A landmark exhibition on slavery in the Dutch colonial era that was first staged at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is going on display at the United Nations in New York starting February 27. The show, titled Slavery: Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery, will open in the the U.N. headquarters’ visitors’ lobby, as part of a U.N. outreach program on the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Above: Rembrandt’s portraits of sugar-rich couple Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit. Photograph: Rijksmuseum/EPA

“Recognizing the continuing impact of slavery on world history is of great importance. We are very grateful to the United Nations for drawing attention to this important subject through the exhibition,” Rijksmuseum General Director Taco Dibbits said in a statement.

The exhibition at the U.N. is an adapted version of the show titled “Slavery” that was opened in 2021 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and told the story of slavery by drilling down into the personal stories of 10 people, ranging from enslaved workers to a wealthy Amsterdam woman (above right). The grim centerpiece of the U.N. slavery exhibition will be a set of wooden stocks known as a tronco, derived from the Portuguese word for tree trunk, in which several enslaved people could be constrained by clamping their ankles (left).

The unflinching exhibition looks at the lives of people who were enslaved, those who profited from the inhumane trade and people who opposed it in the Dutch colonial era, from the 17th to the 19th century — in Brazil, Suriname and the Caribbean, as well as in South Africa, Asia and the Netherlands, reported The Washington Post.

“It is without any doubt one of great achievements of the exhibition that its makers dared to present such new critical perspectives,” University of Amsterdam’s Laura van Hasselt and Paul Knevel wrote in their review in journal The Public Historian. “The narrative has changed from a proud ‘this is us in our Golden Age’ to an uncomfortable ‘this is who we don’t want to be anymore.”

The Public Historian feature reports, …one of the highlights of the exhibition was…Rembrandt’s huge portrait of a wealthy young woman named Oopjen Coppit (1634), top. Oopjen’s family wealth was based on sugar produced in slavery overseas. An archival document in an exhibit case nearby gave evidence of the rape of an enslaved woman in Dutch Brazil by Maerten Daay, Oopjen’s second husband. The document is chilling in its matter-of-factness, its grim content in stark contrast with the grand painting. Considering the fact that the Dutch government in 2015 paid millions to obtain Oopjen’s portrait (and that of her first husband Marten), it is a remarkable statement of the museum to frame it this way.  

Romuald Hazoumè’s installation titled La Bouche du Roi (The Mouth of the King) at the Rijksmuseum’s Slavery exhibition in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph: Albertine Dijkema

The narrative has changed from a proud “this is us in our Golden Age” to an uncomfortable “this is who we don’t want to be anymore.” It is without any doubt one of the great achievements of the exhibition that its makers dared to present such new critical perspectives, in the process informing the visitors and the users of the catalogue of the many difficulties (and sometimes possibilities) to overcome the silences around the topic and the necessity to read historical documents—be they written, visual or otherwise—against the grain. Below: Footstocks (1600–1800) Rijksmuseum, gift from Mr J.W. de Keijzer, Gouda

Oopjen was one of the ten personal historical figures—enslaved and enslavers—around which the exhibition was structured. These figures were carefully chosen, not only from all over the world, but also with different roles and coming from different time periods. Together they gave the makers the opportunity to present slavery as the multifaceted topic it is: from examples of living in slavery or taking advantages of enslaved labor to stories about resistance and freedom, concludes the review.

United Nations Visitor Center, 46^th Street and First Avenue, New York, NY Info The original show is still available for viewing online.