{"id":300,"date":"2021-09-16T22:59:40","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T12:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/?p=300"},"modified":"2022-09-19T10:15:22","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T00:15:22","slug":"book-crowns-of-glory-tears-of-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/2021\/09\/book-crowns-of-glory-tears-of-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Book: Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Costa, Emilia. <em>Crowns of glory, tears of blood : the Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823<\/em>. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\r\n<figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-297\" src=\"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/CrownsofGlory-688x1024.png\" alt=\"Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood\" width=\"300\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/CrownsofGlory-688x1024.png 688w, https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/CrownsofGlory-202x300.png 202w, https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/CrownsofGlory-768x1143.png 768w, https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/CrownsofGlory.png 1420w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a teenager old family letters about the Van Cooten family in Australia triggered my interest in family history. Letters to my great-grandfather John Hughes Van Cooten contained the following tantalising clues:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #dbd9d9;\">The other was that our great grandfather went to the West Indies on a royal Commission. What that Commission was I do not recollect, and that having fulfilled the mission of his government he received a [grant?] of land that as much as he could bring under proper cultivation became his own. This was termed an &#8220;Unlimited grant&#8221;.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #dbd9d9;\">He married a Madagascan lady said to be of royal blood (very wealthy) and by her he had a numerous family of sons and daughters (22).<\/span><br \/><span style=\"background-color: #dbd9d9;\">being highly educated &amp; no fortune he went to the West Indies, under the auspices of the Dutch Government &amp; surveyed the colony &amp; sent home so excellent a chart of the same and the river Demerara that the government gave him #1000 and an unlimited grant of land, i.e. so much frontages &amp; back west he could clear &amp; put under cultiture annually.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #dbd9d9;\">The names of the Estates were &#8220;Better Hope, Sheet Anchor, Brides Lust &#8220;. I don&#8217;t know the date of the year in which my mother and father were married but I believe it was in the November of 1835 or 6.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #dbd9d9;\">You ask your Grandfather&#8217;s name? Well!! He was &#8220;Jan&#8221; or John Van, Van Cooten M.D. &#8211; formerly of &#8220;Brides Lust&#8221; , Demerrara &#8211; and eldest son of Mr Henrique Van, Van Cooten by his wife Dorothy of the same address.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>I doubted that I would ever be able to find out the truth behind these statements. As an adult working in IT at a University, I spent two years working for the library. I took the opportunity to explore. The book that was key to opening a vast area of research was &#8220;Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood.&#8221; My ancestor wasn&#8217;t listed in the index, but showed up upon a quick flick through the contents! I found it very emotional to discover evidence corroborating the clues in old family letters. The &#8220;Notes on Sources&#8221; provided invaluable pointers to documentary sources, and has led me to making contact with other researchers in the area. Hendrik had a part to play in the events of 1823. He was an old established plantation owner. The actual name of the plantation was Vryheids Lust. He was a slave owner, but more kindly to his slaves than many other owners. He was sympathetic to the cause of the London Missionary Society. Mentions of Hendrik are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vc.id.au\/fh\/tobquotes.html\">here<\/a>. This is a book where I found that as fascinating as the narrative was, the footnotes and citations were more valuable!<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Costa, Emilia. Crowns of glory, tears of blood : the Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. As a teenager old family letters about the Van Cooten family in Australia triggered my interest in family history. <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/2021\/09\/book-crowns-of-glory-tears-of-blood\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,4],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book","category-sources","tag-british-guiana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}