After Veenhuizen, writer Patricia Snel travels even further back in time. In her new historical novel De Wees van Westerbeek, which will be published next week, she takes readers to the year 1818, the beginning of the Society of Benevolence in Frederiksoord.
In doing so, Snel returns to the origins of a history that is familiar territory to many Drenthe residents, but whose personal stories often remain underexposed. “You have to encounter something to start a story,” she says in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata. “After The Foundling of Veenhuizen, I discovered during my research that there were still so many stories hidden in Frederiksoord.”
According to her, a striking fact shows that these stories are still relevant. “One in sixteen Dutch people is a descendant of someone who lived in the colonies. That is about a million Dutch people. Yet many people hardly know how this history works.”
The Orphan of Westerbeek focuses on three true lives. Snel follows the story of Riekje de Wals, a 17-year-old girl who moves to the new colony with her parents and brothers and sisters. In addition, there is Geeske, an orphan girl who is placed in a family, and Benjamin van den Bosch, the younger brother of General Johannes van den Bosch, the founder of the Society of Benevolence.
“They are all existing figures,” says Snel. “That’s what makes it so special. As a reader you are really taken back in time 200 years.”
Although Frederiksoord was considered a free colony, the writer shows that that freedom was relative. Life there was under strict supervision. “Johannes van den Bosch and his brother were soldiers. Everything was structured. Roll call at 7 a.m. in the morning, then work in the fields. The women had to spin. Residents were actually only allowed to leave the area on Sundays to go to church.”
Just like in The Foundling of Veenhuizen, Snel interweaves historical facts with fiction. And a mysterious death plays a role in her new novel. “That obviously makes my thriller heart beat faster,” she laughs. “Sometimes as a writer you know where a story begins and ends, but not exactly what happened in between. Then you have space to imagine.”
For her research, Snel delved deep into the archives again. She was also helped by experts such as Alfred Geerts from Museum De Proefcolony. “It’s really a blueprint of how history has gone.”
Snel also sees it as a mission to make a forgotten chapter of Dutch history accessible. “My heart is with the unheard and unseen people. For the orphans and the settlers. I hope that through these stories readers will better understand what happened here.”
And that does not end her journey through the history of the Colonies of Benevolence. Because somewhere a new story beckons. “If there is one more story in it, it is about the penal colony in Ommerschans. Just across the provincial border, all the troublemakers, criminals and thieves ended up there.”