The Cost of Sugar

by Cynthia McLeod

  When Rutger was there, he got involved with everybody. He talked with Rebecca, looked at her drawings and paintings and discussed books with her, and it was clear that Rebecca felt at ease with him. Sarith talked and joked a lot, too. She was in her element again. At the Vooruitzicht20 Plantation, which was only 90 minutes’ journey from Hébron, three young men were lodging who were paying her a lot of attention, and the young ladies and gentlemen were constantly coming and going between the various plantations. But Sarith could not help flirting with Rutger, too. When Elza noticed the amused looks Sarith was getting from Rutger, she wondered whether he didn’t perhaps find her dull and boring.

  One afternoon Elza and Rutger were sitting on a bench on the river bank near the boathouse. It was a peaceful afternoon and they looked out over the river to the green of the rainforest on the other side. Elza was a bit quiet. They and Sarith had just been playing cards and Sarith had laughed and talked so much with Rutger. Now Sarith had gone indoors. Rutger’s eyes had followed her admiringly, and he had said, “How pretty she is, eh?”

  Elza asked softly, “Would you perhaps rather marry such a beautiful woman?”

  Rutger looked at her amusedly and said, “Elza, you’re not jealous, are you?”

  Elza said nothing and shrugged her shoulders, and Rutger continued, “Listen, Elza. I would never want to marry your stepsister. I admire her beauty in the same way that I admire a beautiful flower or bird or a painting, but marry her? No, absolutely not. A beautiful woman is a difficult possession, and a beautiful woman with Sarith’s temperament would be a difficult and dangerous possession. I would soon find myself in the position of having to fight duels, and that is nothing for me. But Elza, you must promise me one thing: never be jealous. I find men who have jealous wives always so pitiful and I would never want to be like that. Trust me: I love you and will always love you, always.”

  Elza smiled at him: “That sounds good.”

  Rutger said pensively, “This land is sometimes so odd. There are sometimes such strange customs. Promise me, Elza, that you’ll never get angry with me over another woman. That even if I get involved with another woman on occasion – you never know – you must even then trust me and know that I will always love you and never will leave you.”

  “Involved with another woman?” said Elza, while reflecting that such things were commonplace in this colony. So many men had, in addition to their lawfully wedded wife, a mistress or a concubine, and these latter were usually mulatto or even slaves. Did Rutger intend this, too?

  “Are you intending to take a mistress, Rutger?” she asked.

  “Intending? No, certainly not!” cried Rutger. “Oh no, but you never know how life goes, and I want you to know that I will always remain true to you, even if, for instance, I have a brief something or a short affair with another woman. Do you understand that? Promise me that you won’t be angry or think that you must have your revenge with another man.”

  “Yes, I promise,” said Elza, “But if, if …” she hesitated.

  “If what?” asked Rutger.

  “Such an incident or short affair – that would surely not happen in my house?”

  “Oh, come now, Elza!” Rutger laughed. “Certainly not, my darling. Were you afraid of that?”

  “Oh, rain, rain, come my dearest, inside, quickly; hurry.”

  It had suddenly started to rain, and within a few seconds it was pouring down. He brought Elza quickly to her feet and they raced indoors, followed by Alex, who took the empty glasses and plates to the kitchen.

  When Rutger was again at the plantation a few weeks later, Elza saw immediately that there was something amiss. He looked strained and tense; it seemed as if something was restraining him. “What’s the matter, Rutger,” she asked softly when the two of them were sitting on the veranda.

  “Van Omhoog wants me gradually to take over his position in the Court of Civil Justice,” Rutger replied.

  “But surely that’s wonderful, Rutger, a real honour and so good for your career,” thought Elza.

  “Perhaps, but still I think I won’t do it. It’s always swimming against the tide. I went along to one of the sittings, and after that I got the chance to read various papers. It was terrible, Elza, terrible what I read there. It was mostly about the cruel punishments the slaves received. I couldn’t believe my eyes. And do you imagine for one moment that the owners were punished? They got a telling-off! You ask yourself how it is possible that people can think up such atrocities. You know, I read about a certain Basdow. A few years ago he had a slave’s fingers hacked off one by one, and then he forced the slave to eat the first few fingers that had been cut off!” Rutger shivered as he recounted this.

