The subject of this article is the economic system that has developed in the Netherlands Guiana, based on forced slave labor. The degree of cruelty of this system over the past centuries has been mythologized by both contemporaries of the events and later researchers. Today in Netherlands, at the highest official level, the era of colonial slavery has been condemned but at the same time it was recognized as a part of national history, which is largely due to the influential Caribbean community. However, the attitude towards this topic in society remains extremely polarized, becoming the subject of manipulation by populist and nationalist forces. The work is based on a wide range of foreign sources and research; the methodological basis includes the historical, genetic and comparative methods. The scientific novelty of the article is connected with the poor study of the topic in domestic science. A comparative study of the situation of slaves in the Western Hemisphere has shown that toughness was not unique to the Dutch colonial ethos. The high mortality and hardships of slaves in the Netherlands Guiana and the Caribbean are due to the specifics of sugar plantations, and not to a greater degree of racism compared to Iberoamerica. The author draws attention to the gradual progressive evolution of all slavery regimes on the American continent.