State-Sanctioned Slavery: The States General from 1581 to 1796

Abstract

Belgian historiography has paid scant attention to the southern Low Countries’ early participation in slavery in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This contrasts sharply with Dutch historiography, which has recently looked extensively at the early connection between the nascent Dutch Republic and slavery. By bringing together a range of case studies and various sources including artworks, this chapter makes clear that several social groups, including merchants and financiers, actively participated in human trafficking and the use of slave labor through important trade cities like Bruges and Antwerp. Though they operated primarily within the Iberian colonial systems, their networks and experience were crucial for the slave trade of the Dutch Republic