The Elisabeth Samson House is a residential building which used to be owned by

Elisabeth Samson Elisabeth Samson (17151771) was an Afro-Surinamese coffee plantation owner. She was born in 1715 in Paramaribo to a freed slave, known as Mariana. All of her other siblings had been born as slaves and were emancipated by her half-brother Charlo ...

, the first

Afro-Surinamese Afro-Surinamese are the inhabitants of Suriname of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought to work on sugar plantations. Many of them escaped the plantations and formed independent settlements together, bec ...

millionaire A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire. In countries that use the short scal ...

. It is located on Wagenwegstraat in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, and is a monument. After Samson's death, it was bought by the State, and in the early 21st century, it was in a neglected state.

Cynthia McLeod Cynthia Henri McLeod (née Ferrier; born 4 October 1936) is a Surinamese novelist known for her historic novels and whose debut novel instantly made her one of the most prominent authors of Suriname. Background McLeod was born in Paramaribo as C ...

wanted the building restored. On 19 January 2021, the building was bought by the Elisabeth Samson Foundation, and will be turned into a museum.

History

(1715-1771) was born as a child of two

freed slaves A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

. She owned two coffee plantations, and started an affair with Carl Otto Creutz, a German coffee plantation owner. Around 1742, Samson and Creutz built a house on Wagenwegstraat. They owned 40 house slaves. Slaves were usually living in dwellings in the yard of house. Samson's slaves were housed in buildings next door and across the street. The Elisabeth Samson House was lavishly furnished. At Samson's death in 1771, the inventory of the house was 31

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s long, and her estate was valued at 1,138,000 guilders (In 2016: € 9,415,447). Herman Zobre, her Caucasian husband, squandered the money, and the building became property of the government. Up to 2012, the Ministry of Labour was headquartered in the Elisabeth Samson House.

, a prominent Surinamese author, considered the dilapidated state of the building shameful, and established the Elisabeth Samson Foundation in order to restore the building to its original condition. In 2017, the Government of Suriname decided not to restore the building, and sell it to the highest bidder. The building is located 150 metres outside the perimeter of the

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World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. Thanks to a donation of the

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, the building was bought by the Elisabeth Samson Foundation on 19 January 2021. It will be restored to its original shape. After the restoration, the building will be used to house the Elisabeth Samson Museum.

Building

Overzicht van de voorgevel en rechter zijgevel - Paramaribo - 20417482 - RCE

The building is located at the corner of Wagenwegstraat with Malebatrumstraat. The property extends all the way to Herenstraat. The building has a brick cellar which at the time Samson lived there, contained a large

wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. ...

. The house measures five stories, three of which are in the

attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...

. There are

dormers A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

on the side of the house. The building has two entrances. The main entrance has two quarter round stairs, and there is an additional entrance on the eastern side.

References

Bibliography

External links

Elisabeth Samson Huis
(in Dutch) {{commons category, position=left Buildings and structures in Paramaribo