1902 Uprising at Alliance
It is
difficult to find records relating to labor uprisings and revolts at Surinamese
plantations. While we know from family accounts and brief historical references
that there were labor uprisings in 1907 (when 70-year-old Margaret Sutherland
Shields saved the Javanese indentured workers who hid beneath the plantation
house), and in 1912, the incident Ruth fictionalized, I can find no newspaper
or government accounts that might provide more detail and context.
However, I
have found records relating to an earlier labor revolt which occurred in 1902. A
website that details the history of Suriname’s plantations (see 1 below)
describes the event as follows:
[Note: I have used Google Translate to translate the passage
from Dutch]
“Between 1873 and 1929, Alliance grew into a very large
company, recruiting a total of 2016 British Indian and 2,136 Javanese
contractors.
The arrival of the immigrants was accompanied by bickering
over too low wages and poor working conditions. It was inevitable: the aim of
the plantation enterprise, especially in the 19th century, was to maximize
profits, and one means was to minimize wages with the highest possible labor
tax. Already in 1878 there was a strike against these harsh working conditions.
The management of the plantation was supported by the government and was
repressive: 58 workers were arrested, of which 10 were convicted. Working
conditions remained unchanged.
 |
| Indentured worker hauling sugar cane |
In June 1902 - after Alliance's new executive made a pay cut
- British Indian worker Jumpa Raigaroo led a strike for better wages and
treatment. It again turned out to be a major confrontation with the government.
But now the workers were right: wages were increased again and the director
replaced. Even now the price was high: 17 workers were sentenced to 6 months
hard labor. Three weeks later, the great uprising at Marienburg followed, with
18 dead (including the director) and 39 wounded.”
A more
detailed and nuanced description is found in a paper by Dutch researcher Rosemarijn
Hoefte (see 2 below):
“Eleven years later, however, Suriname was shocked by the bloodiest
revolt of contract laborers in its history. Violent riots at the sugar plantations
Alliance and Marienburg took place within a few weeks. In 1902 after the
director of Alliance had left temporarily for Europe, his substitute lowered
wages. This action caused unrest among the workers and on Saturday June 28 they
struck. One hundred British Indians Indians and thirty-seven Javanese left
without permission to see the DC of Fredericksdorp. Alliance fell under the
jurisdiction of the DC of Ephrata, but apparently the protestors mistrusted and
bypassed him. At Frederiksdorp the workers complained about the excessive work
load, the low wages, and the tyrannical Hindustani overseer Abdoolah. The DC
advised them to return to Alliance and resume labor, which the protesters
promised to do and as an act of faith even agreed to turn in their axes to the
DC.
 |
| Overseer in white pith helmet with indentured workers of both sexes |
When the men returned to Alliance at 11 a.m. they met the DC
of Ephrata, accompanied by an interpreter and two policemen, who were to start
an investigation. The leading rebel was arrested which caused the other
laborers to become unruly. When the prisoner was not freed, the workers started
throwing stones and bottles. The DC ordered the police to fire six revolver
shots and to release the prisoner. The DC tried to flee but was soon found by
the enraged contractants. He and the rest of his group were all wounded by the
protestors. The DC of Ephrata was happy to leave the plantation alive and only
with the arrival of his colleague from Frederiksdorp at 4 p.m. did some
semblance of peace return to the estate. Later that evening the Attorney General
and Agent General arrived with a detachment of army and police, but the DC
convinced them not to provoke the indentureds and to spend the night at a
neighboring plantation. An investigation by the Attorney General and the DC of
Fredriksdorp during the next two days indicted one Javanese and sixteen British
Indians; each was sentenced to six months hard labor. Yet, the strike had some
success as the temporary director was replaced and wages were raised.”
Hoefte goes
on to describe the revolt at neighboring Marienburg three weeks later over
similar complaints: wage cuts, unfair treatment, and excessive, unreasonable
work demands. The workers attacked and killed the plantation director and
attacked other labor supervisors. Order was briefly restored by a combined
force of about 160 police and soldiers, but when they arrested the leaders of
the revolt, the indentured workers protested and refused orders to disburse, so
the Attorney General ordered the military to fire on the workers, killing
seventeen and wounding thirty-nine, seven of whom died later of infection. More
protest leaders were put on trial for the murder of the Marienburg director,
and eight were sentenced to 12 years hard labor.
 |
| Javanese worker killed by military at Marienburg. Sugar equipment behind grieving man. 1902. |
Here is a newspaper account from the 1902 Surinamer,
translated from the Dutch:
“Monday afternoon the
news spread through the city among the coolies that on Plantage Alliance riot
had broken out and that immediately a detachment of soldiers would leave
thither. That the report was justified may appear from the following, which we
hear from a good source. For some days there had been dissatisfaction among the
immigrants of the plantation about too hard work and the incompatible wages.
Saturday they stopped work; about 135 crossed the Matappica to pl. N. Meerzorg,
from where they walked the long way to Frederiksdorp. There they went to
complain to the District Commissioner, but while pl. Alliance belongs to the
district of Cottica, they were referred to the Commissioner of that district.
