Editing Suriname (section)

===Abolition of slavery===
{{further|Human rights in Suriname}}
From 1861 to 1863, with the [[American Civil War]] underway, and enslaved people escaping to Northern territory controlled by the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]], United States President [[Abraham Lincoln]] and [[Presidency of Abraham Lincoln|his administration]] looked abroad for places to relocate people who were freed from [[enslavement]] and who wanted to leave the United States. It opened negotiations with the Dutch government regarding African American emigration to and colonization of the [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Dutch colony of Suriname]]. Nothing came of the idea, which was dropped after 1864.<ref>
{{cite journal|author=Douma, Michael J.|year=2015|url=https://michaeljdouma.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/douma-cwh.pdf|title= The Lincoln Administration's Negotiations to Colonize African Americans in Dutch Suriname|journal=Civil War History|volume=61|issue=2|pages=111–137|doi=10.1353/cwh.2015.0037|s2cid=142674093}}</ref>

The Netherlands abolished slavery in Suriname in 1863, under a gradual process that required slaves to work on plantations for 10 transition years for minimal pay, which was considered as partial compensation for their masters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaken |first=Ministerie van Algemene |date=2023-11-08 |title=Slavery Memorial Year - Discrimination - Government.nl |url=https://www.government.nl/topics/discrimination/history-of-slavery/slavery-memorial-year |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=www.government.nl |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaken |first=Ministerie van Algemene |date=2022-10-21 |title=Slavery Memorial Year 1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024 - Ministry of Education, Culture and Science - Government.nl |url=https://www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-education-culture-and-science/events/slavery-memorial-year |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=www.government.nl |language=en-GB}}</ref> After that transition period expired in 1873, most [[freedmen]] largely abandoned the plantations where they had worked for several generations in favor of the capital city, [[Paramaribo]]. Some of them were able to purchase the plantations they worked on, especially in the district of Para and Coronie. Their descendants still live on those grounds today. Several plantation owners did not pay their former enslaved workers the pay they owed them for the ten years following 1863. They paid the workers with the property rights of the ground of the plantation in order to escape their debt to the workers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Suriname View Geschiedenis|url=https://www.surinameview.com/sranan/geschiedenis/suriname-geschiedenis-deel-5-weer-nederlands-en-nieuwe-immigranten/|date=30 July 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 10030464 Kappen van suikerriet.jpg|thumb|left|[[Javanese people|Javanese]] [[indentured servants]] in Marienbourg plantation, c. 1930]]

As a plantation colony, Suriname had an economy dependent on labor-intensive commodity crops. To make up for a shortage of labor, the Dutch recruited and transported contract or [[indentured laborer]]s from the [[Dutch East Indies]] (modern Indonesia) and India (the latter through an arrangement with the British, who then ruled the area). In addition, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, small numbers of laborers, mostly men, were recruited from China and the Middle East.

Although Suriname's population remains relatively small, because of this complex colonization and exploitation, it is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse countries in the world.<ref>{{cite news|title=Suriname Country Profile|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1211306.stm|publisher=BBC News|date=14 September 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://dutch.berkeley.edu/mcnl/immigration/the-netherlands/the-surinamese/|title=Multicultural Netherlands|year=2010|publisher=UC Berkeley|access-date=13 August 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723092050/http://dutch.berkeley.edu/mcnl/immigration/the-netherlands/the-surinamese/|archive-date=23 July 2012}}</ref>