Broadside concerning the Dutch colony Berbice

States General of Holland.

Publicatie. De Staaten van Holland en Westvriesland, […] by octrooy aan directeuren van de geoctroyeerde Colonie van Berbice […].

The Hague, Jacobus Scheltus, 1752.

Folio (42 x 33 cm). 1 p. With a woodcut device at the head and a woodcut initial.

Broadside proclaiming the insurance of payment of monthly fees and wages for the personnel of colonial company of Berbice. Berbice is a river in present-day Guyana on the north coast of South America. In the 17th and 18th century, the Dutch colony of Berbice was established on the Rio (river) Berbice, with New Amsterdam, the current New Amsterdam, as its capital. The Berbice colony was part of Dutch Guiana. The colony was founded in 1627 by the Zeeland merchant Abraham van Peere. Berbice was conquered by the British in 1796. The Berbice colony was governed by a governor and a council of government. The governor was appointed by the Board but received his commission from the States General, in whose hands he also took the oath. Thus it was up to the States General to proclaim by broadside any events regarding Berbice.
Berbice was exclusively a plantation colony. The cultures were sugar, cocoa, cotton and coffee. The plantations were worked by enslaved people (“negerslaven”) who were captured and deported from Africa by the WIC. The number of people brought to Berbice was large compared to other Dutch colonies in America. The Berbice planters preferred to make a man work so hard that he succumbed after 7–8 years, than to maintain African women, who could not work through pregnancy, childbirth, and care of infants.

Condition: contemporary annotation in ink on verso, summarising the contents. Minor spotting, central fold. A couple tiny holes. Otherwise in very good condition.