Slavernij was legaal, in overeenstemming met het geldende recht, in de toenmalige koloniën van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden tot afschaffing per 1 juli 1863. Zelden wordt duidelijker dat ook geldend recht onrechtvaardig, onrecht en volstrekt abject kan zijn. De gevolgen werken door, dat verbaast natuurlijk niet. Juist de academische onderwijsinstelling die recht en rechtvaardigheid als domein heeft, de faculteit der rechtsgeleerdheid, dient zich rekenschap te geven van dat verleden, en van haar verhouding tot dat instituut van slavernij. Hoe verhielden zich de Utrechtse faculteit der rechtsgeleerdheid, haar professoren, haar studenten, haar alumni tot slavernij? Een dozijn studenten en een viertal begeleiders hebben aspecten van die verhouding onderzocht. Van dat verbijsterend verleden en heden doet dit boek verslag.

Jan Ackersdijck (1790-1861) read law at Utrecht University (1806-1810), came to practice law for some 15 years, but was attracted to empirical research in historical and statistical economy, rather than to more abstract positivist legal methodologies. Called to chairs in political history, economy and statistics (at the law schools) in Liege (1825-1830) and Utrecht (1831-1860), he came to advocate empirical research, on the basis of careful observations and reporting, illustrated by meticulously compiled statistical information out of publications like books and newspapers, and by his numerous so-called ‘statistical travels’ throughout Europe, which he acurately and precisely recorded. How can a society grow in prosperity? Individual freedom is particularly suitable for this purpose, according to Ackersdijck’s economic principles, and a nonsensical, repulsive and evil institution like slavery in the Dutch colonies should be abolished. He founded an association to that purpose, as well as a journal, entitled (translated) Contributions to the Knowledge of Dutch and Foreign Colonies, Especially Regarding the Emancipation of Slaves. Late 1847 his association initiated a petition to the Dutch Parliament in 1848, urging slavery’s abolition – widely supported, also by Ackersdijck’s colleagues from the legal domain, among whom G.W. Vreede and Ackersdijck’s son-in-law C.W. Opzoomer. That abolition was to take another 15 years was certainly not the fault of Ackersdijck, who acted from the principles of freedom, enlightenment and humanity, on a methodological basis of sound observation and scientific attention, as a legally educated political economist and statistician at the Utrecht Law Faculty.