Lucretia, Claes, and their child (1702-04)

In 18th-century Amsterdam, enslaved people lived in the shadows of the city’s wealth and power, their family lives often denied and barely recorded.  In 1656, the burial register of the Sint Antonieskerkhof records for example the funerals of several inhabitants of Amsterdam of African descent and notes, for example, that on July 19, 1656, a “child of a Black slave” was buried there; however, neither the name of the mother nor the child is provided.

One of these rare surviving accounts sheds light on such lives, revealing the story of Lucretia, an enslaved woman of African descent, and her partner Claes, an enslaved man living in the same household.

On April 18, 1702, Lucretia gave birth to a son in the home of Belida Struijs, the widow of Christiaen Crijger, where both Lucretia and Claes were staying. Four years later, on October 11, 1706, a notary visited Struijs’s house to record what had happened. Witnesses noted that Lucretia had delivered a healthy child and that Claes was indeed the father. The child was formally handed over to him, and the witnesses acknowledged his paternity, wishing him well. The notary recorded:

The witnesses were present at the appellant’s house and saw a certain slave or Black woman named Lucretia had given birth to a son. It was noted that the after-work still had to be done for her, prompting the first witness to offer to do it in the presence of the second witness. The second witness then asked Lucretia who the father of the child she had just delivered was, to which she replied Claes, another Black enslaved man, residing at the appellant’s house. Subsequently, the first witness asked Claes if he was indeed the father of the child, to which he confirmed. The first witness then handed over the child to Claes, acknowledging him as the father and wishing him well, a gesture Claes accepted and expressed gratitude for. The witnesses testified, based on their knowledge, because they had personally observed it. (NL-SAA, Notariële archieven, 5075, inv. no. 4793B, Notaris Francois Meerhout jr. (1655–1740), Oct. 11, 1706)

This small moment, recorded in legal documents, is striking because it gives a name and agency to people who were otherwise erased from official records. Lucretia’s child does not appear in Amsterdam’s Protestant baptismal records of these days, highlighting how the lives of enslaved families often went unrecognized. The notary’s visit may have led to legal proceedings, as Struijs authorized a lawyer in the same period to act on her behalf in court—a small thread of a possible family drama, and perhaps research in the Amsterdam court archives will shed more light on this incident.

What emerges from this record is a glimpse of humanity: Lucretia and Claes as parents, navigating life under slavery, asserting their bonds even in a system designed to deny them. It reminds us that behind every sparse archival entry lies a rich, often painful human story.