BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : BLACK PEOPLE AS SLAVES / SLAVERY IN SURINAM :

The British and Dutch like other European Colonizers attempted to use native Americans as slave labor. As in other countries the Native American did not prove a long term solution and very limited European settlement took place. Many of the Native American died in captivity through mistreatment and lack of resistance to European diseases but unlike the Caribbean Islands others could escape deep into the jungle of the  interior. The Dutch Planters in the 17th century develop sugar plantation when they controlled Brazil and brought that knowledge to Surinam and imported African Slaves did the work in the plantations. The Dutch were one of the European powers involved in the Tran-Atlantic Slave Trade, thus there was a ready supply of captive Africans to the planters in Surinam.

Considerable development subsequently took place in Surinam early in the 18th century. The most important work on the plantation was done by African Slaves and escapee slaves took flight into the interior show that substantial numbers rejected enslavement. Sugar proved to be a very profitable and great wealth was then accumulated by the white plantation owners, this lead to the importation of more and more African slaves to Surinam. Some African Slaves escape into the interior and they were known as Maroons, but in Surinam they were known as " Djukas " or " Bush Negroes ".  They became a problem for settlers when they acquired weapons and would attack settlement or plantations some times.