Anti-Slave Prayer

David Hisquiau Baruch Louzada was born in the Jewish colonial settlement of Jodensavanne, Suriname. Located outside the former Dutch colony’s capital of Paramaribo, Jodensavanne was a Sephardic community whose central economy was slave-operated sugar plantations. Louzada took on the position of Ḥazan, or cantor, at Jodensavanne’s synagogue in 1777. As cantor, he would bless the Jewish troops sent to fight the nearby Maroon communities of runaway slaves. He also undertook the documentation and registration of the race and social status of Jodensavanne’s inhabitants; these notes highlight the racism and prejudicial norms governing status and inclusion in the Jewish community in colonial Suriname at the time.