Slavery brought great riches to a number of people in the Netherlands. With this money, they were able to have luxurious houses built or to purchase such houses. Sometimes these homes were decorated with facing bricks which referred to colonial possessions or a building received a name which was involved with colonial trade. Many of these buildings are still standing and are the tangible remnants of the Netherlands’ colonial and slavery past. The project entitled Mapping Slavery (www.mappingslavery.nl) conducted research on these locations and brought them into focus. Together with the museum, they made a selection which shows that traces of the history of slavery are still visible throughout the Netherlands.
