Kolonie Berbice(1627–1803) Colony of Berbice(1803–1831) County of Berbice(1838–1958) Berbice | |||||||||
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| 1627–1831 1838–1958 | |||||||||
  Flag (1627–1792)Flag (1803–1831) | |||||||||
 Berbice around 1780. | |||||||||
| Status |
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| Capital | Fort Nassau (1627–1785) Fort Sint Andries (1785–1815) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Dutch,Berbice Creole Dutch,English,Guyanese Creole,Guyanese Hindustani (Nickerian-Berbician Hindustani),Tamil,South Asian languages,African languages,Akawaio,Macushi,Waiwai,Arawakan,Patamona,Warrau,Carib,Wapishana,Arekuna,Portuguese,Spanish,French,Chinese | ||||||||
| Religion | Christianity,Hinduism,Islam,Judaism,Afro-American religions,Traditional African religions,Indigenous religions | ||||||||
| Governing company | |||||||||
• 1627–1712 | Van Peere family | ||||||||
• 1714–1815 | Society of Berbice | ||||||||
• 1627 | Abraham van Peere | ||||||||
• 1789–1802 | Abraham Jacob van Imbijze van Batenburg | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established as aDutch West India Company colony | 1627 | ||||||||
| November 1712–24 October 1714 | |||||||||
| 24 October 1720–1821 | |||||||||
| 24–27 February 1781 | |||||||||
| 22 January 1782 | |||||||||
| 1783 | |||||||||
• Colony of theDutch Republic | 1 January 1792 | ||||||||
| 27 March 1802 | |||||||||
| 20 November 1815 | |||||||||
• Berbice merges withDemerara-Essequibo to becomeBritish Guiana | 21 July 1831 | ||||||||
• County of Berbice | 1838 | ||||||||
• Merged into the newregions | 1958 | ||||||||
| Currency | Spanish dollar,Dutch guilder,British Guiana dollar,British West Indies dollar | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Guyana | ||||||||
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Berbice (/bɜːrˈbiːs/) is a region along theBerbice River inGuyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of theDutch West India Company and between 1792 and 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the latter year, it was merged withDemerara-Essequibo to form the colony ofBritish Guiana in 1831. It became acounty of British Guiana in 1838 till 1958. In 1966, British Guiana gained independence asGuyana and in 1970 it became a republic as theCo-operative Republic of Guyana.
After being a hereditary fief in the possession of the Van Peere family, the colony was governed by theSociety of Berbice in the second half of the colonial period, akin to the neighbouringcolony of Suriname, which was governed by theSociety of Suriname. The capital of Berbice was atFort Nassau until 1790. In that year, the town ofNew Amsterdam, which grew aroundFort Sint Andries, was made the new capital of the colony.
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Berbice was settled in 1627 by the businessmanAbraham van Peere fromVlissingen, under the suzerainty of theDutch West India Company. Until 1714, the colony remained the personal possession of Van Peere and his descendants. Little is known about the early years of the colony, other than that it succeeded in repelling an English attack in 1665 in theSecond Anglo-Dutch War.[1][2] The colony was a family affair who owned all the plantations on theBerbice River, though they did allow a couple of sugar planters to settle on theCanje River.[3]
A dispute arose between the SecondDutch West India Company, which was founded to succeed the First Dutch West India Company that went bankrupt in 1674, and the Van Peere family, because the family wanted the colony as an immortal loan as agreed with the first Company.[4] This was resolved when on 14 September 1678 a charter was signed which established Berbice as a hereditaryfief of the Dutch West India Company, in the possession of the Van Peere family.[5]
In November 1712, Berbice was briefly occupied by the French underJacques Cassard, as part of theWar of the Spanish Succession. The Van Peere family did not want to pay a ransom to the French to free the colony, and in order to not let the colony cede to the French, the brothers Nicolaas and Hendrik van Hoorn, Arnold Dix, Pieter Schuurmans, and Cornelis van Peere, paid the ransom of ƒ180,000 in cash and ƒ120,000 in sugar and enslaved people on 24 October 1714, thereby acquiring the colony.[6]
In 1720, the five owners[7] of the colony founded theSociety of Berbice, akin to theSociety of Suriname which governed the neighbouring colony, to raise more capital for the colony. The Society was apublic company listed on theAmsterdam Stock Exchange.[8] In the years following, Berbice's economic situation improved, consisting of 12 plantations owned by the society, 93 private plantation along theBerbice River, and 20 plantations along theCanje River.[9]
In 1733, 25 to 30 houses were built aroundFort Nassau to house the craftsmen. The next year aninn was added. The village was named New Amsterdam (Dutch:Nieuw Amsterdam).[10] In 1735, a school master was hired to teach the white children.[11] There were medical doctors stationed in New Amsterdam and Fort Nassau, and six local doctors were assigned to the plantations.Epidemics remained a frequent problem in the colony resulting in many deaths.[12]
