Donald Trump descended from a Surinamese slave, say experts

Surinamese people counting slaves among their ancestors (i.e. the majority) might have enjoyed a March 2017 article in their mainstream media reporting that genealogists from Germany and the US had extracted from the Suriname slave archives in Paramaribo evidence that Donald Trump may number amongst their ranks.

The Surinaams Museum in Paramaribo

The article, now archived at the Surinamese newspaper De Ware Tijd but reproduced in full in Dutch on this website and followed by a Google translation into English at the end of this post, reports that one of The Don's forefathers ended up part-owning a coffee "Plantation Welfare" (yes that is actually the Google translation) and having three children by freed slave Rosanna in the abundantly rainforested South American country that was once Dutch Guiana.

Slave market 1839 (Voyage a Surinam. P J Benoit) and an example record

Whether this compelling but as yet unverified research will bear fruit is another matter entirely but if it does ever turn out to be true then Johannis, who died of malaria in Suriname in 1833, started out a Dutch soldier. Grief-stricken on the death of his 15-year-old son, he'd left his wife in Holland to start anew in Suriname in his early fifties. After his death, Rosanna moved the family to Germany, where one of their sons was to end up as The Don's great grandfather.

Around that time in Holland (1815) the Napoleonic Wars were ending. So depending on his rank, great great grandfather Johannis might have worn something like this to work:

From 1660 - 1863 Holland ruled the global trade and slave "triangle", dispatching boats to pick up slaves from Africa, drop them off for sale in Suriname or the wider Caribbean then return laden with sugar, molasses, cocoa and other luxury goods.

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Below deck on a slave ship bound for Brazil, 1830 By Johann Moritz Rugendas - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48446633

On disembarking in Paramaribo, great great grandfather Trump would have found a population primarily divided into free and unfree (slaves). In 1791, 53,000 Africans were enslaved in Suriname. By contrast, there were around 5,000 Europeans living in the colony. The free included people of all races. At the top of the social ladder stood senior officials, planters and merchants. The plantation slave-masters formed a European middle class, while the soldiers were the least regarded of all Europeans.

Johannis Trump, then, was an efficient business man and successful social climber from soldier to part plantation owner in a short period of time. He might even have been a compassionate slave owner, who freed his lover Rosanna. Out walking with her, his Sunday best might have looked something like this:

House and servants going to church, Paramaribo, Suriname, ca. 1831 P J Benoit

Plantations in Suriname were notorious for their sadistic treatment of slaves. They "were capital-intensive agricultural businesses that grew products for the world market. Their main motive was profit. The plantations usually specialised in one product in order to make as much money as possible. They were generally financed by Dutch trading houses. These trading houses sold the produce to consumers in the Netherlands or elsewhere."

It was Plantation Wederzorg, situated along the banks of the Commewijne River, that Trump part-owned. By 1821 it had 752 acres of cotton and coffee.

As for Rosanna, we're told little about her. This could have been a complicated relationship. Statistically, it is most likely Rosanna was African. Had she arrived in Suriname already enslaved? Or was she the daughter of a Surinamese slave?

Social commentator John Gabriel Stedman, who thirty years earlier had been famously in love with his own slave lover Joanna, described scenes from a Surinamese planter's life:

Makes her Appearance a Superannuated Matron, With All the Young Negro Children of the Estate, Over Whom She is Governess, Who being Clean Washed in the River, Clap their hands, and Cheer in Chorus, When they are Sent Away to Breakfast.

Rosanna would have been given her name by a slave master, whether or not she already had an African name. If she'd been baptized, she might even have been given another! Rosanna and her children took the Trump surname and, presumably, inheritance.

With no access to accurate original records we can only speculate further about Johannis and Rosanna Trump. On the basis of Stedman's description of a plantation owner's morning, life was probably not too bad for them:

And Goes to Breakfast About ten OClock, for which A Table is Spread in the large hall, Provided With a Bacon ham, hung-Beef, fowls, or pigeons broil'd hot from the Gridiron; plantains, & Sweet-Cassavas, roasted; Bread, Butter, Cheese &c to Which he Drinks Strong-Beer, such as Ale, & Porter And a Glass of Madeira Ranish to Mozel wine And while the Cringing Overseer Sits at the further end keeping his Proper Distance, both being Served by the most beautiful Slaves that Could ever be pick'd out; And this is Call'd Breaking the Poor Gentlemans fast. After this he takes a Book, Plays at Chess, or Billards—Entertains himself With Musick &', till the heat of the Day forces him to Return to his Cotton-hammock to enjoy his Meridian nap.

As usual, plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose. The book the Dutch Atlantic: Slavery, Liberation and Emancipation reports 150 years or so later:

When the National Slavery Monument was unveiled in the presence of the Queen on 1st July 2002, the descendants of the enslaved who live in the Netherlands were denied access to the monument which was surrounded by walls, a crush barrier and mounted police. Not surprisingly, they cried, ‘the days of slavery are not yet over’ (p.163).

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Here's the article in Dutch:

PARAMARIBO - De voorouders van de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump komen mogelijk deels uit Suriname. Dat blijkt uit stukken die onlangs door vier Duitse en Amerikaanse genealogische onderzoekers in de archieven van het Surinaams Museum zijn teruggevonden. De stamboom van Donald Trump is zes generaties terug getraceerd, uitkomend in Suriname bij zijn voorouders: een Zeeuwse soldaat en een vrijgekochte slavin.

