Bonaire May June 2018 - Salt Flats and Slavery

May 2018

I mentioned before that the south end of Bonaire was primarily salt flats.  I also mentioned that it was harsh and brutal.  This is true historically as well.  So much so, that it needs it's own blog posting.

The salt business of Bonaire is hundreds of years old.  Like many things of old back then, it was labor intensive.  Sadly, this meant slave labor and Bonaire was not different than many places in terms of slavery.

What remains today, aside from the actual salt flats and huge, white, piles of salt, are the actual slave huts where the abused were "housed"......if you can call it that.

The huts are made out of a type of concrete formed from coral of course.  They are small, and cramped, housing 16 slaves in each hut.  We crawled in a few.  I can't even imagine how it is humanly possible to put 16 people in one hut.  But then again, slavery is not human.  Perhaps they slept in shifts.

You may be thinking at least the huts are concrete.  But remember the pics from before of the topography, and shoreline?  BRUTAL!!

The salt would be "harvested" - which I guess means collected (raked), processed and sorted, then two male slaves would pile it into a large basket.  Then the two men would heft the heavy basket onto the head of a female slave who was kneeling.  They would help her to feet...... you see, it took two men because it was SO incredibly, freaking heavy!  Then the woman would carefully make her way down to the loading dock at the shore and up a steep pier to the ship, where FOUR men would then take it off her head and load it into the ship.  I say carefully, because no doubt there were harsh consequences if she stumbled and dropped the heavy basket loaded with salt.  THINK about that again.  Read it again..... absolutely brutal!

There were five obelisks (tall triangles) along the southern shore.  Two or three remain today.  They were all painted different colors.  These signified the various grades or types of salt - for example, commercial grade vs refined for human consumption.  The ships captains could see the colored obelisks and then knew where they needed to dock based on those colors.

These huts made such an impression on us.  They are weirdly beautiful all painted up against the harsh setting.  There is a eery quiet as you stand among the huts with the wind howling.  It is an important reminder of a terrible past that must not be forgotten.