The Pain of Living in the Shackles of Slavery and Concubinage
The story of Catharina van Bengalen's life as a mortgagee and concubine illustrates how slavery and concubinage snares.
SLAVERY was commonplace in colonial society during the VOC era. Her presence is needed to do household tasks, such as being a waitress, lighting worker, washerwoman, tailor to cook. Not a few slaves were also employed by the company to dig canals, build roads, erect new buildings, and become iron and woodworkers under the supervision of carpentry experts from Europe in the workshops at the Batavia castle.
The importance of the role of slaves was not only seen from their work, but slaves were also a measure of a person's wealth, especially the European population. Historian Susan Blackburn in Jakarta: 400 Years of History said that most of the slaves belonging to Europeans were generally used as accompaniments to show off wealth. "The very richest people could own a hundred slaves or more," said Susan.
Slaves with special skills such as tending horses, mowing grass and tending crops were generally valued more highly,” wrote Dukut. "Meanwhile, women, apart from their appearance, can be highly valued if they have expertise in cooking or sewing."
Despite having an important role in people's lives, the lives of slaves were inversely proportional to those of their owners. Historian Jean Gelman Taylor in Social Life in Batavia: Europeans and Eurasians in the East Indies wrote that most slaves died as slaves, were malnourished, had no proper shelter and lacked clothing.
They also often receive severe punishment for violating the rules or fighting their employers. Only a few slaves were given extra wages on top of their food rations, and the few who had a salary were able to buy their freedom. Even so, some were released because of the mercy of their owners.
“Free slaves are under the rule of the government just like free citizens. They need permission to stay, marry and have an obligation to join a civilian militia,” Taylor wrote.
However, the condition of European society which was dominated by male immigrants raised hopes for a better life for a number of female slaves. In the early years of Dutch settlement, for some Asian women, the change from slave to mistress of the house was swift. This hope did not completely disappear, although in the following years European men preferred to marry Eurasian women or European women in their home countries, who then sailed to the colonies to live with their husbands.
Unfortunately, according to Hendrik E. Niemeijer in Batavia: Colonial Society of the XVII Century , life as a mortgagee and concubine rarely provided long-term security. “Often such a life is full of surprises and changeable circumstances,” writes Niemeijer.
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