The Netherlands officially abolished slavery across its colonies on 1 July 1863. Yet in Sumatra’s plantation belt, Dutch authorities created a legal structure that granted plantation owners sweeping control over racialized migrant workers. Through the Coolie Ordinance and Penal Sanction, labourers could be imprisoned, fined, or subjected to corporal punishment. Planters relied on debt, coercion, and deception to recruit workers, while private police forces hunted down runaways and crushed resistance.... see more