Decision Support Systems VIII

Sustainable Data Driven and Evidence

Based Decision Support Fatima
Dargam
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/decision-support-systems-viii-sustainable-data-driven
-and-evidence-based-decision-support-fatima-dargam/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Deep Learning for Medical Decision Support Systems Utku

Kose

https://textbookfull.com/product/deep-learning-for-medical-
decision-support-systems-utku-kose/

Analytics, data science, & artificial intelligence :

systems for decision support Eleventh Edition Dursun
Delen

https://textbookfull.com/product/analytics-data-science-
artificial-intelligence-systems-for-decision-support-eleventh-
edition-dursun-delen/

Decision Support Systems VII. Data, Information and

Knowledge Visualization in Decision Support Systems:
Third International Conference, ICDSST 2017, Namur,
Belgium, May 29-31, 2017, Proceedings 1st Edition
Isabelle Linden
https://textbookfull.com/product/decision-support-systems-vii-
data-information-and-knowledge-visualization-in-decision-support-
systems-third-international-conference-icdsst-2017-namur-belgium-
may-29-31-2017-proceedings-1st-e/

Intelligent Decision Support Systems for Sustainable

Computing Paradigms and Applications 1st Edition Arun
Kumar Sangaiah

https://textbookfull.com/product/intelligent-decision-support-
systems-for-sustainable-computing-paradigms-and-applications-1st-
edition-arun-kumar-sangaiah/
Real World Decision Support Systems Case Studies 1st
Edition Jason Papathanasiou

https://textbookfull.com/product/real-world-decision-support-
systems-case-studies-1st-edition-jason-papathanasiou/

Large Group Decision Making Creating Decision Support

Approaches at Scale Iván Palomares Carrascosa

https://textbookfull.com/product/large-group-decision-making-
creating-decision-support-approaches-at-scale-ivan-palomares-
carrascosa/

Optimization and Decision Support Systems for Supply

Chains 1st Edition Ana Paula Barbosa Póvoa

https://textbookfull.com/product/optimization-and-decision-
support-systems-for-supply-chains-1st-edition-ana-paula-barbosa-
povoa/

Intelligent Data Analytics for Decision-Support Systems

in Hazard Mitigation: Theory and Practice of Hazard
Mitigation Ravinesh C. Deo

https://textbookfull.com/product/intelligent-data-analytics-for-
decision-support-systems-in-hazard-mitigation-theory-and-
practice-of-hazard-mitigation-ravinesh-c-deo/

Decision Support Analytics and Business Intelligence

3rd Edition Daniel J Power

https://textbookfull.com/product/decision-support-analytics-and-
business-intelligence-3rd-edition-daniel-j-power/
 Fatima Dargam
Pavlos Delias
Isabelle Linden
Bertrand Mareschal (Eds.)

Decision Support Systems VIII

LNBIP 313

Sustainable Data-Driven and Evidence-Based

Decision Support

4th International Conference, ICDSST 2018

Heraklion, Greece, May 22–25, 2018
Proceedings

123
Lecture Notes
in Business Information Processing 313

Series Editors
Wil M. P. van der Aalst
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
John Mylopoulos
University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Michael Rosemann
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Michael J. Shaw
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
Clemens Szyperski
Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7911
Fatima Dargam Pavlos Delias
•

Isabelle Linden Bertrand Mareschal (Eds.)

•

Decision Support Systems VIII

Sustainable Data-Driven and Evidence-Based
Decision Support
4th International Conference, ICDSST 2018
Heraklion, Greece, May 22–25, 2018
Proceedings

123
Editors
Fatima Dargam Isabelle Linden
SimTech Simulation Technology University of Namur
Graz Namur
Austria Belgium
Pavlos Delias Bertrand Mareschal
Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute ULB
of Technology Brussels
Kavala Belgium
Greece

ISSN 1865-1348 ISSN 1865-1356 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
ISBN 978-3-319-90314-9 ISBN 978-3-319-90315-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90315-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940641

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the
material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are
believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors
give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or
omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional affiliations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG
part of Springer Nature
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 EURO Working Group on Decision Support Systems