De soldaat Johannis Trump werd in 1767 in het Zeeuwse Veere geboren en was in Nederland gehuwd met Johanna Catharina Heffer. Toen hun enige zoon Christiaan in 1819 op vijftienjarige leeftijd stierf raakte Johannis in een zware depressie. Hij verliet Zeeland en zijn vrouw Johanna en vestigde zich in Suriname. Hier werd hij mede-eigenaar van plantage Wederzorg in Commewijne en kreeg drie kinderen met een vrijgekochte slavin, Rosanna. Zowel zij als de kinderen kregen zijn naam. Johannis Trump overleed in 1833 aan malaria. Maar de naam Christiaan van zijn overleden zoon bleef als eerbetoon traditioneel in de familie behouden.

Vier Duitse en Amerikaanse genealogen zijn op dit moment in Suriname. Ze hebben afgelopen week hun onderzoek afgerond en de Surinaamse archiefstukken vergelijken met de Duitse en Amerikaanse. "We schatten in dat we zeker voor 95 procent een match hebben", zegt Dorothy Scott van de Amerikaanse Washington State Archives. In Washington zal definitief worden vastgesteld of het om dezelfde Trump-stamboomlijn gaat. "Maar op basis van een aantal standaard fact-checks die we hier in Paramaribo hebben verricht, zijn we vrijwel zeker van een match.

Definitieve match
Als dat zo is, dan kan dat president Trump in verlegenheid brengen vanwege zijn agressieve anti-immigrantenbeleid. "We willen op dit punt over niets speculeren", zegt Scott terughoudend. "Belangrijker is dat een definitieve match Suriname in de internationale belangstelling kan brengen bij toeristen die geïnteresseerd zijn in historie en gedeeld werelderfgoed."

De gevonden documenten in het archief over vrijgekochte slaven van het Surinaams Museum worden vandaag verzegeld overgevlogen naar de VS en blijven daar voor onbepaalde tijd. Liefhebbers krijgen daarom vanaf twaalf uur 's twee uur uur s' middags de tijd de documenten te bezichtigen in het Fort Zeelandia-complex.

We zijn allemaal afstammelingen van immigranten
Nog voor de afschaffing van de slavernij vertrokken Rosanna Trump en haar kinderen naar Duitsland. Eén van de zonen van Johannis en Rosanna stichtte in Kallstadt een familie waaruit in 1869 Friedrich Christian Trump werd geboren. De Duitse nazaat van Johannis emigreerde in 1885 naar de Verenigde Staten waar hij rijk werd in de hotel-business. Zo valt te lezen op de Amerikaanse website ThougtCo.com. Friedrich hield de traditie in ere om ook zijn zoon nog de naam Christiaan te mee te geven. Frederick Christ Trump, (de achterkleinzoon van de Zeeuwse soldaat Johannis Trump) aanschouwde het levenslicht op 11 oktober 1905 en werd in 1946 de vader van de huidige Amerikaanse president.

Over de reden van het onderzoek naar de afkomst van Trump zegt Scott: "Dat hebben de Republikeinen eigenlijk aan zichzelf te danken. Sinds hun ophef over de geboorteakte van president Obama destijds, hadden wij toen al besloten bij de volgende president diens stamboomlijn over meerdere generaties na te zullen trekken. Uiteindelijk blijken we allemaal afstammelingen van immigranten, al gaat het soms lang terug."

Lees meer: ‘Trump afstammeling Zeeuwse soldaat en Surinaamse slavin’ - DWTonline.com http://www.dwtonline.com/de-ware-tij...#ixzz4d2rUd38v

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And here's the Google Translate:

PARAMARIBO - The ancestors of US President Donald Trump may come from Suriname. This is evidenced by pieces recently found by four German and American genealogical researchers in the archives of the Surinam Museum. The family tree of Donald Trump has been traced back six years ago, in Suriname with his ancestors: a Zeeland soldier and a freed slave female.

The soldier Johannis Trump was born in the Zeeuwse Veere in 1767 and was married to Johanna Catharina Heffer in the Netherlands. When their only son Christiaan died in 1819 at the age of fifteen, Johannis suffered a severe depression. He left Zeeland and his wife Johanna and settled in Suriname. Here he became co-owner of Plantation Welfare in Commewijne and received three children with a freed slave, Rosanna. Both she and the children got his name. Johannis Trump died of malaria in 1833. But the name Christiaan of his deceased son remained as a tribute traditionally in the family.

Four German and American genealogies are currently in Suriname. They completed their research last week and compared the Surinam archives with German and American. "We estimate that we definitely have a match for 95 percent," said Dorothy Scott of the Washington State Archives. In Washington, it will definitely be determined whether it is about the same Trump family tree line. "However, based on a number of standard fact checks we've done here in Paramaribo, we're pretty sure of a match.

Final match
If that is the case, that president can embarrass Trump because of his aggressive anti-immigrant policy. "We do not want to speculate about this at all," Scott said reluctantly. "Most important is that a definitive match can bring Surinam into international interest with tourists who are interested in history and shared world heritage."

The documents found in the Surinamese Museum slave archives are sealed today to the USA and remain indefinitely. Therefore, lovers receive the documents from the Fort Zeelandia complex from 12 o'clock at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

We are all descendants of immigrants
Even before the abolition of slavery, Rosanna Trump and her children left Germany. One of the sons of Johannis and Rosanna founded in Kallstadt a family from which Friedrich Christian Trump was born in 1869. The German descendant of Johannis emigrated to the United States in 1885, where he became rich in the hotel business. This can be found on the US website ThougtCo.com. Friedrich honored the tradition to also give his son the name Christiaan. Frederick Christ Trump (the grandson of the Zeeland soldier Johannis Trump) saw the life light on October 11, 1905 and became the father of the current American president in 1946.

About the reason for the investigation of Trump's origin, Scott says, "That's what the Republicans really have to say to themselves. Since their fuss over President Obama's birth certificate at that time, we had already decided at the next president to serve the family tree line across generations After all, we all become descendants of immigrants, although it is sometimes a long time. "

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