Commewijne · sugar, cacao, coffee, cotton, citrus
Peperpot: three and a half centuries of estate, now forest
Peperpot, on the right bank of the Suriname River, is one of the oldest plantations in the country, laid out between about 1651 and 1660, and produced sugar, cacao, coffee, cotton and finally citrus until the business stopped in the 1990s. Fifty-one people were freed here at the emancipation of 1863.
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Peperpot is older than Dutch rule over Suriname. Its founding is dated between 1651 and 1660, probably by English planters, and it began in sugar. Simon van Halewijn counts as the first known Dutch owner from 1696, holding 902 akkers. After him came Van Essen tot Helbergen, De Vos van Steenwijk, the Amsterdam merchant Marcus Broen, the De Veer family and, from 1895, the Wright family.
The crops followed the market: cacao from about 1702, coffee from about 1720, cotton from 1793, and cacao and citrus again at the end. The park itself gives roughly 126 enslaved people at peak production, over half of them field workers; one field worker tended about a hectare of coffee and brought in some 300 kilos a year. No year is attached to that figure of 126.
By 1863 production had already stopped. Fifty-one people were declared free at Peperpot, with 24 new family names recorded, among them Beauregard, Bergschot, Boston and Hodge. The emancipation file for the estate is held at the Nationaal Archief under access 2.02.09.08, inventory number 237, as Plantage Peperpot, Beneden Suriname.
Indenture followed: Chinese labourers first, then Hindustani and Javanese. Between 1898 and 1929 the estate employed 831 British Indians and 1,276 Javanese. The business held on into the 1990s, growing citrus at the end with Javanese labour. Sources give either 1994 or 1998 as the year it stopped.
Since 2009 the Stichting Peperpot Natuurbos has managed the land as an 820 hectare reserve. Forest has come back over the old plantation tracks, with howler monkeys, capuchins and sloths. Of the business itself the director’s house, the coffee factory, the drying shed and a hand-operated sluice still stand, with machine parts and a large coffee and cacao pan in place: the only surviving coffee and cacao works in Suriname.
Frequently asked questions
How many people were freed at Peperpot in 1863?
Fifty-one. Production had already stopped by then. Twenty-four new family names were recorded at that emancipation, among them Beauregard, Bergschot, Boston and Hodge. The file sits at the Nationaal Archief, access 2.02.09.08, inventory number 237.
How many indentured labourers worked at Peperpot?
Between 1898 and 1929 the estate employed 831 British Indians and 1,276 Javanese, after an earlier wave of Chinese labourers. Anyone tracing a Hindustani or Javanese ancestor can look for the plantation name in the immigration registers at the Nationaal Archief.
How old is Peperpot?
The plantation was laid out between 1651 and 1660, probably by English planters, so before Suriname passed into Dutch hands in 1667. That makes Peperpot one of the oldest estates in the country.