The EWG-DSS is a Euro Working Group on Decision Support Systems within EURO,
the Association of the European Operational Research Societies. The main purpose
of the EWG-DSS is to establish a platform for encouraging state-of-the-art high-quality
research and collaboration work within the DSS community. Other aims of the EWG-
DSS are to:
• Encourage the exchange of information among practitioners, end-users, and
researchers in the area of decision systems
• Enforce the networking among the DSS communities available and facilitate
activities that are essential for the start up of international cooperation research and
projects
• Facilitate the creation of professional, academic, and industrial opportunities for its
members
• Favor the development of innovative models, methods, and tools in the field of
decision support and related areas
• Actively promote the interest in decision systems in the scientific community by
organizing dedicated workshops, seminars, mini-conferences, and conferences, as
well as editing special and contributed issues in relevant scientific journals
The EWG-DSS was founded with 24 members, during the EURO Summer Institute on
DSS that took place at Madeira, Portugal, in May 1989, organized by two well-known
academics of the OR community: Jean-Pierre Brans and José Paixão. The EWG-DSS
group has substantially grown along the years. Currently, we have over 300 registered
members from around the world.
Through the years, much collaboration among the group members has generated
valuable contributions to the DSS field, which resulted in many journal publications.
Since its creation, the EWG-DSS has held annual meetings in various European
countries, and has taken active part in the EURO Conferences on decision-making-
related subjects. Starting from 2015, the EWG-DSS established its own annual con-
ferences, namely, the International Conference on Decision Support System Tech-
nology (ICDSST).
The current EWG-DSS Coordination Board comprises seven experienced scholars
and practitioners in the DSS field: Pascale Zaraté (France), Fátima Dargam (Austria),
Shaofeng Liu (UK), Boris Delibašic (Serbia), Isabelle Linden (Belgium),
Jason Papathanasiou (Greece), and Pavlos Delias (Greece).
 Preface

The proceedings of the eighth edition of the EWG-DSS Decision Support Systems
published in the LNBIP series present a selection of reviewed and revised full papers
from the 4th International Conference on Decision Support System Technology and
PROMETHEE days (ICDSST – PROMETHEE DAYS 2018) held in Heraklion,
Greece, during May 22–25, 2018, with the main theme: “Sustainable Data-Driven and
Evidence-Based Decision Support with Applications to the Environment and Energy
Sector.” This event was jointly organized by the EURO Working Group on Decision
Support Systems (EWG-DSS) and the PROMETHEE DAYS group and it was hosted
by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research.
The EWG-DSS series of the International Conference on Decision Support System
Technology (ICDSST), starting with ICDSST 2015 in Belgrade, was planned to
consolidate the tradition of annual events organized by the EWG-DSS in offering a
platform for European and international DSS communities, comprising the academic
and industrial sectors, to present state-of-the-art DSS research and developments, to
discuss current challenges that surround decision-making processes, to exchange ideas
about realistic and innovative solutions, and to co-develop potential business
opportunities.
The scientific topic areas of ICDSST 2018 include:
• Decision support modeling
• Decision support and expert systems in the environment and energy sectors
• Data visualization and decision-making/support
• Environmental and energy data visualization
• Geographic information systems
• Data science, big data analytics, and business intelligence
• Technical and managerial dashboards for decision support
• Knowledge acquisition, management, extraction, and visualization
• Collaborative decision-making
• Intelligent, Web-based, spatial decision support systems
• Application models and systems: agricultural, environmental, farming, water
resources, livestock, fisheries, warehouse, sustainable forest and rangeland man-
agement, food processing, and supply chain management
• Simulation models and systems, regional planning, logistics, and traceability
• Case studies involving any of the above issues
The aforementioned topics reflect some of the essential topics in the field of decision
support systems, and they represent several topics of the research interests of the group
members. This rich variety of themes, advertised not only to the (more than 300)
members of the group, but to a broader audience as well, allowed us to gather several
contributions regarding the implementation of decision support processes, methods,
and technologies in a large variety of domains. Hence, this EWG-DSS LNBIP volume
VIII Preface

published by Springer has considered contributions of a “full-paper” format, selected

