| Sumario: | Plantations and slaves formed the core of Surinamese society for more than two centuries. Surinamese contrast, based on an almost ten-year study of Dutch, Surinamese and English archival material on several hundred plantations, offers the most comprehensive and in-depth study of this duality. The study paints a vivid and detailed picture of Surinamese society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is shown that there were several plantation sectors - coffee, sugar and cotton - that were structurally different from each other and each had its own history. It also extensively discusses the fight against the water, which aggravated life on most Surinamese plantations. For most of the Surinamese population, the plantation was not only a place of work but also a place of residence. That is why not only the work, but also the living environment of the plantation residents is described. It is obvious that most attention is paid to the way of life and the struggle for existence of the slaves: they made up the vast majority of the population and were tied to the plantations from generation to generation. Surinamese contrast furthermore shows that Surinamese society was constantly changing and changing. Robbery and survival characterized the Surinamese plantation society, in a precarious equilibrium. The extent to which Suriname deviated from the general Caribbean pattern in this and in other respects becomes clear from the many comparisons made with other plantation colonies in the region.
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