In the Netherlands, there was never a massive anti-slavery movement. Still, there were a few politicians who still campaigned against the system of slavery. Minister Wolter Robert van Hoëvell, for example, advocated against slavery in Indonesia (Dutch East Indies). He wrote articles such as "The Emancipation of Slaves in the Dutch East Indies" (1848) and in Suriname in his book "Slaves and Freemen under Dutch Law" (1854). In it he said:
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"one deadly cancer that lies at the root of all these miseries, paralyzing everything, permeating everything with its pestilential miasma: slavery, maintained by force; slavery, the most outrageous violation of justice, the darkest insult to piety, the most flagrant breach of faith. That is the sad significance of your false shield: Suriname! - 'justitia, pietas, fides!'