St. Eustasius. Slave owner registers and emancipation register, 1862–1863
The database St. Eustasius. Slave owner registers and emancipation register, 1862–1863 is an overview of every person who lived under and was liberated from slavery in its final year on the island. The database includes around 1,200 people; over two-thirds of the population of St. Eustasius at that time. The information that can be found in the database includes first names, the surnames given in 1863, family trees, professions, religions and the names of slave owners and plantations. The database is based on the slave owner registers (lists of people per slave owner) and the emancipation register of St. Eustasius.
Background of both databases
The publication of the dataset on Aruba was an initiative of ANA Director Raymond Hernandez and Coen van Galen of Radboud University/Historical Database Suriname Curaçao (HDSC). The execution of the project lay in the hands of Rosa M. Arends (ANA) and Wouter Raaijmakers and Matthias Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge (HDSC), with advice from Edric Croes and Johny van Eerden (ANA) and Peter Scholing (Biblioteca Nacional Aruba). The publication of the dataset on St. Eustasius was a joint initiative of Nadine Busby-De Graf (Census Office, Oranjestad), Johan van Langen (Dutch National Archives) and Coen van Galen, and was executed by Wouter Raaijmakers and Coen van Galen (HDSC). The Historical Database Suriname Curaçao previously published the slave registers of Suriname (in 2018-19), the slave and emancipation registers of Curaçao (in 2020) and the Suriname Civil Registry (as from 2023).
The databases can be found on:
Website Nationaal Archief: Index St. Eustatius https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/index/nt00476
Website Nationaal Archief: Index Aruba https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/index/nt00479
Archivo Nacional Aruba www.coleccion.aw/zoeken/personen
More information on the Historical Database Suriname and the Caribbean: www.ru.nl/hdsc
