The Dutch Atlantic slave trade and its abolition

From its founding in 1621 the Dutch West India Company, run from Amsterdam, traded in enslaved Africans, and Dutch ships carried more than half a million people to Brazil, Suriname and the Caribbean. Slavery in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean ended on 1 July 1863, though freed people in Suriname were made to work ten more years. The date is marked as Keti Koti.