A suitable girl? Marriage and Descendants of Enslaved People in 18th-century Galle, Sri Lanka

Abstract

For this paper I will focus on the subject of marriage. Were the descendants of enslaved people able to marry other groups on the island? Focusing on the Sinhalese and Muslim inhabitants of eighteenth-century Dutch-controlled Galle, I will present two case-studies that illustrate that marriage could be a contentious subject. Already in the eighteenth century these groups outlined boundaries based on caste and respectability which informed who could and could not be part of their inner circle. Sources from the Sri Lankan National Archives reveal the voices of individuals trying to submerge their history of enslavement, while also highlighting how actors such as the Dutch East India Company and local inhabitants dealt with the descendants of manumitted people. Depending on circumstance, these actors would take various positions on the question of whether to highlight that the individual in question was descended from enslaved people, or to leave this unsaid.