Planting by the Canal – Stories of People and Power

Willem Gideon Deutz owned over one hundred plantations in the 18th century. Behind the opulent gilded salons of the Huis Willet-Holthuysen, Amsterdam’s canals hide a sugar empire built on human exploitation. This mnemonic walk confronts the luxury of porcelain with the icy archives of slave inventories. Dolores Leeuwin, descendant of those enslaved, brings these forgotten names back to life through a poignant audio guide that breaks the silence of the merchant portraits. In the garden, the Sites of Memory collective unfurls six embroidered flags with poems, where names are no longer merchandise labels but rediscovered existences. The route deconstructs the polished facade of the house to reveal what water reflections never show: the human cost of a splendor built far from Dutch tapestries.