  “Oh, terrible!” cried Elza.

  “Wait, that’s not all,” Rutger continued. “He wanted to have the same slave burned alive, and when they couldn’t get the fire hot enough, he had him buried alive. It is surely that wretch himself that should be well and truly punished?”

  “Who should be well and truly punished?” asked Sarith, who had come onto the veranda and had heard the last few words.

  “A certain Basdow who wanted a slave to be cruelly punished,” said Elza.

  “But the slave will have deserved it,” said Sarith.

  “No-one can deserve the punishment of being first forced to eat his hacked-off fingers and then being buried alive.” Rutger was furious as he said this.

  “Oh, Rutger,” cried Sarith, “You seem not to have understood that slaves need to be severely punished. If we didn’t do that, they could quite easily murder us!”

  “I don’t call this punishment,” retorted Rutger. “A punishment must offer the chance for improvement, and these atrocities most certainly do not do that.”

  “Oh come, you make it sound as if you can compare slaves with ordinary people. Slaves are negroes. You punish one to scare the others. Don’t you understand that?” Sarith went and sat in the rocking chair while she said this.

  “Do you know what I think?” Rutger went on. “I think that people who invent such horrible things as hanging on a meat hook, scorching lips and tongues and burning alive – those creatures don’t deserve to be called people. Even in the animal world you see that creatures kill other sorts only for food. Even animals don’t treat their victims in this way.” Rutger was getting all workedd up. Elza looked at him: his face was red and a small artery pulsed in his neck.

  Sarith rocked slowly to and fro in the rocking chair. “Rutger,” she said, “What do you know of slaves? You’ve not been here long enough to be able to judge. When you’ve been here longer, you’ll talk differently.” Then she called out, “Mini-mini, I want something to drink.”21

  “What Rutger is saying has nothing to do with being here for a long or a short time,” said Elza. “He’s right: the slaves are simply mistreated. On some plantations they get an extreme beating or a hundred lashes for the slightest thing. Have you heard what Susanna Duplessis has done now? She has had a child drowned before its mother’s eyes. Even children get a cruel, cruel beating under her.”

  “Then at least they learn to work from a young age,” said Sarith. “If Uncle Levi allowed the slaves to be treated more strictly, then the plantation would produce much more, that’s what everyone says.” And then she shouted out loudly, “Mini-mini, come on! And why are you always grumbling about the slaves,” she sneered. “Don’t you have nicer things to talk about?”

  At that moment came the sound of a bell from the riverside.

  “A boat, a boat! Who is it?” Sarith had sprung up. “Oh look, visitors!”

  Two gentlemen walked up from the riverside. One was Joshua de Miranda, the eldest son from the Ephrata Plantation, and the other was a stranger. Arriving on the veranda, Joshua explained, “This is Moshe Bueno de Mesquita. He’s just arrived from Amsterdam. He has come to lodge with us as of yesterday. We’ve come to ask whether the ladies and gentleman would like to come home with us for a pleasant afternoon.”

  Sa
rith was excited. Of course she wanted to go along. There was nothing to do here, after all. She had got bored long ago. Rutger, however, was not all that keen, and therefore Elza also preferred to stay at home of course.

  When Sarith returned towards evening, she was cheerful and even elated. They had had such a good time. Later in the evening she described excitedly to Elza how obviously charmed by her the newcomer Mosche Bueno de Mesquita had been. Actually he was destined for Joshua’s niece, Naomi, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Sarith, and that Naomi, she had looked increasingly miserable and annoyed. Now, Sarith had in any case had a really wonderful time!

