MAP OF PLANTATIONS IN SURINAME

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was common practice to trade not only goods but also people as products. These human beings were transported on slave ships from Africa to North and South America, where they were sold. The Dutch too participated in this slave trade. Upon arriving, the enslaved persons were forced to work on plantations in places such as Suriname. This map shows the Dordrecht plantation, named after the original owner’s birthplace. As of around 1780 the plantation had 165 enslaved persons growing coffee, sugar, cacao, cotton, bananas and other crops on its 500 acres.