Delft is also deeply intertwined with the history of slavery, according to a study by the municipality. Search was Submitted on Tuesday evening. The people of Delft, individuals, businesses and institutions in the city and the city itself profited from the slave trade. Wealthy citizens had large houses built in and around the city with the money they earned.
The municipality is not about to make an immediate apology. A spokesman for the ANP news agency said it would respond in the second half of this year. Other cities will soon apologize, such as Vlissingen and Middelburg. They did it on July 1st during Keti Koti, when slavery actually ended 150 years ago. Other municipalities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague have apologized, as have De Nederlandche Bank, IBN AMRO and the Dutch state.
In Delft, products from the colonies produced by slave labor were traded, according to the study. Delft also had warehouses and offices for both the West India Company (WIC) and the East India Company. The City Council was composed and composed largely of the directors of the VOC and WIC.
The city of Delft had no shares in either company, but the individual directors did. The Orphan Chamber, which ran the estates for children without parents, also invested in the Women’s and Children’s Center (VOC) and WIC. The orphanage room was part of the city hall. Independent charities also had shares.
Researchers Nancy Joy, Gerrit Verhoeven, and Ingrid van der Vlies also point to the special involvement of the inhabitants of Delft in slavery. Many people from Delft owned slaves and traveled to the colonies on the company’s ships. WIC and VOC also hired many people from Delft. Therefore, the study concluded that ‘iIn a city like Delft, everyone knew, or could have known, that slavery existed and what it involved.”
Guram Paul
