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Translator’s Note<br /><br /><br /><b>Introductions</b><br /><br />Frimangron by Tessa Leuwsha<br /><br />The Breath of Freedom by Duco van Oostrum<br /><br />Why Anton de Kom Still Inspires Generation after Generation by Mitchell Esajas<br /><br /><br /><b>Foreword</b> by Judith de Kom<br /><br /><br /><b>We Slaves of Suriname</b><br /><br /><br />“Sranan,” our fatherland<br /><br />The era of slavery<br /><br />The arrival of the whites<br /><br />El Dorado<br /><br />The first settlements<br /><br />The Dutch regime<br /><br />The slave trade<br /><br />The market<br /><br />Enslaved<br /><br />The slave woman<br /><br />The masters<br /><br />The punishments<br /><br />The History of Our Nation<br /><br />Van Aerssen van Sommelsdyck (1683–1688)<br /><br />The brutes<br /><br />The forest expeditions<br /><br />Johan Jacob Mauricius (1742–1751)<br /><br />Governor Crommelin (1752–1768)<br /><br />Governor Nepveu (1770–1779)<br /><br />Buku (decayed into dust)<br /><br />The final chapter for the resistance<br /><br />Suriname under British rule<br /><br />The great fire<br /><br />The fate of the ethical<br /><br />White settlement<br /><br />Fighting the current<br /><br />Governors on parade<br /><br />The abolition of slavery<br /><br />Freedom?<br /><br />The great sellout<br /><br />The era of freedom<br /><br />How we live<br /><br />The essence of autonomy<br /><br />Fin de siècle<br /><br />Indentured labor<br /><br />Free labor<br /><br />In search of gold<br /><br />The major crops<br /><br />What becomes of those millions?<br /><br />Results<br /><br />Reunion and farewell<br /><br />Notes<br /><br /><br />Glossary of Surinamese terms<br /><br />Index

<p><b>A <i>New Statesman </i>Book of the Year</b></p> <p><b>Selected as a Best Book of 2022 by <i>Public Books</i></b></p> <p> </p> <p>“one of the most important works of twentieth-century anticolonial literature.”<br /> <b><i>LSE Review of Books</i></b><br /> <br /> “De Kom is to Suriname what Mandela is to South Africa: a heroic patriot, an advocate of the oppressed, and a symbol of resistance against colonialism.”<br /> <b><i>Unherd<br /> <br /> </i></b>“Heart-breaking... he succeeds in bringing to painful life the savagery of what is now widely considered the most vicious colonization project ever.”<br /> <b><i>New Internationalist</i></b></p> <p>“Almost ninety years after its first appearance, <i>We Slaves of Suriname</i> is still an exemplary description and analysis of Suriname’s history, which has not lost its power of expression. From micro to macro situations, De Kom displays phenomenal psychological insight and an acute sense of the driving forces of class and race.”<br /> <b>Gloria Wekker, Professor Emerita, Utrecht University<br /> <br /> </b>"We Slaves of Suriname is both an analysis of Suriname’s postcolonial predicament and an insurgent commentary on the archives of Dutch writing about Suriname… By interrogating the crater left by colonialism in the landscape of modernity, De Kom produces a text that speaks, avant la lettre, directly to postcolonial concerns."<br /> <b><i>Postcolonial Studies Journal<br /> <br /> </i></b>“An astounding work of lyrical fury … De Kom is a towering radical and anticolonial figure, and this book a painful masterpiece.”<b><i><br /> </i>China Miéville<i>, New Statesman<br /> <br /> </i></b>“a classic of anticolonial Black leftist thought”<b><i><br /> Public Books<br /><br /></i></b>"The plantation-dominated past that Suriname shares with the wider Caribbean is vividly brought to life in a 'new' book ... Books in English on Suriname are rare, and this one — We Slaves of Suriname — is a gem."<b><i><br /><i><b>Caribbean Beat</b></i><br /></i></b></p>

<b>Anton de Kom</b> was a leading advocate of Surinamese independence from Dutch colonial rule. Born in Paramaribo, Suriname, on February 22, 1898, he was banished by the colonial authorities in 1933; he wrote <i>We Slaves of Suriname</i> from exile in the Netherlands, where it was first published in 1934. When World War II broke out, De Kom joined the Dutch resistance; he was arrested by the Germans in 1944 and deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp, where he died on April 24, 1945. In June 2020, Anton de Kom was added to the Dutch national core curriculum for history education (the Canon of the Netherlands) because of his central role in opposing racism and colonialism.

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