The religion in the colony wasCalvinism.[13] In 1735, aminister was installed in Fort Nassau, but after a personal conflict with the governor, he was transferred to Wiruni Creek.[11]Catholics andJews were not allowed to become planters or have a government function.[14] In 1738, two missionaries of theMoravian Church had been invited by a planter to teach the people he enslaved. They were treated with suspicion, and received several official warnings. In 1757,[15] the missionaries left, and joined the congregation at the village of Pilgerhut founded in 1740 outside the plantation area, where they lived with 300Arawak.[16]
The colony had peace and trade treaties with the local Amerindians. This colony did not intervene in wars between the tribes, and no Amerindian was allowed to be taken into slavery unless they were sold by theKalina or the Arawak and captured from the interior of the country.[17]
Berbice was supposed to be guarded by 60 soldiers in Fort Nassau, and another 20 to 30 soldiers in other locations.[18] Even when not under attack, wars often caused supply problems. In 1670s, the colony had not been supplied for 17 months,[19] andneutrality as during theSeven Years' War could not prevent supply shortages.[20]
The relatively sound economic situation of the colony was dealt a severe blow when aslave uprising broke out under the leadership ofCoffy in February 1763.[21] The enslaved people captured the south of the colony while the whites, who were severely outnumbered, tried to hang on the north. The uprising went on until well into 1764, with Coffy naming himself governor of Berbice. Only with the use of brute force and military aid by neighbouring colonies and the Netherlands was governorWolfert Simon van Hoogenheim able to finally suppress the uprising, and restore the colony to Dutch rule.[9][22]
The uprising led to a steep population decline,[23] abandonment and destruction of many plantations, and serious financial problems for the Society.[24] Fort Nassau had been set on fire to prevent it falling into enemy hands.[25] In 1785 the village was abandoned in favour ofFort Sint Andries, situated more downstream, at the confluence of theCanje River. The new village was again namedNew Amsterdam, and is still known by that name in contemporary Guyana.[26]
On 27 February 1781, British forces occupied Berbice and neighbouringDemerara andEssequibo as part of theFourth Anglo-Dutch War, because 34 out of 93 plantations in Berbice were under British ownership.[27] In January 1782, the colonies wererecaptured by the French, who were allied with the Dutch, and who subsequently restored the colonies to Dutch rule with theTreaty of Paris of 1783.[28]
The colony was on 22 April 1796 again captured by Britain, however this time without a fight. A deal was struck with the colony: all laws and customs could remain, and the citizens were equal to British citizens. Any government official who swore loyalty to theBritish crown could remain in function.[29]Abraham van Batenburg decided to remain governor. Many plantation owners fromBarbados settled in the colony, doubling the slave population.[30] The British now remained in possession of the colony until 27 March 1802, when Berbice was restored to theBatavian Republic under the terms of theTreaty of Amiens.[31] In 1803, there was amutiny of soldiers who complained about the rations. They occupied Fort Sint Andries, and raised theUnion Jack with a piece of meat on top. The remaining soldiers aided by Suriname and the Amerindians put down the revolt, and executed five soldiers.[32]
In September 1803 the British occupied the territory again, this time for good,[33] and once again without a fight.[34] Abraham van Batenburg, who had been exiled to Europe in 1803, returned for his second term as governor.[35] In theAnglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, the colony was formally ceded to the United Kingdom,[31] and with the ratification of this treaty by the Netherlands on 20 November 1815, all Dutch legal claims to the colony were rescinded.[36] The plantations and the enslaved people of the Society of Berbice remained under their ownership,[4] but they had already made a decision to sell their possessions in 1795,[37] and they closed their offices in 1821.[4]
In 1812, the colonies ofDemerara andEssequibo had been merged into the colony ofDemerara-Essequibo.[31] As part of the reforms of the newly acquired colonies on the South American mainland, the British merged Berbice withDemerara-Essequibo on 21 July 1831, forming the newcrown colony ofBritish Guiana, nowGuyana.[33]
In 1838, Berbice was made one of the three counties of Guiana, the other two being Demerara and Essequibo.[38] In 1958, the county was abolished when Guiana was subdivided into districts.[38]
Historical Berbice was split in 1958[39] to make newGuyanese administrative regions and the name is preserved in the regions ofEast Berbice-Corentyne,Mahaica-Berbice, andUpper Demerara-Berbice.[38]
Berbice Creole Dutch, a Dutch creole language based on the lexicon and grammar of the West African languageIjo, was spoken until well into the 20th century. In 2005, the last known speaker died. The language was declared extinct in 2010.[40]
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