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Plantation along the Canal
Stories of people and power: how Amsterdam's grand canal houses were financed through colonial trade and plantation slavery, told through residents and descendants of the enslaved.
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In 1786 the Jagtlust plantation in Suriname held 125 enslaved people: 48 men, 52 women, 8 boys and 17 girls, recorded mostly as property. Their owner, the merchant Fredrik Berewout, lived in this house on the Herengracht. Curator Thijs Boers recovered their names, and the show starts from them.
Before Berewout, the banker Willem Gideon Deutz ran a "Surinamese office" here and built a credit scheme in which plantations, and the people on them, served as collateral. You go through the period rooms with an audio tour by Dolores Leeuwin, a descendant of an enslaved woman on Jagtlust; she and her father read the 125 names aloud. Natasja Kensmil's White Elephant (2019) is shown alongside the archive material, and in the garden the Sites of Memory collective hangs portraits on flags, with audio.
Tickets are €15 for adults, €7.50 for students, and free under 18 or with a Museum Pass. It's open daily 10:00 to 17:00. There's no lift or step-free access, only stairs with handrails.
Editor's pick
How Amsterdam's grand canal houses were paid for by colonial trade and plantation slavery, told through the people who lived in them and the descendants of the enslaved.
Look for
The names from Jagtlust
Dolores Leeuwin and her father read aloud the names of the 125 people enslaved on Berewout's plantation in 1786, people the ledgers recorded as property.
The flags in the garden
In the French-style garden, A Conversation with the Past for the Future hangs portraits printed on flags, with audio clips in memory of Jagtlust's enslaved people.
A drawing of plantation Jagtlust
Look for the drawing of the Surinamese plantation itself, the place Berewout owned while living in this canal house.
The map of Suriname's plantations
A map of the colony's plantations shows the network behind Deutz's money: he held a financial stake in more than a hundred of them.
Good for
- Going Solo
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Entry is free for anyone under 18.
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Image credits
9
- Plantation along the CanalCourtesy of Amsterdam Museum
- Plantation along the Canal: Stories of People and PowerCourtesy of Museum Willet-Holthuysen
- The Land of Chocolate Sprinkles. Building a new world togetherCourtesy of H'ART Museum
- Chez Matisse - Masterpieces from Centre PompidouCourtesy of H'ART Museum
- Amsterdam MuseumJvhertum, Public domain
- Museum Willet-HolthuysenJane023 / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- H'ART MuseumFentener van Vlissingen, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Joods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)S Sepp / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Foam Fotografiemuseum AmsterdamDqfn13 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL