Maria
plantation cook and leader of an enslaved people's rebellion on Curaçao
Biography
Maria of Curaçao (died 9 November 1716) was an enslaved woman from Curaçao, in the Dutch Caribbean, and the leader of a slave rebellion there in 1716. Her story does not belong to gastronomy in the strict sense, but her work as a cook places her in a little-seen corner of food history: the kitchen of a plantation where newly captured Africans were prepared before being sold.
She worked at the St. Maria plantation, owned by the Dutch West India Company. On 15 September 1716, the enslaved people of the plantation rose up and killed some of the white staff, including women and children. Within ten days the revolt was put down by the military from Willemstad. Her lover, an enslaved man named Tromp, stated under torture that Maria had planned the rebellion to take revenge on the overseer Muller, who was responsible for the death of her spouse. Maria maintained her innocence throughout. She was sentenced to be burned at the stake and was executed on 9 November 1716.
Some studies suggest that the conviction may have been a mistake, since the only evidence linking her to the rebellion was a confession extracted under torture, a method shown to be unreliable for obtaining information. Her name remains in the island's memory and appears in popular culture.
Key contributions
- A window onto plantation life on eighteenth-century Curaçao, through her role in the kitchen where newly captured people were prepared.
- An example of resistance by enslaved people against the Dutch colonial system.
- A historical case that invites a re-examination of confessions obtained under torture.