The True Melting Pot: Race in Curacao

The Americas have been called a "melting pot" of cultures, races, and religions.  The Caribbean exemplifies this metaphor as much as any geographical region in the Americas, maybe even more so.  This area was a center of racial mixing and racial conflict in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries as the European peoples mixed with slaves from Africa and the indigenous peoples of the islands and mainland.  Curacao is no different.  Curacao would see the racial mixing that was common throughout the Caribbean Basin as these three main races mixed and matched. 

Curacao's population today is 165,000.  Of that number, over 50 nationalities are represented.  Catholicism,  Protestant faiths, Judaism, and Islam are all freely practiced on the island today.  The majority of the present day island's population is of Afro-Caribbean, or mulatto, descent with the minorities being of European and Latin American descent.  There is a significant Jewish population on the island as many Jews have fled to the island from persecution and strife abroad as far back as the 17th century and as recently as World War II.  These Jews have had a significant impact on the cultural and economic make up of the island over the years.  The Jewish population on Curacao is one of the oldest in the Americas and the synagogues on the island rank as some of the oldest in the Americas.  In short, Curacao is definitely consistent with the metaphor of a "melting pot" of different peoples and their cultures.  This "melting pot" also had its share of conflict as these peoples came together.

As stated in a previous blog, Curacao was a slave depot in the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries.  This allowed for many Africans and many of African descent to pass through the island to other places of the Caribbean.  This led to an ever growing population of black slaves on the island and led to the government of Curacao at the time to implement the "black and red codes" to curtail certain unrest amongst the black and mulatto populations on the island.  These regulations gave a curfew, forbidding them to be on public streets without a lantern and a permit from their master after 9pm.  It also greatly restricted the use of musical instruments by slaves as music was seen as a way of communication and organization between conspiring parties.  Alcohol consumption by slaves and mulattoes was strictly forbidden.  These were but a few of many new regulations on the colored population of Curacao.  These codes would lead to passive resistance by the slaves and mulattoes eventually exploding into open rebellion in 1795. 

In October of 1795, a force of some 1,500 slaves were led by a slave named Tula in revolt.  The revolt would eventually be quelled and Tula and his officers would be captured, tortured, and executed.  Oddly enough, the present day population commemorate this rebellion on August 17 every year, even though the rebellion accomplished little.  This celebration may mainly speak to the overwhelmingly black population of Curacao's identity with the slaves that participated in the revolt.  Here is the present day monument to the Tula Revolt in Curacao.

Racial mixing and conflict were ever present in the Caribbean during the 17th and 18th centuries as slavery and the slave trade were taking their effect.  Curacao is no different.  As a result, Curacao today is made up of 50 separate nationalities and numerous racial classifications.  This is what makes Curacao a true "melting pot."

Sources:

Brushaber, Susan, and Arnold Greenberg. 2002. Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao Alive!. Hunter Publishing, 2002. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed October 9, 2011).

Goslinga, Cornelis  The Dutch in the Caribbean and in the Guianas, 1680-1791 (Assen, Netherlands : Van Gorcum, 1990),  529-563.

1994. "Curacao stamped with Africa." American Visions 9, no. 3: 48. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 9, 2011).