Plantation Bolivia is located in the northeast of Bonaire and covers an area of approximately 3,000 hectares, which accounts for one-tenth of the entire island.

There is limited knowledge about slavery in this area, mainly because the archives of the first West India Company (WIC) has been lost, and there was a lack of written records about Bonaire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Bonaire was under the dependency of Curaçao, and its significance lay in being Curaçao’s storehouse, penal colony and, from around 1820, a breeding ground for new slaves. The historical information available mostly comes from oral history (an important source for Bonaire’s history) and reconstruction and interpretations of later sources [*].

 Originally known as Broheta during the time of the WIC, the area was later named Bolivia in 1868 after the majority of Bonaire was auctioned. In the auction brochure, the government recommended Broheta as follows:

“It is quite suitable for cattle-raising, as it contains natural fresh-water wells and some established works for driving up the wild cattle; on the south side there is also a lot of wood of the above-mentioned types of wood.”

The ‘works set up’ referred to the coral structures used to corral the cattle. The mentioned types of wood were Wayaká (Pokhout, Guaiacum officinale) and Brasil (Kampèshi, Verfhout, Haematoxylon brasiletto). The new owner,Ernst Barend Hellmund, named the plantation Bolivia.

Hellmund saw potential in the area, likely to the availability of wood and the opportunity for livestock raising of raising. However, historical maps [**] indicate that Bolivia was hardly used for agriculture, if at all. Only in a small number of places (probably from the time of the Spaniards) Sorghum is grown and (from about 1840) also Aloë vera. Most of the area was deemed unsuitable for agriculture due to the limestone soil composition. Despite this, the area supported extensive livestock farming, including goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs, cows, and horses that roamed freely for centuries.

Bolivia was likely never inhabited, not even by the original inhabitants known as Caiquetio. These indigenous people left behind their traces in the form of petroglyphs, and after being enslaved by the Spanish colonists, they were brought to Hispanola. A few dozen Caiquetios were brought back to Bonairearound 1515 to manage livestock and water resources.

Enslaved individuals were used as cheap labor by both the Spanish and the WIC. Starting from 1636, when the WIC gained control over Bonaire, enslaved individuals, including Africans, were put to work in the salt pans, in the south of Bonaire, and livestock management, primarily focusing on goats and sheep. Theseanimals were bred for the meat, skins and manure, which were essential products for the population of Curaçao. Animal husbandry has been practiced in Bolivia since the Spanish occupation.

The management of the cattle and the area during the WIC’s control and later by the government from 1793 was overseen by enslaved individuals known as  “bombas”. These individuals supervised other enslaved workers, providing the animals with water and corralling them during slaughter. The living conditions of bombas and enslaved individuals in Broheta are unknown, but assumed they slept outdoors or in self-made huts using wood, mud, dried dung, and leaves, similar to the housing of enslaved individuals in the salt pans.

After the 1868 auction, three overseer houses with outbuildings were constructed in Bolivia – one in the east, one in the center, and one in the west. These buildings, although dilapidated, still exist and may be restorable. After emancipation, some freed slaves from Rincon possibly move to Bolivia and may have started working for the new owner. However, where and how they lived in Bolivia is unknown.

Traces of the original inhabitants can be seen in Bolivia through drawings on the walls and ceilings of caves and shelters in the limestone wall of the higher plateau. The most well-known cave is Spelonk, which contains over 300 drawings according to Father Brenneker. The nearby Roshikiri cave is less famous but also has drawings by the Caiquetios. There may be many more caves and shelters along the seven-kilometer-long northern limestone wall of Bolivia that remain unexplored due to limited financial resources and dense vegetation.

In contrast to the more visible traces of slavery in the salt pans, the evidence of slavery in Bolivia is more subtle and requires knowledge to identify. These traces date back to the second English interim administration, which lasted from 1807 to 1816. During this time, the English administration leased the entire island, including the 300 enslaved people, to Joseph Foulke, a North American merchant and shipowner who was married to Louis Brion’s sister and owned a shipyard in Curaçao. Foulke was actively involved in exploiting Bonaire’s resources, particulary the Pokhout and Verfhout trees. Pokhout known for its slow growth and rich oil content used for making pulleys, and Verfhout trees, valued for its pigment used in the European cloth industry, were abundant in Bolivia during that period.

Many of those trees centuries–old trees were cut down by enslaved people between 1810 and 1816 under Foulke’s orders. However, not all trees were successfully felled. In present-day Bolivia, there are still groups of very old Verfhout and solitary Pokhout trees that stand and witnesses to that time. The largest and oldest trees of both species are spared because they were too large and heavy to transport. Some of these trees bear scars from the attempted felling, such as healed wounds on the trunks where thick branches were sawn off.These trees serve as silent witnesses to the island’s deforestation attempts during that period and are considered historical monuments by consulted botanists.

In recent centuries, Bolivia has been devoid of human activity. Since 1499, extensive cattle breeding has been the primary activity in the area. After Foulke’s period of exploitation, there has been little human intervention. There was a brief proposal in the mid-20^th century to turn the cave Spelonk into a casino and brothel[***], but the plan did not materialize. However, the area has been negatively impacted by intensive grazing from thousands of goats owned by two or three individuals. This grazing has put a strain on the area and its flora, making it difficult for seedlings to thrive. Tests have shown that reducing the number of grazers significantly would rapidly lead to the restoration of the original vegetation.

[*] Bonaire van Indianen tot Toeristen, Dr. Joh. Hartog, 1957
[**] Westerman and Zonneveld 1956
[***] Amigoe, March 17, 1969

Dutch