through a single-blind paper reviewing process. In particular, at least two reviewers –
members of the Program Committee – reviewed each submission through a rigorous
two-stage process. Finally, we selected 15 out of 71 submissions, corresponding to a
21.1% acceptance rate, to be included in this 8th EWG-DSS LNBIP volume.
We proudly present the selected contributions, organized in four sections:
1. Decision Support Systems for a Sustainable Society: Suggestions and empirical
proofs about how DSS can improve the world we live in and exploit evidence to
advance the quality of the decisions made. First, Tong Wang, Qi Han, and Bauke
De Vries present “SIRPSS-Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning
Support System.” Then, “An Intelligent Multi-Agent System Using Fuzzy Analytic
Hierarchy Process and Axiomatic Design as a Decision Support Method for
Refugee Settlement Siting” by Maria Drakaki, Hacer Guner Goren, and Panagiotis
Tzionas deals with a crucial topic of our era, followed by the work of Khelifa
Boudjemaa, Ridda Laouar, and Sean Eom about an “Intelligent Integrated System
for Urban Planning Using GIS and Cloud Computing.” This section closes with
“An Ontology-Based Decision Support Framework for Personalized Quality of Life
Recommendations” by Marina Riga, Efstratios Kontopoulos, Kostas Karatzas,
Stefanos Vrochidis, and Ioannis Kompatsiaris.
2. Decision Support Systems Serving the Public: Methods and case studies on DSS in
the service of the public, with topics ranging from physical disaster protection to
policy design. Stefano Armenia, Georgios Tsaples, and Camillo Carlini present
“Critical Events and Critical Infrastructures: A System Dynamics Approach” and
Marta Dell'Ovo, Francesca Torrieri, and Alessandra Oppio present “How to Model
Stakeholder Participation for Flood Management.” This section continues with a
case study from Brazil on how “Big Data Analytics Improve the Decision-Making
Process in Public Safety,” a work by Jean Turet and Ana Paula Cabral Seixas Costa,
and finishes with the work of Glykeria Myrovali, Georgios Tsaples, Maria
Morfoulaki, Georgia Aifadopoulou, and Jason Papathanasiou about “An Interactive
Learning Environment Based on System Dynamics Methodology for Sustainable
Mobility Challenges Communication and Citizens’ Engagement.”
3. Decision Support Systems in Management and Organizations: A section that
highlights how DSS can be involved in management practices of modern organi-
zations to give a boost to their effectiveness and efficiency. Yusuf-Ali Karbelkar and
Mike Hart present “Skills and Mindsets for an Analytically Innovative Organiza-
tion,” while Georgios Stavrou, Panagiotis Adamidis, and Jason Papathanasiou deal
with “Computer Supported Team Formation.” Then, the important as well as fre-
quent problem of supplier selection is presented through a description of the case of
a “Colombian Agricultural Research Company,” a work by Jenny Milena Moreno
Rodriguez, Takanni Hannaka Abreu Kang, Eduarda Asfora Frej, and Adiel Teixeira
de Almeida.
4. Advances in Decision Support Systems Technologies and Methods: Abstracting
from the thematic focus of the conference, this section focuses on methods, tech-
niques, approaches, and technologies that advance the research of the DSS field.
Dario Torregrossa and Joachim Hansen present “SK-DSSy: How to Integrate the
 Preface IX

YouTube Platform in a Cooperative Decision Support,” while a valuable family of

methods in DSS, multiple-criteria decision aid, is exemplified through the work of
Gjorgji Nusev, Pavle Boškoski, Marko Bohanec, and Biljana Mileva Boshkoska:
“A DSS Model for Selection of Computer-on-Module Based on PROMETHEE and
DEX Methods.” Then, Kathrin Kirchner and Petar Markovic present how process
mining can be related to the field of decision support with their work on “Unveiling
Hidden Patterns in Flexible Medical Treatment Processes – A Process Mining Case
Study.” Finally, “A New Function for Ensemble Pruning” is suggested by Souad
Taleb Zouggar and Abdelkader Adla.
We would like to thank many people who contributed greatly to the success of this
LNBIP book. First of all, we would like to thank Springer for providing us with the
opportunity to guest edit the DSS book, and we wish to express our sincere gratitude to
Ralf Gerstner and Christine Reiss, who dedicated their time to guide and advise us
during the volume editing process. Secondly, we need to thank all the authors for
submitting their state-of-the-art work for consideration for this volume. From our point
of view, this is yet another confirmation that the DSS community is vivid, active, and
has a great potential for contributions. It really gives us courage and stimulates us to
continue the International Conference on DSS Technology series. Finally, we express
our deep gratitude to the reviewers and members of the Program Committee who
volunteered to assist in the improvement and the selection of the papers, under a tight
schedule. We believe that this EWG-DSS Springer LNBIP volume presents a rigorous
selection of high-quality papers addressing the conference theme. We hope that readers
will enjoy the publication!

