Between 1633 and 1636, the Netherlands conquered the Central American islands of Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire, located in the Caribbean Sea. The three islands, which were part of the Netherlands Antilles, were located in a strategic place for trade with Spain and the United States. During the following centuries, the economic development of Curaçao was based mainly on the trade, both legal and illegal, of products and enslaved people brought from the African continent. Most of the slaves were transferred to Spain or to other Caribbean colonies, and a smaller proportion were employed in the Curaçao estates that were dedicated to cattle breeding and the lumber industry.

Curaçao’s slave population was smaller compared to other Caribbean countries since the main economic activity on the island was trade, while on most Caribbean islands plantations were the main production posts. Enslaved people lived in inhumane conditions and were economically, culturally, and racially oppressed. During the years 1716, 1750 and 1774, slave rebellions broke out in Curaçao and were brutally suppressed.

In the context of the French Revolution, at the end of 1794, the Netherlands were conquered by French troops who proclaimed the Batavian Republic in Dutch territory, a tributary state of France that functioned until its dissolution in 1806. On the other hand, in 1791 the Haitian Revolution for Independence was unleashed, culminating in the abolition of slavery in 1804. This news reached Curaçao through the ships that landed on the island’s shores.

On August 17, 1795, a rebellion began on the Knip plantation, when a group of forty to fifty slaves who had been punished began a march led by Tula to Willemstad, the island’s capital, to complain to the colonial authorities. During the first two days of the strike, nearly two thousand slaves joined the rebellion, which soon became an island-wide revolutionary movement led by Louis Mercier, Bastian Karpata and Tula. After a month, the colonial government troops controlled the rebellion and executed dozens of slaves. The leaders of the revolt were publicly tortured and killed on October 3. According to the testimonies from that time, Tula affirmed that the rebellion was a right of the slaves due to the mistreatment and abuses to which they were subjected, evidencing his knowledge of the French and Haitian revolutions.

After the rebellion the Dutch government investigated the slave system in its colonies and formulated regulations for enslaved people, such as the right not to work on Sundays, to buy clothes and food, and reduced punishments. However, the slave regime continued in Curaçao until in 1863 slavery was definitively abolished in all the Dutch colonies.