  “And Elza, what have you been doing all afternoon?” asked Sarith, before she prepared to go to sleep. That Rutger had got so worked up about such unimportant matters as slaves’ punishments and all that nonsense. Was Elza sure that she wanted to marry such a moaner? And, already yawning, Sarith declared, “When you are married I won’t visit you very often; there won’t be very much happening. Hmm, I can see it already: a dull couple you’ll become, really boring.”

  18 ‘Flat Bridge’.

  19 ‘My Happiness’ and ‘The Great Expectations’.

  20 Prospect.

  21 “Mini-mini mi wani dringi.”

  CHAPTER III

  ELZA

  The wedding of Elza and Rutger took place on Sunday 14 August 1766. The weeks running up to the great day were filled with many and varied activities, for bride as well as groom. Rutger had been able to rent a house on the Wagenwegstraat: a pleasant place with extensive grounds and adequate slave accommodation on the property. Pa Levi had been exceedingly generous and had seen to it that the furnishing was impeccable. He had paid for the furniture in the front hall and for the equipping of the kitchens, also for the beautiful silk curtains, while Rutger himself had taken care of the dining room and had had a cabinet maker make the large mahogany four-poster bed and the large mahogany mirrored dressing cabinets.

  The last two weeks Elza had been in her future home every day, ensuring that everything was put in its proper place: the elegant porcelain service, the silverware and the crystal glass. While Maisa put neat piles of crisp linen in the cupboard, Sarith and Elza would walk around the house, stopping yet again in front of an open cupboard and looking out from one of the windows over the grounds.

  In the bedroom Sarith demonstrated how Elza would from now on be a fashionable lady, drinking chocolate with the other fashionable ladies, how she would run her household and direct the slaves. Bursting with laughter at Sarith’s play-acting, both girls landed on the bed, and when the laughter had subsided Sarith said suddenly and softly, “Oh Elza, I will miss you so much.”

  Elza replied, “I’ll miss you, too, Sarith. I can’t imagine being without you.”

  “You won’t miss me – you have Rutger, remember,” Sarith smiled, but Elza shook her head, “That is different. Sarith; promise me that you’ll often come and stay with me.”

  “I’ll certainly come to stay, but not too often, because I think your husband won’t want me around all the time and above all I’d feel like a third wheel on the wagon.”

  “Oh no, Sarith, Rutger isn’t like that; promise me that you’ll visit a lot,” said Elza, giving her stepsister a warm hug.

  The wedding ceremony took place on the Saturday afternoon in the Lutheran Church. There was no reception afterwards, since at 8 o’clock on the Sunday morning the whole company would depart for Hébron to celebrate there with a huge feast. The Jewish guests were not present in the Lutheran Church, but many had already travelled to Hébron on the Friday, or would arrive there during the Sunday morning.

  The last Friday, and also the Saturday, Elza still lodged at the home of Esther and Jacob de Ledesma, together with her father Levi and with Sarith. It was a merry gathering at the waterside that Sunday morning, where a multitude of guests stood near the Platte Brug, all in their finest finery, with slaves holding parasols above their misis’ heads. A loud cheer went up as the newly-weds stepped from their carriage and went to take their place in the beautifully decorated Hébron tent boat. A whole fleet of tent boats with flags flying could shortly afterwards be seen making its way along the Suriname River towards the wedding feast.

  Hébron Plantation was all hustle and bustle. Everything was prepared; everywhere there were decorations, on the large green lawn were wooden benches and tables under open shelters with leaf roofs. Over a hundred lamps hung in trees and on ropes to provide the lighting, since there would be a great ball that evening. The slaves were all wearing pretty loincloths and had been instructed to come as soon as the great bell sounded.

  When the boats had moored and the great bell had rung, the slaves went to stand in two rows as a guard of honour from the jetty to the plantation house. Everyone waved palm branches and the slave children threw flowers and rice. With flushed cheeks, Elza and Rutger walked through the human archway, almost deafened by the greetings shouted by the well-wishers. On the doorstep of the house Pa Levi stood waiting with a large bag of coins. Now Elza and Rutger threw the coins with generous hands, and all the slaves cheered and scrambled. After that the slaves returned to their own quarters, shouting their best wishes again as they departed. Elza had insisted that the slaves be given two free days for the celebrations.

