Linguistic evidence and historiography: the selection of slaves on Curaçao, 1650-1700

Drawing on recent linguistic investigations on the origins of Papiamentu, this article aims to cast new light on an intriguing but hitherto unresolved socio-historical aspect of the initial decades of the Curaçaoan transit slave trade: the selection of slaves. In answer to the controversial question which slaves were kept on Curaçao rather than resold to third parties, we take a look at, and summarize, the body of linguistic evidence that Papiamentu is genetically related to Upper Guinea Portuguese Creole. This evidence, we believe, warrants the assumption that slaves from the Upper Guinea reg... Mehr ...