Abstract
This chapter investigates the meaning of an obscure exhibit at the Dutch National Exhibition of Women’s Labour (The Hague, 1898): an illuminated copy of a women’s antislavery petition from 1855. The chapter asks what frames of reference this exhibit mobilised, reconstructing its significance for visitors by examining references to the antislavery movement in a range of women’s reform periodicals and in a feminist bestseller: Hilda van Suylenburg (1897), which had been published by the president of the exhibition, Cécile Goekoop-de Jong van Beek en Donk, the year before. The chapter shows that the appropriation of the history of antislavery by organised feminism, a dynamic well known in the English and American
contexts, was part of Dutch feminist culture as well. Not the straightforward
celebration of Dutch women’s activism it appears, the exhibit rather draws
on a transnational culture of imperial feminism. The chapter ends with
a reflection on the collective blindness to the realities of colonial slavery
and the struggle for abolition that folk stories about antislavery fostered.
contexts, was part of Dutch feminist culture as well. Not the straightforward
celebration of Dutch women’s activism it appears, the exhibit rather draws
on a transnational culture of imperial feminism. The chapter ends with
a reflection on the collective blindness to the realities of colonial slavery
and the struggle for abolition that folk stories about antislavery fostered.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Slavery in the Cultural Imagination |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Neerlandophone Space, 17-21st Century |
| Editors | Karwan Fatah-Black, Marrigje Paijmans, Saskia Pieterse |
| Publisher | Amsterdam University Press |
| Chapter | 8 |
| Pages | 167-183 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9789048557950 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9789463728799 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2025 |