  For many days now, everyone had been hard at work getting everything ready: pom22, pasties, various cakes such as fiadu, keksi and inglish boru,23 different wines and ginger beer. The slaves had extra salted fish and eggs. All the men had received dram24 and there were little cakes for the slave children.

  The main dinner was eaten at tables that had been pushed together on the wide veranda at the back of the house. It lasted two hours and was marked with regular bursts of laughter at all the poems that had been written in the couple’s honour. In the evening, the ball. The orchestra played, the green lawn spectacularly lit with all the lovely, coloured lanterns, and the ladies in their wonderful evening creations, each hair-do seemingly more elegant than the next, slaves in the background constantly busy ensuring everyone was served, and ready with fans after each dance.

  At a certain moment both Elza and Rutger had left the festivities, for Elza wanted Rutger to see something of the slaves’ celebrations. He must witness a genuine winti dansi, a ritual negro dance. This would be his only chance to see this, for the negroes did not usually appreciate whites coming to look at their dances, and such things were in fact forbidden on all the plantations. Elza had told her father that she was intending to go to the slaves’ party with Rutger, and Levi had approved on condition that her brother David and Maisa could go, too. He knew that the slaves would not mind his children being there. They had done this on various occasions in the past. Aunt Rachel’s arrival on the plantation had put an abrupt stop to this, because in her eyes it was inappropriate, and it was better that the children knew nothing of it.

  When Elza, Rutger and David had withdrawn from the rest of the company, they encountered Sarith, who wanted to go along, too, for she had never witnessed anything like this, and asked whether her companion, the young teacher at the Yeshiva (Jewish school) who had been in the colony only three weeks, could also go.

  The five, accompanied by Maisa and the old slave Felix, made their way silently to the open space in the rainforest where the slaves were holding their celebrations. The beating of the drums could be heard from far away. As they approached they saw all the dark, half-naked bodies, lit by the flames of the large fire that was burning in the middle of the clearing. They were not noticed, for at that moment a slave was busy dancing with a small bench between his legs. His feet moved ever faster to the beat of the drums, but not for one second did the bench drop. A woman now went into a trance. Her body began to shudder. She began to dance while the onlookers sang loudly. Rutger could not believe his eyes. The new Jewish teacher, too, looked at the sight with eyes wide open. Then another man who, while dancing, suddenly, before anyone realized what was happening, jumped into the fire and danced for a
t least two minutes on the red-hot embers before a woman pulled him out.

  The drums beat out their ceaseless rhythm, and all the negroes around the fire were moving their bodies one way or another to the beat of the music. David looked sideways at Sarith. She had a strange look in her eyes and also began to move her body, slowly but surely towards the slaves. David caught Sarith by the arm. She had such a strange expression and heard nothing of David’s cry to her. The movements of her body became increasingly violent. The teacher and Rutger now also looked at Sarith. Without another word, David grabbed Sarith by the shoulder and said, “Rutger, help me: we’ve got to get her away.”

  As David and Rutger walked away with Sarith between them, Maisa said to Elza, “It is better for misi herself to leave, too.”25

  And so they all returned to the ball, where some guest or other who had partaken somewhat liberally of the drinks called another toast to the couple. He was, however, so drunk that he almost swallowed his tongue. Whatever the wish might have been that he expressed, no-one could understand it, especially since he had even forgotten the names of the newly-weds.

  OCTOBER 1766

  Elza and Rutger had lived for two months now in their house on the Wagenwegstraat. Maisa, Amimba and Ta Dani had accompanied them from Hébron. When Elza was still at home and it was being discussed which slaves should go with her, she had said straightaway at the beginning of the conversation, “Maisa is going,” and everyone had laughed out loud. Papa said teasingly, “Imagine if Maisa did not go with you, that would be the end for both of you,” referring to the fact that from the day Elza was born, Maisa had never left her side. Hesitatingly, Elza said, “And Ashana?”