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On July 1, it is Keti Koti, the day of the 'broken chains'. On this day, we commemorate and celebrate the abolition of slavery in Suriname and the Antilles. It is an important day for The National Maritime Museum. The National Maritime Museum is a national museum in a global city. Here we show how Dutch history is connected to water. We are aware that part of this maritime history is also a colonial history. This brings responsibility: telling and remembering that history.

Therefore, we invite you to enjoy a delicious (free) heri heri meal in our Open Courtyard. Eating together, remembering together, celebrating together.

Heri heri is a one-pot dish of cassava, sweet potato, green and yellow bananas, fried salted fish (cod), and an egg. Today, heri heri is a dish that culturally connects people with their ancestors and thus with history. Will you join us?

Note: while supplies last.

The Keti Koti Lecture 2024 is an important moment to reflect on the history of slavery and its lasting impact on the present. This year, the lecture will be given by bestselling author Thomas Harding. This lecture is part of the Commemoration Year of Slavery History program, declared by the government from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024. We warmly invite everyone to attend this special evening and to reflect together on the meaning of freedom and justice for all of us.

The Demerara Uprising through Different Eyes

Thomas Harding, whose mother's family amassed wealth through plantations where enslaved people were forced to work, delved into the role of Britain in slavery. His research led him to the Demerara Uprising of 1823: at that time, the largest uprising of enslaved people in the British Empire.

During the Keti Koti Lecture, Harding shares the story of the uprising through the eyes of four individuals: the enslaved man Jack Gladstone, the missionary John Smith, the colonist John Cheveley, and the politician and slaveholder John Gladstone, father of a future British Prime Minister. Harding discusses how his research raised questions about the legacy of slavery today, on cultural, political, and moral levels. Harding explores whether descendants of those who benefited from slavery should take responsibility for the ‘White Debt,’ and emphasizes the urgent need for recognition, education, and reparations.

Maritime Colonial Past

At the Maritime Museum, we tell stories about maritime history from different perspectives, and as a visitor, you will discover the impact the maritime world has on people and societies. The history of slavery and colonial inequality are, of course, part of this maritime history. Therefore, in September, we are opening a new permanent exhibition on the maritime colonial past in the Atlantic region and its influence on our current society.

The Keti Koti Lecture with NiNsee is part of the programming leading up to this exhibition. On June 17, the Trans-Atlantic Slavery History Conference will take place, followed by an evening lecture by Tiya Miles. Additionally, as part of the Atlantic Windows series, Kevin Osepa's installation is currently on display, which you can view for free before the Keti Koti Lecture.

Program

6:30 PM - 7:30 PM: Arrival/Visit Atlantic Window (guest curator Dyonna Benett will be available to answer questions)
7:30 PM - 7:33 PM: Opening by Wendeline Flores
7:33 PM - 7:38 PM: Welcome address by Urwin Vyent (NiNsee)
7:38 PM - 7:43 PM: Welcome address by Michael Huijser (The Maritime Museum)
7:43 PM - 7:48 PM: Introduction of Keynote by Wendeline Flores
7:48 PM - 8:30 PM: Keynote speech by Thomas Harding
8:30 PM - 8:45 PM: Q&A with Wendeline Flores & Thomas Harding
8:45 PM - 9:30 PM: Drinks

The Keti Koti Lecture will be in English.
Admission is free; prior registration is required.

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About White Debt

Harding's book White Debt was published in 2022 in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands. It was nominated for the Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing and was named Book of the Year by The Times Literary Supplement and iNews. The Guardian wrote about the book: "brilliant… impressive… full of details that send shivers down your spine. Harding shows how historians can play an active role, for better or worse, in framing these moral questions."

About Keti Koti

During Keti Koti - Surinamese-Dutch for ‘Broken Chains’ - we commemorate the abolition of slavery in the former Dutch colonies on July 1, 1863. Despite this formal abolition, many enslaved people in Suriname had to continue working on the plantations under 'state supervision' for ten more years. As a result, slavery effectively ended for many on July 1, 1873. These dual commemorative dates lead to different perspectives today on the number of years since abolition - 150 years or 160 years.

On July 1, we also celebrate Keti Koti with a free heri heri meal in the Open Square at the Maritime Museum.

Restaurant and museum shop close from May 11 for renovations

Restaurant and museum shop close from May 11 for renovations

New look for our restaurant and museum shop! Closed from May 11 due to renovations; check out our temporary alternatives for your favorite snacks and must-have souvenirs.

