We gathered at the entrance of the Groninger Museum in the heart of the city, where inside, the first of the monuments hung. The museum for obvious reasons is a landmark in the city, like most of the sites we would visit that day. This fact ironically juxtaposes itself to the invisible stories about slavery associated with these very monuments. It was a portrait of a white woman presumably of high class with a black servant at her side. The woman was Elsebeth Schaij. She was the daughter of prominent Groninger, Cornelius Schaij who was involved with one of the companies responsible for the slave trade, West Indies Company (WIC).
Figure 1. The cover of the book “Sporen van het Slavernijverleden in Groningen” which also showcases the portrait of Elsebeth Schaij and her slave/servant.
What Henkes explained to us that was outstanding about this painting is that during the era in which Elsebeth lived, portrayals such as this one were used to mark the regality of the European(s) portrayed.
The juxtapositioning of the slaves or servants with there European Masters was a sign of the power held by the antagonist, in this case, the Europeans. This not only showed that these European in general held powerful positions but also shows the power relation between Europeans and slaves. Then, slaves were used as mere props in the trivial affirmation of the might of European elite. Firstly they were represented in these paintings as smaller in proportion to their masters,(as seen in figure 1) which represents the power relation between elites such as Elsbeth and the poor but even more so slaves and the colonized. And secondly the comparison of Europeans’ white skin to the dark skin of the African slaves. The African slaves were seen as an accessory because it was believed to enhance the presence of the Europeans. These factors opposingly diminished these slaves and made them the antagonist of these representations.
The use of the slaves in such photos also seem to have parallels with the idea that black bodies Were inferior, unworthy to be seen in comparison to white bodies, which is still a contemporary issue. We then moved on to the next location, The zwitsers house which housed The Institute for History from 1966 to 1981.
A small group of student from the only recently, former colonies of Suriname and the Netherland Antilles studied there. It was through a special fund that they were able to study in the Netherlands however, they were not afforded the liberty of choosing where in the Netherlands they wanted to study, which lead to the founding of the foundation, Suran, a support group for Surinamese and Antillians living in Groningen. At that time there was also little to no space in the curriculum given to the history of slavery and more importantly history from the perspective of the enslaved but rather the perspective of Europeans. This drove the students to seek literature such as Anton de Kom’s “Wij slaven van Suriname” which told these perspectives, which they then used to develop a cohesive understanding history from the perspective of the slave. This was further developed by Jozef P. Siwpersad who also attended the institute, achieving his doctorate. He made it his life’s work to contributing to the development of the history of slavery through the addition of these perspectives (Fokken and Henkes, 2017 p.71). The Zwitsterse house today is focused on the architecture of the building and tells nothing of this history.
The next four locations were basically along a straight stretch of road spanning from the Rademarkt which transition into the Oosterstraat. The first of these was a former quarantine hospital turned psychiatric hospital, which at present is a low-cost guesthouse. Located on the Rademarkt 29, Sint Anthonygasthuis ( Saint Anthony’s guest house) was run by a sector of the church and was also one of the first organizations to financially invest in the slave trade with the WIC. The slave trade partially supported its upkeep. There is, however, no reflection of this history in the mediation of this heritage site. The next 2 sites were the Nanninga brewery (replaced by a new building at the Oosterstraat 52) and the Nijverheid tobacco factory(see figure 2) which were both involved in the stocking of ships bound for colonies of the West Indies. This shows that not only did the elite have a hand in the slave trade but also that the middle class also played a part in the smooth sailing of the operations of the WIC.
Figure 2. Showing the Tobacco factory at the Oosterstraat 25, which is now used as an apartment complex.
We then made our way to one of the oldest Hotels in Groningen, Hotel De Doelen. Because of this and its location in the absolute centre of the city, it is easily visible. It was here that John Scobles, an abolitionist from Britain lead a meeting where prominent Groningers were invited to discuss the importance of ending slavery in November 1841. This was the 2 of these meetings, the first of which led to the ending of slavery in Britain. The goal was to encourage and catalyze the abolition of slavery in The Netherlands on behalf of the then British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society of which he was a member.
Obliquely across from Hotel De Doelen is the town square called the Grote Markt where the Old town hall (figure 3) still stands as a monument of the City. During the time of its use, the city was usually presided over equally by four mayors. During the time of Slavery, there were mayors who were also directors of the WIC, four of which (Arnold van Nijenveen, Johan Drews, Samuel Emmius and Johan van Julsinga) were indoctrinated on silver coins introduced by the WIC by means of their coat of arms (Fokken and Henkes, 2017). As directors of the WIC and mayors, they put the riches gain at the cost of the former colonies towards the development of Groningen.
Figure 3. The old town hall at the Grote Markt square.
We shuffled along lazily through the heat of the day to the last 2 locations we would view both monuments in the form of buildings. The first was the house of a widow Maria Elisabeth Faustina Hendrina Battaerd located at the corner of the Oude Boteringestraat and the Zwanestraat. She was married to Cornelius Frans van de Lande who had plantations in the former colonies of the Netherlands. Upon his death, she and her children inherited the network of her dead husband’s possessions. As a result, she and her daughters profited indirectly from the slave trade. This history is unaccounted for and the building looks like a regular building that is used to house a business or as an apartment.
The last building is one of the oldest in the city and is currently in use as an office. The Calmershuis (Figure 4) was bought by the Swedish Captain Thomas van Seerat from Onno Tamminga van Alberda who was also a director of the WIC. Van Seerat was later also in service to the WIC and voyaged to the colonies to do business on behalf of them. He was honoured for his heroic actions during the flooding of Groningen on the 24th and 25th of December in 1717. He improved the sewage in the city which causes the flooding and had a canary-yellow coloured boat named in his honour. If you go to this building today there is a form of cultural heritage mediation however, it says nothing about slavery which is entangled in the story of Seerat.
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