Although Leiden’s involvement in colonialism and slavery was not as obvious as in the Netherlands’ harbour cities, its leaders, residents and university directly profited, according to new research.

Two studies by Leiden University historians Ligia Giay, Sjoerd Ramackers and Emma Sow show “various cross-connections” between the city’s executive and university with the slave trade and colonialism from 1600 until 1945.

The mayor of Leiden, Peter Heijkoop, who was formally presented with their two academic studies on Thursday, said that it was important to understand and recognise “painful facts” from the past.

“This important part of Leiden city history has never before been studied on this scale,” he said in a statement to the press. “The connections they uncovered about the city’s governance, the people of Leiden and a past of colonialism and slavery will be further studied by the major and executive.”

The city plans, he said, to put forward proposals for a way to recognise this shared history of Leiden, where executive leaders and residents had an active role in colonial networks.

Profited

Over the course of a year, the researchers delved into archives, original sources and extant studies on connections between the city and this part of history. Ligia Giay found evidence that university leaders, researchers and students were active in colonial networks – for example, helping with legal research or studying native populations or conducting medical experiments in Dutch Guyana.

Closely linked to Leiden’s political and economic elite, many university leaders were active in the VOC Dutch East India Company and West India Company (WIC), as well as the Society of Suriname, involved in colonial trade and slavery.

She found that Leiden was also an important educator for the sons of colonial leaders and traders, who often went on to important functions – although it was also a place where the children of prominent people from Indonesia and Suriname were later educated, and formed a critical network opposing exploitative colonial trade.

The university itself did not own any enslaved people or shares in plantations but it “profited…from the wealth that was earned through slavery and colonialism,” said the university in a summary.

Meanwhile a study by Sjoerd Ramackers and Emma Sow found that although – at first glance – the city’s involvement was less than in harbour cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Leiden’s leaders were actively involved in pursuing the city’s interests through colonialism, working for the VOC and WIC chambers in Amsterdam and connecting them with investors in Leiden. Some also had private shares in colonial trade and the slave trade.

Painful

Poorer people from Leiden had jobs producing uniforms for the colonial army and some were trained to work on ships going to the colonies.

Alicia Schrikker, director of research at the Leiden University Institute for History and one of the research leaders, was surprised that the city was connected with these trades in so many manners. “It is striking how many different ways colonialism and involvement in slavery played a role in Leiden’s society and university,” she said. “We found it in Leiden’s care for the poor but also in a scientific discipline like astronomy, for example.”

Recognising this heritage is seen as an important part of the institution’s current role and responsibility. “It is, of course, difficult to confront the role some of our predecessors played in this painful history,” said Leiden University’s board chair Annetje Ottow in a statement. “But as an educational and research institution, we have an important role in promoting knowledge and critical reflection on this past.”

Cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and institutions such as the DNB Dutch central bank have previously researched their role in slavery, before formally apologising. In 2022, the DNB set up a €5 million fund to contribute to local initiatives by descendants of enslaved people and donated the same amount to education projects. There was a national apology by former prime minister Mark Rutte in the same year and €200 million allocated to measures “aimed at raising awareness…and addressing the present-day effects of slavery.”

A national trans-atlantic slavery museum is expected to open in Amsterdam in 2030.