Tickets

This event will be held in English. 

Moderator: Jennifer Tosch 
In collaboration with John Adams Institute, U.S. Embassy The Hague, Fulbright Commission the Netherlands & Singel Uitgeverijen 

Earlier in the day, we will organize a conference where researchers and museum professionals from the United States and the Netherlands will present recent work that investigates how to look at and present history, especially when dealing with interwoven and even painful histories and legacies. You can read more about the conference proceedings here. 

From Harvard historian and author Tiya Miles comes the National Book Award winner, All That She Carried. Blending first-class historical research and literary creativity, Miles traces Ashley’s Sack through the ages, and with it, the story of a Black family during slavery, and of a people and a nation. She not only delves into the historical archive, but also imagines the journey of Ashley’s Sack when the trail seemingly runs cold, writing Ashley and her descendants back into history as an act of justice.  

The result is a powerful narrative where Ashley’s Sack becomes more than an object alone: it is transformed into an embodied memoir of Black women travelling from slavery to freedom, from South to North, carrying relics and hopes as they seek new lives. 

Tiya Miles 

Tiya Miles is the Michael Garvey Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University and a recipient of the MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’. She is both an historian and creative writer whose work explores the intersections of African American, Native American and women’s histories in the context of place. 

All That She Carried 

In South Carolina in the 1850s, an enslaved woman named Rose gives a simple cotton bag to her daughter Ashley. Ashley is about to be separated from her mother, sold as chattel to the highest bidder. The bag contains all her worldly possessions, and precious reminders about her family. 

“In a display case in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture sits a rough cotton bag. “Ashley’s Sack” is embroidered with a handful of words that evoke a sweeping family story of loss and love passed down through the generations.” 

Tickets
Maintenance East Indiaman

Maintenance East Indiaman

On Friday, April 26, the VOC ship will be closed to visitors all day due to maintenance on the power cables.

Lifeboat day

On May 25th, the KNRM celebrates their annual Lifeboat Day, with demonstrations around the various rescue stations. At the Maritime Museum, we are celebrating Lifeboat Day with extra enthusiasm! Together with the KNRM, we are organizing a special public day: at least 25 modern and historical lifeboats will dock at the museum for the day. It promises to be a special operation, allowing visitors to walk over the specially constructed docks. A perfect outing for both young and old. With your museum admission, you will have free access to the boats at the dock. Rescuers will also be on board to answer all your questions, and you can also visit the photography exhibition 'Rescuers at sea' by top photographers Jeroen Hofman and Robin de Puy on the upper floor of the Maritime Museum.

Life boats at the dock

Especially for Life Boat Day, 25 rescue boats are coming to the National Maritime Museum. Step on board and hear exciting stories from the skippers and rescuers.

Where: At the dock
Time: 10:30 AM - 4:00 PM

Photographer signing session with Jeroen Hofman

To celebrate the KNRM's 200th anniversary, photographers Robin de Puy and Jeroen Hofman took photos of the volunteers and rescue stations. The photos are on display in the exhibition and also in a beautiful book that will be released on May 24th. During Rescue Boat Day, you can buy a book and have it signed by the photographer. Where: Open Square Time: 1:00 - 3:00 PM

Boat route in and around the museum (age 6+)

It may not surprise you: at the National Maritime Museum, there are a lot of ships to see... Both inside the museum and outside at the dock. With this boat route, you'll discover many of them! Will you join us? You can do this fun scavenger hunt alone, but it's even more fun if you do it together with a friend, a parent, or your caregiver! The Boat Route can be picked up at the Open Square. Where: In and around the museum Time: Ongoing

Workshop (age 4+)

Have you been inspired by all the special rescue boats at the dock? Come to the open square and make your own Christiaan Brunings out of paper and scissors, the steamship of the National Maritime Museum. Where: Open Square

The conference is fully booked. Are you still interested to come? Please send an email to pr@hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl. You will then be placed on the waitlist, and you will receive an email if there is a spot free for you.

The conference focuses on recent scholarly research on the history of Atlantic slavery, and on the ways in which museums and educational institutions address this past. Those working on the histories of slavery, including students, researchers and museum professionals, are warmly invited to attend this conference. 

This conference will be held in English.  

