It might be the biggest paradox of the Dutch Republic: while it established itself through resistance against political slavery and domination by a foreign power, it  soon grew into a colonial power that promoted slavery across its borders. This project aims to advance our understanding of that paradox.

State and Slavery explores state-of-the-art knowledge on the Dutch slavery past. How has this past been presented, evaluated, and examined thus far? Why are some aspects of the slavery past better known than others? And what should future research on the subject focus on?
The project is the result of motion Ceder and is headed by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)  in Leiden; the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam; the University of Curaçao, and the The National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy (NiNsee) in Amsterdam.