Mariënburg is a former
sugarcane plantation, factory and village, situated in the district of
Commewijne, in northern
Suriname.
History
In 1745, Mariënburg was founded as a sugar plantation by Maria de la Jaille. After several owner changes, the plantation became a coffee plantation in the 19th century. In 1882, the plantation, which had been abandoned, was purchased by the
Netherlands Trading Society
The Netherlands Trading Society ( nl, Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij or NHM) was a Dutch trading and financial company, established in 1824 in The Hague by King William I to promote and develop trade, shipping and agriculture. For the next 140 ...
(NHM).
The Society wanted to establish a central sugarcane factory, which had to be able to handle the surrounding plantations. To support the incoming supply of sugarcane, a railway was built, the first railway in Suriname. On 23 October 1882, the cane processing factory opened. Soon after, one of the plantations dropped out, and the remaining production was not worthwhile. The NHM bought the plantations to keep the vast supplies of sugar running. On Mariënburg itself, sugarcane was also planted.
The NHM took
Javanese indentured laborers from the then
Dutch East Indies. The first Javanese laborers arrived on 9 August 1890 in
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' ...
and were brought to Mariënburg.
Indians of
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
also worked on Mariënburg. On 2 July 1902, a strike broke out among them, because the NHM paid very low wages. On 29 July, director James Mavor was chased by the workers and killed. Later in the day, a detachment of the Colonial Army arrived at Mariënburg. The following day, on 30 July, people were arrested, after angry workers marched to the office. Shots were fired at the mutinous workers, resulting in 17 fatalities and 39 wounded, 7 of which later succumbed to their injuries, bringing the total number of dead workers to 24. Over a century later, on 30 July 2006, Vice President
Ramdien Sardjoe
Ramdien Sardjoe (born 10 October 1935) is a Surinamese politician and served as Vice President of Suriname from 2005 to 2010. He is a member of the Progressive Reform Party (VHP).
He was born in the District of Suriname.
Before vice presidency ...
unveiled a monument at Mariënburg in memory of the uprising and resulting dead, under the initiative of the ''Fallen Heroes Foundation of 1902''.
The factory closed in 1986,
and the factory and its associated buildings are now a tourist attraction, despite the dilapidated state in which the site rests in.
Transport
Mariënburg can be reached via
Alkmaar and the
East-West Link. The villages of
Johan & Margaretha and
Frederiksdorp can be reached by a ferry from Mariënburg.
Notes
References
* Anne Blondé, Toekijan Soekardi: ''Plantage Mariënburg. Van koffiebes tot rum''. Stichting LM Publishers, Arnhem 2013, .
* C.F.A. Bruijning, J. Voorhoeve: ''Encyclopedie van Suriname''.
Elsevier
Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...
, Amsterdam and Brussels 1977, , Page 394.
*
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 ...
: ''Tweemaal Mariënburg''. Conserve 1997, .
External links
Drone-video of Mariënburg 2021
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marienburg
Populated places in Commewijne District
Populated places established in 1745
1745 establishments in South America