160 Years Abolition of Slavery 1863-2023

Cpost International is proud to present this emission of six stamps dedicated to the 160 years abolition of slavery. The first stamp left of the top row of 250c has the plantation house “Knip” on it in the background. Here is the place where the slave revolt in Curaçao started in 1795. Also enslaved women were battling for freedom. The middle stamp 350c on the top row has the fist of the fight for freedom and a chain with an open shackle. This was designed by Yubi Kirindongo and is placed on 7 key locations of the fight for freedom that took place in Curaçao in 1795. The right stamp on the top row 450c has the portrait of an Afro-Caribbean woman who expresses strength, beauty, dignity and grace. The kibrahacha flowers gracing her, reflect bright, beauty and strength as these trees can survive without water for long periods of time.

The left stamp 550c of the bottom row is about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Dutch WIC (West Indian Company) who traded in enslaved people from African countries to the Americas. The middle stamp of the bottom row 650c has a slave ship in the back, the national monument Desenkadená (‘Unshackled’) made by Nel Simon. In the center Tula and a man and a woman at his side representing all the other male and female freedom fighters of 1795. To complete this stamp series there is the stamp right below 750c which has 4 men who fought for freedom from their oppressors: Camille Desmoulins who was one of the key figures in the beginning of the French revolution in 1789, Toussaint L’Ouverture who fought for the cause of Saint Domingue (Haïti) in 1793, afterwards Tula for Curaçao in 1795 and that same year in Coro, Falcón, Venezuela one of the freedom fighters was the then so-called sambo (mix of African and indigenous) José Leonardo Chirino. The movement for abolition of slavery started with the motto ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’, meaning Freedom, Equality, Fraternity. Cpost International would like to extend its gratitude to Mrs. Avantia Damberg for the tremendous work she has done as the designer of this commemorative stamp.