Reinhart: Nederlandse literatuur en slavernij ten tijde van de Verlichting

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6. Summary

6.1. Introduction

In Chapter One I introduce the author E.M. Post and her novel Reinhart; I paraphrase the contents and discuss the main lines of Reinhart-criticism in order to present a state of research. Finally I justify the choise of my subject matter, and the method and working procedure which I pursue in this study.

At the end of the 18th century, in the years that ‘Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood’ stirred the minds of Western Europe, a 35 year old woman from Arnhem, the capital of the Dutch province of Guelders, wrote an epistolary novel in three parts entitled: Reinhart (Pure-heart), or nature and religion (1791-1792). The relationship between man and his fellow-men and that between man and God are the central issues in this novel. The author, Elisabeth Maria Post (1755-1812), had published before and was fairly known for works in which the motifs of nature and religion, love and friendship, death and immortality were all-important. She moved in a circle of enlightened citizens with an interest in literature, ideological issues and natural science. Another of their concerns was the emancipation of the citizen and the common man.

The novel Reinhart takes place for the most part in Guyana, South America. Aside from travel stories, geographical and anthropological descriptions, the author based her knowledge of this former Dutch plantation colony on letters written by her brother Hermanus Hillebertus Post, who had lived in Demerara since 1774. His experience as a traveller, colonist and in particular as a planter and slave holder must have inspired her to a large extent into writing this epistolary story about a colonial society unknown to her.

The Amsterdam publisher Johannes Allart who included many national and international bestsellers in his publisher's list, published the work together with 12 illustrations and a portrait of the author (all engraved by Reinier Vinkeles). A second edition appeared in 1798-1802, again published by Allart. Most likely the author was not informed about the existence of a German translation by the theologian Philipp Rosenmüller which was published by Friedrich Severin in Leipzig in 1799-1800.

Reinhart was published in three parts. The story is divided into six books, two books per volume. It is narrated ‘in letters’; all letters are written by Reinhart and addressed to his bosom friend Karel who lived with his family in the Guelders country side.

In Book One, ‘The Sea’, Reinhart describes the reason and purpose of his voyage. His parental family had suffered a series of adversities which led to their financial undoing without any fault of their own. When the father and daughter died, the responsibility of caring for his mother came to rest upon Reinhart, the only surviving child. At sea, he looks back at the difficult moments of parting from his mother and Karel. Thanks to the correspondence he hopes to maintain the bonds of friendship with Karel and Charlotte, Karel's wife. As an ‘homme sensible’ he feels the need to disclose his inner life to Karel, since no sensitive fellow human being was on board of ‘The Hope’. The only companion to console him is his dog Cheri. He passes the time with reading, writing and meditating. He reads about the New World in W. Robertson's History of America. The mighty ocean which he observes under changing circumstances causes him to experience the onmipotence of God. During a storm he places his trust in Provindence. After eleven weeks he arrives in Guyana.

In Book Two, ‘Guyana’, Reinhart describes how thanks to a protector he is able to acquire some experience working on a plantation as a clerc. Here, too, he is unable to establish new friendships because the colony lacks sensitively, moraly and religiously outstanding people. The life of the planters is directed exclusively at earning money and procuring sensual

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delights. With the help of Chr. F. Gellert's Moral Lessons he tries to remain on the path of virtue.

He experiences the confrontation with slavery as extremely painful. He is deeply impressed by the injustice, the humiliation and mistreatment inflicted upon the negro slaves. He realizes too late that in order to achieve the purpose of his journey he will also have to become a participant in the injustice he condemns. Under the given circumstances he decides to treat his slaves as well as possible. During an illness Reinhart is nursed by a young negro slave called Violet. He takes a liking to him and wants to bring him in touch wit the Gospel. He learns Violet's language and is able to commit the latter's poignant life story to paper. Violet had lived under almost idyllic circumstances on the bank of the Senegal river in Africa. Together with his little brother he was kidnapped by a negro of a different tribe and sold to a slave trader. After the gruelling ‘middle passage’ the brothers were sold like cattle, each to a different master. This story induces Reinhart to denounce the Christians who practice slavery. Some time later Reinhart meets a former friend of his father, Edelhart (Noble-heart), who gives him a neglected plantation and twelve slaves so that Reinhart can begin for himself. Because of its pleasant location on the coast and the lifestyle which he thinks to lead, he names his new property ‘L'heureuse Solitude’ (Happy Solitude).

In Book Three, ‘L'heureuse Solitude’, the rebuilding of the plantation is described. The construction of dikes, ditches and sluices for water-control, the building of Reinhart's hut, of a retreat and of negro huts. Reinhart cares for his slaves as a father; they indeed are very pleased with their master. And yet Reinhart maintains that he is not trapped in the system of slavery: he continues to disapprove the deprivation of freedom.

Reinhart makes an excursion to an amerindian village in the jungle to obtain timber for building a residence. Lacking paper he describes the idyllic society which he encounters there on the fleeces of palmtrees.

Book Four is entitled ‘Imperfect delight’. Reinhart's residence is finished, the plantation has yielded its first good harvests but because he lacks a life companion Reinhart's happiness is incomplete. He has to guard himself against lascivious thoughts at the sight of a young negress. In a dream the ideal image of a woman appears of whom he continues to think of ever since. His loneliness becomes unbearable when his dog dies.

