Forced and Free Black Migrations in the ABC Islands

The aim of this paper is to study two different historical periods that involve forced and free migration to and from the Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. The first period analysed is the singular role Curaçao played in the transatlantic slave trade and its implication in the forced migrations of Africans to and within the Americas, when the island operated as an entrepôt. The second period covers the more recent and free migrations from and to the ABC Islands, from around the 1920´s, the period of the opening of the Panama Canal and the establishment of an oil refinery, until the 2000’s, when the population declined.