The Sons of Japheth novels

"It is never pleasant to see your deepest beliefs placed in their historical context." - Kingsley Amis, English author (1922-1995)

The overarching title Sons of Japheth encompasses a series of four novels about the Dutch and their involvement in the slave trade in the 17th century. Four gripping, standalone stories provide a detailed picture of the global phenomenon of this dehumanizing commerce, widely practiced by Europeans, Africans, Turks, Moors, and Arabs.

Generally, the public holds an overly simplified view of the slave trade from that time, often reinforced by (online) media and some politically motivated groups. The aim of the four novels is to show readers the context of that time, to provide insight into the widespread, almost globalized views on enslaved people, accepted by religions and states in the 17th century.

The Dutch played a significant role in the Transatlantic slave trade. In particular, the West India Company was the largest supplier to the Spanish colonies in the Americas between roughly 1660 and 1700. However, black slaves had to come from somewhere. The Portuguese, Dutch and English trading posts on the West African coast could only flourish because there was a steady supply from the interior. In that sense, Africans themselves were the biggest slave traders on the world stage; after all, they determined the supply and "sold" to both Europeans (Transatlantic) and Arabs and Turks (Trans-Saharan).

Slaves were not only black. The greatest fear of passengers on European ships at the time was the danger of lurking Barbary pirates. The most recent estimates suggest that between the 16th and 19th centuries, around 1.2 million Western Europeans, including an unknown number of Dutch, ended up in the vast slave markets of North Africa. Meanwhile, the Turks (Ottomans) abducted another 2.5 million people from Eastern Europe.

Another lesser-known fact is that the Dutch (read: the VOC) were already using large numbers of Asian slaves on their plantations in the first quarter of the 17th century. Entire islands were conquered and depopulated at the expense of the original inhabitants. But even here, the context of that time was much broader than we might think: the enslaved people were willingly supplied by Chinese, Indians, and, yes, also by the various, sometimes powerful kingdoms from the Indonesian archipelago.

Each of the four books examines a facet of this deplorable trade: in West Africa (Black Cattle), in Algiers (On the Barbary Coast), the Caribbean (Asiento), and Indonesia (Banda Neira).

Why 'Sons of Japheth'?

The drunkenness of Noach, by Giovanni Bellini. Left Ham, in the middle Shem and on the right Japheth.

Sons of Japheth refers to one of the sons of Noah.

In the time period in which the book series is set, Japheth was seen as the forefather of the Europeans (in other words, the white people). The belief in their superiority over other races was "supported" by a story in the Old Testament (Genesis 9:18-29), where Noah had fallen asleep drunk and naked. Japheth's brother Ham found their father in this state and mocked him to his brothers. Japheth and their other brother Shem covered their father with a cloak without looking at his nakedness. For this deed, Japheth and Shem were blessed by Noah, while Ham and his descendants were cursed.

Dutch Protestants were staunchly opposed to slavery up until the early 17th century. However, when the plantations in the Brazilian colonies (captured from the Portuguese) required large numbers of cheap laborers, they quickly gave in, and a justification was soon found in the Bible.

The Dutch minister Johan Picardt expressed this in 1660 as follows:

"This fulfills Noah's prophecy that the descendants of Ham will live in servitude, the descendants of Shem in exile, and the descendants of Japheth will be blessed with prosperity, power, and knowledge. In this is explained the division between the Blacks, the Jews, and the whites."

Morality at that time had been determined by the church for centuries. The characters in the books therefore have no qualms about slavery; after all, they are Sons of Japheth.

* Both Black Cattle and On the Barbary Coast are included in the literature list of the new historical Canon of the Netherlands, under the section 'VOC and WIC.'

* Asiento is included in the library of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science).

What makes Sons of Japheth a series?

Of course, the shared main theme makes the four books a series; they all deal with the Dutch and the slave trade in the seventeenth century. But there is more. Although each book stands on its own in terms of story—you don't have to read them all to understand them—together they offer a detailed insight into the society and dynamics of that time. That's why all the books are presented and structured in the same way.

The first three novels are set in almost the same period, roughly from 1675 to 1688. All the main characters are contemporaries of each other. They could have met each other. In fact, many characters from one book could just as easily have appeared in one of the others.

Society at that time was much more hierarchical than it is now, with distinct social ranks and classes that were almost non-interchangeable. Each group lived in its own world, and the individuals within it had their own experiences, especially regarding their involvement in slavery—as perpetrators and as victims. And the victims were not only black enslaved people.

The stories feature all these people: the reverend, the merchant, the slave trader, the skipper, the boatswain, the penniless drifters before the mast (the sailors), the soldiers, and the untouchable "godfathers" of the merchant elite. All sons of Japheth, in different layers. And each of them fights for their own survival in a dynamic time full of war, violence, cruelty, and danger.