Colonies of Benevolence

The transnational serial property is an Enlightenment experiment in social reform. These cultural landscapes demonstrate an innovative, highly influential 19th-century model of pauper relief and of settler colonialism, which today is known as an agricultural domestic colony. The property encompasses four Colonies of Benevolence in three component parts: Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord and Veenhuizen in the Netherlands, and Wortel in Belgium. Together they bear witness to a 19th century experiment in social reform, an effort to alleviate urban poverty by establishing agricultural colonies in…