Piet Hein | Rotterdam | The Netherlands
Piet Pietersz Hein was
a Dutch key figure in paving the way for transatlantic human
trafficking in enslaved West Africans. He has the reputation of the
most aggressive fighting admirals to a retaliatory action on the
Moluccan Banda Islands. In 1609, Hein ordered the assassination of an
entire Bandanese village for the death of 3 European traders who
tried to force the establishment of a fortress. In 1630, the West
India Company (WIC) financed a fleet that raided and took possession
of Pernambuco in northern Brazil with Hein's predatory goods: an
occupation that started Dutch human trafficking in the Atlantic
region. In the existing labor camps of sugar plantations and sugar
mills (set up by the Portuguese), enslaved people were purchased as
merchandise at all WIC trading posts along the African coast. For
example, from 1636 to 1648, the Netherlands became the largest
trafficker of enslaved West Africans in the Atlantic region.