During another excursion into the jungle, Reinhart and his companions get lost. Unexpectedly they arrive at a far-off plantation ‘La Recompense’ where he recognizes his ideal image in Nannie, the planter's daughter. She reads Richardson and Gessner and distinguishes herself by a great natural charm. They fall in love and decide to get married. Reinhart believes that it was due to the workings of Providence that he got lost in order to find this partner in life. In Book Five the ‘Domestic Happiness’ of the couple is described. They lead an idyllic existence. Their only fear is that one of them will outlive the other and they hope that when their time has come, they will die together. Two children are born, a son and a daughter, and Reinhart digresses about Nannie's motherhood and their ideas about bringing up children. Their continuing happiness makes them doubt: is it not too great for life after the fall, can it continue to last forever? As an evil portent, the cotton harvest fails several times. Nannie helps Reinhart in regaining his trust in Providence.

A newly arrived young man L. turns out to be a former schoolmate of Reinart's. Reinhart decides to help him as well as possible.

In Book Six ‘Everything is subject to change’ the correspondence between Reinhart and Karel is resumed after having been interrupted during the three war years. Although Reinhart's family passed the war years in safety, their misgivings increase. Everything reminds Reinhart of transitoriness. He falls seriously ill. Nannie nurses him day and night to the detriment of her own health. When Reinhart recovers, she falls seriously ill and dies.

The first days after her death Reinhart is absolutely incapable of writing, later on writing brings him some relief. He would have preferred to die also, but he has promised Nannie at

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her death-bed to be a good father for the children. He experiences the upbriging of the children as a demanding task. Work on the plantation is neglected. When he is at Nannie's grave, Reinhart finds his peace of mind once in a while. He writes a few elegies in prose. Still he cannot submit himself fully to the dispensation of Providence. He continues to languish and decides to return to Holland in order to be better able to fulfil his task as educator of the children, in the proximity of his mother and his friend. His schoolmate L. will be in charge of supervising the plantation. He takes leave of his beloved places and departs accompanied by the wailing and weeping of his negro slaves who lose in him a good master. He will return to the motherland with ‘The Hope’. He begs Karel to take care of the children if he were to perish on the way home.

It will be evident that the novel contains numerous fascinating items for literary historical research. When we make the balance of almost two centuries of Reinhart-criticism (see 1.3) it becomes apparent that a great degree of clarity and consensus of opinion exists about the following:

1.	the sentimental character of the work is purer, more controlled and more authentic than that of the work of some contemporaries;
2.	the place of the work in the tradition of idyllic literature, which is characterized by a pendant for reality, with special interest in social reality;
3.	the influence which the work must have undergone from literary examples: idyllic-pastoral works of Gessner and Florian, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, the exotic works of Bernardin de St. Pierre, particulary of Paul et Virginie;
4.	the virtue-enhancing function of love and friendship which has a central importance in the novel, being the mutual support in the process of preparing for life here-after;
5.	the artistic quality of her description of exotic nature (which the author herself never experienced);
6.	the function of nature contemplation, namely its ability to arouse moral and religious sentiments;
7.	the ambivalent attitude towards natural man who is admired on the one hand for his natural and virtuous life-style and rejected on the other hand because of his lower awareness of sensitivity and his lack of a Christian faith.

But there are also many salient points requiring further investigation.

1. There is little clarity about Reinhart as an epistolary novel. At times the epistolary form is considered monotonous and long-winded, even ‘inappropriate’, and on other occasions attention is called to the potential which the epistolary form has in depicting the inner life of the protagonist. A more profound investigation into the presentation of Reinhart's history and its effects on the reader has not been undertaken.

2. No consensus of opinion exitsts regarding Reinhart's activities as a slave master and his attitude towards slave trade and slavery. On the one hand his human actions are viewed as socially emancipating, on the other hand he has been accused of lacking integrity because of his changed attitude from one who is principally against slavery to one who tolerates it. In order to solve this problem insight is required both into Reinhart's total World view and into the views in favour of slavery and against it, which existed in the age of Enlightenment.

3. Finally the relationship between the literary personage Reinhart and the historical person H.H. Post which has been mentioned in almost all surveys is intriguing. Not only the genesis of the novel is at stake in this case but also a piece of colonial history.

Besides the fact that the present state of research warrants further investigation on these three points, it is also my personal interest in literature in its social function which supports the selection. I regard literature as a form of communication between author and reader in which the author wishes to convey a ‘message’. This message is constituted by the contents of the

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work (the themes) and its presentation (the form); whether the communication will succeed is dependent on its reception by the reader. The extent to which their literary and ideological norms and values agree with those of the text will determine the effect of the message and so in the end the social function of the literary work.

Following the communication chain which links E.M. Post to her readers, I should have to treat the intention of the author, the epistolary presentation of the themes and the reader's reception of the novel respectively. Because concrete data concerning the reception of the work are more or less lacking, I will have to confine myself to a hypothetical reception of the reader in the years 1791-1792. Within the frame of this study I cannot make a reconstruction of all formal and thematic aspects of the work. For these aspects I will only provide a global sketch (2.5). However in chapter 3 I will discuss the reader's expectation of one aspect at length: the motif of slavery.

The description of the function of the novel shall also be of a hypothetical nature. One reader of the novel, H.H. Post to whom the work is dedicated, receives special attention. In chapter 4 I shall describe his life in Guyana and in the last chapter (Epilogue) I shall compare Reinhart with H.H. Post and determine the place of Reinhart in Dutch literature on negro slavery.