9.30 - 10.00 – Coffee and tea, registration  

  
10.00 - 10.30 – Opening remarks  

  • Word of welcome | Michael Huijser – Het Scheepvaartmuseum 

  • ‘Addressing Atlantic slavery: scholarly research and public engagement’ | Suze Zijlstra – Het Scheepvaartmuseum  

  

10.30 - 12.00 – Panel 1: Slavery in academic research and public history  

Moderator: Jeroen van der Vliet – Het Scheepvaartmuseum

  • ‘The Slavery in New Netherland and the Dutch Atlantic World Conference (May 2024): Conclusions and Future Directions’ | Deborah Hamer – New Netherland Institute  

  • ‘The Connection between Heritage and Society: An Analysis of the Kòrsou/Curaçao Exhibition at the National Archives’ | Dyonna Benett – Visible Heritage, Connecting in Public and Museology 

  • ‘Reflections on 'Our Colonial Inheritance' (from a curator's perspective)’ | Wendeline Flores – Wereldmuseum  

  • ‘The responsibility that comes with replica ships. Slavery, the Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam.' | Stefanie van Gemert – Het Scheepvaartmuseum 

  

12.00 - 13.00 - Lunch  

With poster presentations from students and early career researchers:

  • Corporate Language and Ideology: The Role of Institutionalized Forms of Written Knowledge Production in the Reproduction of Dutch Trans-Atlantic Slavery | Michael Rowland 

  • Medicine, treatment and ‘doctors’ aboard two MCC-slave ships | Camilla de Koning

  • Effectiveness of Force: Police Punishment and the Enslaved Population’s Likelihood of Escape on Curaçao, 1857-1863 | Béla Boxman 

  • A Dutch Free Womb law? | Ida Vos

  • The Role of Guns and Gunpowder for the MCC Slave Trade | Philipp Huber 

  • Guarding security, managing risks: West African bombas on Dutch slave ships | Matthias Lukkes 

  • Stuyvesant as a lens on the transatlantic world – connecting science, art and activism | Thomas Dresscher & Sithabile Mlotshwa 

  •  “As he is my servant and estate, as much as my ship is” African and Indigenous enslavement in a “Dutch” merchant house in Boston, Massachusetts 1716-1761 | Sander Rooijakkers 

  • The significance of shipboard insurrections during the slave ship captaincies of Jan Menkenveld and his former officers: David Mulders, Daniel Pruijmelaar and Willem de Molder, 1754-1767 | Luc Meijboom 

   

13.00 - 14.30 – Panel 2: Slavery at sea  

Moderator: Dienke Hondius – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  • Supplying the plantations in the West. The Texel ‘Schervenwrak’ (1822) in a historical context.’ | Michiel Bartels – Archeologie West-Friesland.

  • 'The Amsterdam Private Slave Trade at Sea. New Data and New Perspectives, 1730-1779'. | Jessica den Oudsten – Radboud University Nijmegen and Huygens Institute Amsterdam (research conducted with Ramona Negrón, Leiden University).

  • ‘’I was their midwife’: Enslaved Women, Pregnancy, and Motherhood on Seventeenth-Century Slave Ships’. | Andrea Mosterman – University of New Orleans.

  

14.30 - 15.00 – Coffee break  

  

15.00 - 16.30 – Panel 3: Aspects of slavery  

Moderator: Jaap Jacobs – University of St Andrews

  • ‘New Netherland's Vast American Diaspora: Echoes of a Colonial Legacy’ | Nicole Maskiell – Dartmouth College 

  • ‘New Netherland and Indigenous Slavery in the Dutch Atlantic’ | Evan Haefeli – Texas A&M University  

  • ‘Collaborative projects on recovering the history of slavery from colonial archives’ | Karwan Fatah-Black – KITLV-KNAW and Leiden University   

  

16.30 - 17.00 – Closing remarks  

  • ‘Introducing the New Amsterdam scale model’. | Oscar Hefting – New Holland Foundation 

  • ‘Dutch New York Histories. An ongoing conversation’. | Nancy Jouwe – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 

17.00 - 18.00 – Drinks  

Following the closing remarks, conference visitors will have the opportunity to see a scale model of Dutch New Amsterdam (New York) in the museum. This scale model of 3 by 4 meters is based on scholarly historical and archaeological information, including the well-known Castello plan of 1660, and is a project of the New Holland Foundation. The scale model will be on display until 23 June.  

register

Following the day’s conference, the John Adams Institute and Het Scheepvaartmuseum will host a public evening program. The keynote of this evening will be given by Tiya Miles, Harvard historian and author of the critically acclaimed book All That She Carried. Miles’ work explores the intersections of African American, Native American and women’s histories in the context of place. More information on the evening program is to be found here. Please note that tickets for the evening program have to be purchased separately here.
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