The Dutch Likely Enslaved Over 3mln, Not 600,000, New Book Finds

By Al Mayadeen English

Source: The Guardian

1 Jul 2026 22:12

A new book puts Dutch slavery victims at up to 5.3 million, far above the 600,000 figure cited in official apologies by the king and Rutte.

A newly published book argues that the number of people enslaved by the Netherlands during the transatlantic slave trade was more than five times higher than the figure the Dutch government has admitted in its official apologies.

Dutch investigative journalist Leendert van der Valk puts the true number of victims at somewhere between 3.3 and 5.3 million people, according to a report by The Guardian.

That range dwarfs the commonly cited estimate of 600,000, the same figure King Willem-Alexander referenced three years ago when he apologized for the country's role in the slave trade and the one former prime minister Mark Rutte used in his own 2022 apology for what he called the past actions of the Dutch state.

Why the old number falls short

Van der Valk's research, detailed in his book whose title translates to Forgotten Places, Forgotten People, An Atlas of the Dutch History of Slavery, argues that the 600,000 figure leaves out large parts of the picture.

It does not include every territory the Dutch colonized or traded people through, nor does it span the full length of Dutch involvement in slavery. It also excludes people who were born into enslavement rather than transported by ship, along with Indigenous populations who were enslaved after Dutch colonization took hold.

To correct this, Van der Valk factored in Dutch activity in South Africa, India, and Sri Lanka, as well as Caribbean territories, including Guyana and Tobago, which remained under Dutch control until England took over in 1814.

He also shifted the timeframe under study, starting the count in 1595 rather than 1630, and extending it to 1914, when Dutch enslavement in parts of Indonesia finally came to an end, rather than stopping at the 1863 abolition date used in previous estimates.

Researchers respond

Scholars at Radboud University, whose demographic research underpins much of the book, described the new estimate as significant though preliminary.

Colonialism professor Matthias van Rossum said the figures shift attention beyond long-distance slave trade numbers toward those enslaved locally or born into the system.

Meanwhile, Coen van Galen, an associate professor in colonial history at Radboud, said Van der Valk’s calculation was a “rough estimate” but “provides for the first time an indication of the total number of victims of slavery in all Dutch colonies combined” and suggested the same approach could be applied to calculate figures for the British Empire and other colonial powers.

A question of recognition

For Peggy Brandon, a Surinamese-born curator at the Netherlands' National Museum of Slavery, currently under development, the stakes go beyond statistics.

She told The Guardian that the debate has long ignored the generations who lived and died inside the system of enslavement, including parents who killed their own children rather than let them grow up enslaved. Brandon argued that accurate numbers are a step toward restoring the humanity of people Europeans worked to dehumanize.

The book's release adds pressure on current Prime Minister Rob Jetten to move beyond symbolic apologies toward concrete measures, and comes weeks after the United Nations adopted a resolution in March declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans the gravest crime against humanity.