Slavery in the Dutch Colonial Empire in Southeast Asia: Seventeenth-Century Amboina Reconsidered

Abstract

This article focuses on slavery in colonial Amboina, particularly during the latter half of the seventeenth century. It begins with an outline of the geography and demography of slavery in the province of Amboina, first dealing with slaves owned by non-indigenous urban groups, the employees of the VOC and the ‘settlers’, the Europeans, Chinese and ‘Indigenous’ (in this case non-Amboinese Asian migrants) citizen groups, and then turns to those owned by indigenous ethnic Amboinese living in the villages, the non-urban ‘countryside’. The discussion then moves on to the socio-economic and legal conditions under which the slaves were kept, examining such matters as origin, resistance and oppression. The fourth part addresses the place of slavery in seventeenth-century Amboina compared to a wider context, namely Southeast Asia and the Dutch colonial empire in that region.