From Europe (i.e. the Netherlands) ships departed for Africa carrying, among other things coal dust and textiles, whereby these products were exchanged for African men, women and children. These people were in turn delivered into slavery and were forced to work on plantations and cultivate products for the European market in the so-called new world. As we speak of the history of Dutch slavery, the parties involved included the Dutch, Africans, Surinamese and Antilleans.

NiNsee wants to involve as many people as possible in the investigation of the history of slavery and its legacy. We want people to discover for themselves what is history, what was slavery, what was the experience of the slaves, who were the slave drivers and who are the black men and women who threw off the yoke of slavery. We want visitors to our site to participate in identifying the legacy of the past. The more people who participate in mapping the inheritance of our history, the greater the chance that the processing of this history is complete.

How will we do this? An important means of achieving this goal is via our website. On our site, you can find references to literature, descriptions concerning important events from the history of slavery, information on organisations which are active with research over slavery, information concerning commemoration activities for slavery and its legacy.  On our site you can also find references to primary and secondary sources concerning the slave trade and slavery. Finally, our site offers people the opportunity to add information about slavery and its legacy. In this way, NiNsee is an organisation for and by people.

A final word regarding what we mean with the term legacy. We all are bearers of history. For this reason the legacy of slavery is within us and is present in our activities in relation to history. To give an example; Commemorating the history of slavery is a part of the legacy of slavery. With commemoration, comes a discussion of the atrocity and dehumanising aspects of the slave trade. These aspects are related to our current existence. On our website, we try not only to look at the past, but also to look at the present with our visitors. In other words, we invite you to think and to write about history and the far-reaching impact of history, for all people in our present day lives.