Afro-Amsterdamers in the 17th Century
This post first appeared on the blog for the Centre for Privacy Studies: https://privacy.hypotheses.org/750 Rembrandt van Rijn, Two African Men, 1661 (Source: Wikimedia Commons) In the 17th Century, there was a community of people of color living in Amsterdam. This community was linked to the maritime industry: black women established permanently in the city were married to black men who worked as sailors for the VOC and the WIC, the Dutch West and East India Companies. Mark Ponte , who has been studying this community's traces in the collection of notary deeds at the Amsterdam City Archives, explains: From the moment the Dutch became active in the Atlantic world, people of African descent came to Amsterdam. Their presence is evident from baptismal and marriage registers and from seventeenth-century notarial deeds. ( via Twitter ) The painting above, made by Rembrandt in 1661, most likely depicts two men who belonged to this community of afro-descendents, which was located aro