Prostitution, Serfdom, Slavery. Picturing Female Dependencies in Early Modern Amsterdam and Surinam

Project associated with the Cluster Beyond Slavery and Freedom

In her research project, Birgit Ulrike Münch explores prostitution as a central field of negotiation for urban modes of female dependency in the early modern period. The aim of the project is to re-adjust the network of different asymmetrical dependencies in the field of female occupations, in particular female prostitution, in Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which were essentially shaped by the role of the metropolis in Dutch colonialism. The visualized forms of urban female dependency between prostitution, slavery, and domestic service are to be critically analyzed, as well as the allegedly self-determined work in the brothels. A major desideratum is research on prostitutes from the Amsterdam Black and Asian communities of formerly enslaved persons. How are the forms of dependency of, at least formally, no longer enslaved persons in Amsterdam to be defined?
How does the servant relationship shape up for women from Amsterdam, from the colonies, for Black Jewish women, and for daughters of slaveholders?

https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/people/investigators/birgit-muench

Leitung: Prof. Dr. Birgit Ulrike Münch

Laufzeit: seit 2020