Suriname Plantation Dataset Version 1.0

The Suriname Plantation Dataset is a dataset containing information about plantations in the former Dutch colony of Suriname between 1830 and 1863, the last decades of slavery in Suriname. Suriname was a plantation colony from about 1650. It came into Dutch hands in 1667 and would remain so, with some interruptions, until independence in 1975. Under English pressure, the transatlantic slave trade to Suriname was banned in the early 19th century. As a result of this prohibition, the number of enslaved people in Suriname steadily declined during the 19th century. As of July 1, 1863, slavery was abolished in Suriname.

Between 1830 and 1863, there were still over 370 plantations active in Suriname that focused primarily on the production of sugar, coffee, cotton and timber, or served as producers of food or as a plant nursery for other plantations. In Suriname the workforce of a plantation was legally part of the plantation, enslaved persons could not be sold separately without the permission of the government.
The Suriname Plantation Dataset provides background information on the plantations whose enslaved populations can be found in the Suriname slave registers. Furthermore, it provides information on the completeness of the data present for each plantation in the Suriname Slave Registers database.