Calvin to Host Talk on Dutch, Slave Trade

March 19, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

SUMMARY: Calvin College will host a professor from Clark University on April
16 who will talk about the Dutch and their slave trade between 1600 and 1800.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/klooster-talk.htm

Calvin College will host an expert on the Dutch and the African slave trade
for a public lecture on Monday, April 16 at 7:30 pm.

Dr. Willem Klooster, a native of the Netherlands and now professor of history
at Clark University, Mass., will speak in the Commons Lecture Hall at Calvin
that evening on "Stealing Ham’s Descendants: The Dutch Trade in African
Slaves, 1600-1800."

The talk is part of "Remembering the Crossings," a year-long series of events
being held in West Michigan as part of an international effort to mark the
200th anniversary in 2007 of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
 
Klooster's talk will explore the history of the Dutch slave trade from its
modest beginnings around 1600 to its demise in 1803.

Says Klooster: "Dutch involvement in the Atlantic slave trade began in earnest
after the conquest of large sugar-producing areas in Brazil, where African
slavery was already in existence. Almost overnight, Dutch merchants became the
leading slavers in the Atlantic world. In order to legitimize their new role
some referred to the biblical story of Ham, whose descendants were condemned by
Ham’s father, Noah, to perpetual servitude."

Calvin is one of a number of local educational institutions participating in
"Remembering the Crossings." Klooster's presentation at Calvin is being
sponsored by the college's Office of Multicultural Affairs, African and African
Diaspora Studies Program and Meijer Chair in Dutch Language and Culture.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/klooster-talk.htm

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Received on Mon Mar 19 12:33:58 2007