At the trade’s height in the 17th and 18th centuries, more than 1,000 enslaved people were taken to Suriname every year to work on sugar plantations, according to State and Slavery. More than 90% of the population in what was then a South American colony were enslaved and conditions were so harsh that the number of births never outpaced the number of deaths, the study showed.
The study’s findings have surprised many in the Netherlands, including those who read advance copies, said one of its editors, Esther Captain, an expert at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, in the Dutch city of Leiden.
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