Slavery Memorial

1 July 2023

Tobacco as a commodity has been associated with the Blackamoor or Moriaan in Dutch for centuries. Today we commemorate and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. At least for the Netherlands, other countries were years ahead of us, some  even behind. Our collection also contains numerous objects depicting the plantation slave. This image was very common on tobacco packaging, but also as an shop front statue as shown here. In previous centuries every passer-by knew when he saw such a black boy above the shop door, that it was a tobacco shop. Today we wouldn't do that anymore. These and other examples are still visible in our museum as a reminder of other times.

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