When the disaffected returned to the plantation on Monday, Commissioner Kremer
of Ephrata was readily present with Chief Constable Spetter and Officer
Hooghart to investigate. The coolies loved ones, however, do not await the end
of it. After they had been led from the station to the office of the plantation
by the policemen, the leader, a certain Djompa, pretended to be so bold that
the Commissioner thought he had to order him to be taken into custody. Then,
however, the coolies took a threatening attitude, began to throw stones,
bottles, pieces of wood and iron and other projectiles, so that the
Commissioner, the police officers, the director of the plantation, and the
Keepers had to take refuge in the offices and the supervisor's homes. Several
shots were fired at the pursuers, some wounded. But the Commissioner, the
Director and a few supervisors also received more or less serious wounds. Worst
of all, however, were both police officers. They had fled towards the river,
but were pursued and hit by projectiles, causing serious wounds. Fortunately,
they could be taken into an Anamite's boat by the river, or they might have
been ruthlessly killed by the angry mob. Tuesday morning they were brought to
the city and for nursing in the Mil. Hospital included. Their condition is not
such that there is danger to life; but they are very battered. One of the
supervisors and the Director were also admitted to the hospital here during the
day.
When the uproar broke
out, they immediately called for help. First, reinforcements of the police
force appeared, when Commissioner van Breen arrived with a dozen officers
between four and five in the afternoon. Even then the crowd calmed down.
Towards 7 a.m. the Attorney General and the Agent General arrived from
Paramaribo, as well as a detachment of 26 soldiers under the command of lute.
Muys. The latter, however, approached N. Meerzorg, where they spent the night
in the school building.
The following day,
because of the threatening attitude of the coolies, it was considered necessary
to transfer the soldiers to Alliance. This impressed the mutineers.
It is to be hoped that
the rioters of this riot will not escape their well-deserved punishment. ”
The
fascinating thing about the 1902 account is that by then the Shields family
owned and ran Alliance. The director who left for a trip to Europe was most
likely Archie Shields, who was running the company by then; his father died
just three years later and was quite elderly by that point. So who did Archie
place in charge temporarily who managed to anger the workers to such an extent
that they revolted? Was it another family member? I cannot find contemporaneous
newspaper accounts of the Alliance 1902 uprising, which might have included the
name of the hapless temporary director, so we may never know. The temporary
director may have been a Dutch supervisor, one of several Alliance employees
who lived in the other fairly large houses on the estate called overseer
houses. I have found some photos featuring their children. Two of the photos
include Maria Gonggripp, a daughter of a Dutch overseer, with two other young
women who I suspect were Shields family members, possibly Archie’s daughters.
One photo shows the Dutch girl playing pool at the “Big House”—the Shields’
house—with two other young women and the other shows the young women preparing
to ride horses.
 |
| Maria Gonggripp at left, other two women likely Shields family members, circa 1912 |
 |
| Same three women on horses, believed to be at Alliance 1912. |
The number and names of the
leadership positions at Alliance are confusing and their responsibilities are
unknown. We know that at some point James Smith was brought in as a “manager”, but
I believe there were many managers. Ruth’s story indicates there were several
overseers at the plantation who worked directly with the indentured workers. It
is unclear if “manager” jobs dealt more with the processing of the
cane—transporting it, running the sugar processing plant, and selling and
delivering the product—or with the growing and harvesting of the cane and
dealing with the indentured workers. Then there were positions that translate
from the Dutch as “commander”, “administrator” and “director”—at various
points, Archie Shields seems to have held at least two of those titles—were
they separate positions or different names for the same position?
What we can tell is that the
Shields family were fairly removed from the lives of their indentured workers.
In Ruth’s story, Archie speaks about them in abstract, disinterested terms.
They were just another type of sugar producing supply rather than people
deserving of respect and fair treatment. He just wondered what nationality the
agent who supplied them would send.
In Ruth’s story, the Tajah
celebration ends in a violent melee between the Javanese and Hindustani
workers. The Hindustanis were armed and attacked and injured their opponents.
Ruth wrote that “the field of battle was empty, except for the groaning,
bleeding forms of some who were unable to drag themselves away. The Javans had
taken refuge in the canefields, the coolies were plundering the homes of the
vanquished.”
 |
| Javanese indentured workers in Suriname field |
But what happened after that? No
one is upset about the injuries and possible deaths. No one mentions doctors or
hospitals or first aid. No one attempts to stop the “plundering” of the meager
possessions of the Javanese workers. But the most significant omission? No one
mentions that the military would probably swoop in and arrest the so-called
“leaders” of the melee and sentence them to hard labor.
As we see from the account of the
1902 revolts, the workers had legitimate reasons for striking and protesting,
but the plantation owners were only concerned with enforcing order and
punishing anyone who objected to their brutal treatment. In theory these
workers were free, not slaves, but in practice they had few rights and were
repeatedly taken advantage of by the plantation owners, including the Shields
family.
The crime of standing up for
“Coolie” rights was met with brutal military action and harsh punishment. The
poor treatment of these desperate people was the true crime.
Sources:
1. https://www.surinameplantages.com/archief/a/alliance
2. Control and resistance: indentured labor in Suriname. Rosemarijn Hoefte. New West Indian Guide/ Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 61 (1987), no: 1/2, Leiden, 1-22. http://www.kitlv-journals.nl
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