Sara Johanna De Beer

Sara Johanna de Beer ( Paramaribo, 1749/1750 – died in Paramaribo after 1811) was a printer and editor of a number of newspapers and magazines in the Dutch colony of Surinam.

Biography

De Beer was born in Paramaribo in 1749 or 1750, on her parents' plantation ''Berenrust''. Her father was Joost de Beer (d. 1756), and her mother was Anna Cornelia van Echten (1716–1782). Her father died when she was around six, and her mother remarried, with Pieter van Akeren (d. 1779), who owned the ''Dordrecht'' plantation. On 10 June 1763, Sara left for the Netherlands, with her slave Dido, followed by her mother and sister in May 1766. What they did in the Netherlands is unknown, but all four returned to Surinam in October 1767.

Early in 1773 Sara registered her intention to marry Nicolaas Vlier, a man twenty years her senior, and they got married on ''Dordrecht'' a few weeks later. Their family quickly grew to include six children. In 1774, the couple started ''De Weeklyksche Woensdaagsche Surinaamse Courant'', the first and only newspaper of the colony until 1785. In 1776, they bought the first printing house in Suriname.

When her husband died in 1781, she continued the business, and used her name on the newspapers. During the 1780s the business got into financial problems, and de Beer had to sell off some slaves "who could read and write." De Beer published at least six newspapers, but often received warnings from the government, and at least one publication ban.

See also

* List of women printers and publishers before 1800

References

Sources

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beer, Sara Johanna de
18th-century births
Year of death missing
18th-century Surinamese people
18th-century Surinamese women
Dutch newspaper editors
Dutch printers
People from Paramaribo
18th-century Dutch businesspeople
18th-century publishers (people)
18th-century printers