From Barbolia
Among the people connected to San Barbola was Virginia Demetricia, one of the most visible enslaved women in Aruba's nineteenth-century records.
Born on 22 December 1842, Virginia was the fourth of eight children born to Maria Theodora. She grew up on the plantation San Barbolia, now known as San Barbola, where her family belonged to Jan Hendrik van der Biest. Virginia was registered as a field worker and likely spent her childhood and youth on the plantation.
Unlike many enslaved people who appear only briefly in the archives, Virginia repeatedly came to the attention of the colonial authorities. Between 1859 and 1863, five separate cases were brought against her. She was punished for stealing clothes, attempting to run away, making accusations against authorities, and resisting the police. Her punishments included forced labour, imprisonment in Fort Zoutman, and fourteen lashes.
In 1860, Jan Hendrik van der Biest sold Virginia to Jacob Abraham Jesurun on Curaçao for 140 guilders. The sale separated her from the plantation where she had grown up and from much of her family.
When slavery was abolished in 1863, Virginia received the surname Gaai. Her daughter Jeannette received the surname Dana, while her brothers and sisters on Aruba became known as Bikker, Liprandi, Biest, and Van Biessen. The family tree preserved in the archives shows how the descendants of Maria Theodora became part of multiple family lines on Aruba and Curaçao after emancipation.
Four years after emancipation, Virginia was living in Willemstad, where records show the birth of her son Marcelino Martis Gaai. After that, she largely disappears from the historical record. Yet through slavery registers, court records, emancipation documents, and family trees, her life remains one of the best-documented stories connected to San Barbola.
Explore the Archives
Virginia Demetricia Gaai and her family's records can be explored through Coleccion Aruba
