Piet Emmer

Piet Emmer
Piet Emmer (2018)
Born
Pieter Cornelis Emmer

(1944-10-17) October 17, 1944 (age 82)
Haarlem, Netherlands
EducationLeiden University
OccupationsEmeritus professor, author
Known forThe Dutch slave trade 1500–1850
TitleEmeritus professor
WebsiteAcademic Website

Pieter Cornelis (Piet) Emmer (born October 17, 1944) is a Dutch Emeritus professor of Colonial History at Leiden University, specialising in the European Expansion, and related themes of slavery and immigration.

Scholarship

Prof Piet Emmer studied history and economics in Leiden. He worked at the University of Amsterdam (Faculty of Economic Sciences) where he obtained his PhD in 1974 with the thesis 'England, the Netherlands, Africa and the slave trade in the nineteenth century'. He then worked at Leiden University until 2009, as full professor of the history of European expansion and related migration and slavery. In addition, he was an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2007. He was also a Visiting Fellow at Churchill College in Cambridge, the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar. As visiting professor, he was associated and taught at the University of Texas in Austin, the Universität Hamburg and the Université de Bretagne-Sud. He was a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History and Journal of Caribbean History. His best-known book is The Dutch Slave Trade 1500–1850. In 2009, he retired.

Dutch slave trade

In the public debate on the Dutch slave trade, Emmer takes a relativistic position. For years Emmer was considered the slavery expert in the Netherlands, but his perspective has been criticized in the public debate. In publications, he emphasizes the role that inhabitants of the African continent had in the transatlantic slave trade. Emmer also put into perspective the profitability of the Dutch slave trade, calculating that the Dutch slave trade accounted for only 0.005 percent of national income, citing that many slaves died during the journey from Africa to the New World. He also argued that the Dutch slave trade was the only one that ceased to exist for economic reasons.

In 2013, in an article in newspaper Trouw, he argued that the slaves did not always fare as badly as things were presented by abolitionists at the time: the slave owners (e.g. plantation directors and overseers) were reluctant to use corporal punishment and rape because they did not want to risk conflict with the slaves given the possible consequences, also they were fed relatively well compared to the poor population in Western Europe and Africa who suffered from famines. Speaking on the radio programme 1 on 1, he said, "You also have to realise that they would not have been free either if they had stayed in Africa. They had already been enslaved."

Emmer's research into the Dutch history of slavery meets with resistance from time to time. His book on the history of slavery was received critically by the National Platform Slavery Past, among others. One objection was that Emmer estimated the Dutch Republic's share of the transatlantic slave trade at five per cent. His assertion that development aid is incompatible with development also caused a stir.

Dutch Slavery Museum

Asked if he will be involved in the new National Slavery Museum in Amsterdam, he replied, "I have not been asked. Maybe I'm too old or too controversial." Emmer does have all sorts of ideas about the layout of the new museum: he would like to see documentation on slavery from the West Indies, the Antilles and Surinam, combined with African slavery, Asia and the Dutch East Indies. This, he says, would illuminate slavery from many sides.

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ "Pieter Emmer". Research Gate. Archived from the original on 3 May 2025.
  2. 1 2 "prof. dr. P.C. Emmer, 1944". Universiteit van Amsterdam (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 25 December 2024.
  3. ↑ "Emmer, Piet". Home Academy (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 15 January 2026.
  4. ↑ Pargas, Damian Alan (22 April 2010). "'Slavery, Migration, and the Atlantic World' An Interview with Piet Emmer". Itinerario. 30 (3). Cambridge University Press: 8–18. doi:10.1017/S0165115300013346.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Slavernij-historicus: nieuw Slavernijmuseum Amsterdam is gemiste kans" [Slavery historian: Amsterdam’s new Slavery Museum is a missed opportunity]. NPO Radio 1 (in Dutch). 25 June 2021. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026.
  6. ↑ van Rijswijk, Robbert (29 January 2019). "Piet Emmer: 'Onzin om verleden dat niet bevalt uit te wissen'" [Piet Emmer: “It’s nonsense to try to erase a past you don’t like”]. De Tijd (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 19 August 2025.
  7. ↑ Emmer, Piet (29 June 2013). "Slavernij is geen excuus" [Slavery is no excuse]. Trouw (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 16 October 2020.
  8. ↑ van Casteren, Joris; Vermaas, Peter (13 May 2000). "De zwarte holocaust" [The black holocaust]. De Groene Amsterdammer (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 30 March 2023.
  9. ↑ Emmer, Piet (27 October 2009). "Hoeveel je ook geeft, hulp brengt geen ontwikkeling" [No matter how much you give, aid does not lead to development]. Trouw (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 13 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "Ontwikkelingshulp: stoppen of doorgaan?" [Development aid: stopping or continuing?]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). 13 February 2007. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023.
  11. ↑ Historicus kritisch over slavernij [Historian critical of slavery]. De Telegraaf (in Dutch).