March 2018 Fatima Dargam

Pavlos Delias
Isabelle Linden
Bertrand Mareschal
 Organization

Conference Chairs
Fátima Dargam SimTech Simulation Technology, Austria
Boris Delibašić University of Belgrade, Serbia
Pavlos Delias Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology,
Greece
Isabelle Linden University of Namur, Belgium
Shaofeng Liu University of Plymouth, UK
Bertrand Mareschal Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Jason Papathanasiou University of Macedonia, Greece
Pascale Zaraté IRIT/Toulouse 1 Capitole University, France

Program Committee
Irène Abi-Zeid FSA – Laval University, Canada
Abdelkader Adla University of Oran 1, Algeria
Carlos Henggeler University of Coimbra, Portugal
Antunes
Francisco Antunes Beira Interior University, Portugal
George Aretoulis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Christos Arvanitidis IMBBC-HCMR, Greece
Georgia Ayfantopoulou HIT, Greece
Dragana Serbian Society for Informatics, Serbia
Bečejski-Vujaklija
Marko Bohanec Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Thomas Bournaris Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Lynne Butel University of Plymouth, UK
Ana Paula Cabral Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Olivier Cailloux University of Paris Dauphine, France
Guy Camilleri Toulouse III University/IRIT, France
Hing Kai Chan University of Nottingham, Ningbo Campus, UK/China
Alok Choudhary Loughborough University, UK
João Paulo Costa University of Coimbra, Portugal
Csaba Csaki University College Cork, Ireland
Fátima Dargam SimTech Simulation Technology/ILTC, Austria
Adiel Teixeira de Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Almeida
Jorge Freire de Souza Engineering University of Porto, Portugal
Pavlos Delias Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology,
Greece
Boris Delibašić University of Belgrade, Serbia
XII Organization

Alex Duffy University of Strathclyde, UK

Sean Eom Southeast Missouri State University, USA
Lucia Fanini IMBBC-HCMR, Greece
Gabriela Florescu National Institute for Research and Development
in Informatics, Romania
Xin James He Fairfield University, USA
Jorge Hernández University of Liverpool, UK
Jean-Marie Jacquet University of Namur, Belgium
Uchitha Jayawickrama Staffordshire University, UK
José Maria Moreno Zaragoza University, Spain
Jimenez
Milosz Kadzinski Poznan University of Technology, Poland
Daouda Kamissoko University of Toulouse, France
Gregory Kersten Concordia University, Canada
Marc Kilgour Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Kathrin Kirchner Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany
Giorgos Kotoulas IMBBC-HCMR, Greece
Pheobe Koundouri Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
Priscila Lima Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Isabelle Linden University of Namur, Belgium
Shaofeng Liu University of Plymouth, UK
João Lourenço Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Michail Madas University of Macedonia, Greece
Vasiliki Manthou University of Macedonia, Greece
Jan Mares University of Chemical Technology, Czech Republic
Bertrand Mareschal Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Nikolaos Matsatsinis Technical University of Crete, Greece
Brice Mayag University of Paris Dauphine, France
Patrick Meyer IMT-Atlantique, France
Evaggelos Mitsakis HIT, Greece
Maria Morfoulaki HIT, Greece
Festus Oderanti University of Plymouth, UK
Alexandru-Liviu IMT-Atlantique, France
Olteanu
Petraq Papajorgji Canadian Institute of Technology, Albania
Nikolaos Papandroulakis IMBBC-HCMR, Greece
Jason Papathanasiou University of Macedonia, Greece
Dobrila Petrovic Coventry University, UK
Gloria Philipps-Wren Loyola University Maryland, USA
François Pinet Cemagref/Irstea, France
Nikolaos Ploskas University of Macedonia, Greece
Ana Respício University of Lisbon, Portugal
Rita Ribeiro UNINOVA – CA3, Portugal
Alexander Smirnov Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Athanasios Spyridakos Piraeus University of Applied Sciences, Greece
Frantisek Sudzina Aalborg University, Denmark
 Organization XIII

Theodore Tarnanidis University of Macedonia, Greece

Stefanos Tsiaras Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Nikos Tsotsolas University of Piraeus, Greece
Alexis Tsoukias University of Paris Dauphine, France
Yvonne van der Toorn Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Wim Vanhoof University of Namur, Belgium
Leonilde Varela University of Minho, Portugal
Konstantinos Vergidis University of Macedonia, Greece
Rudolf Vetschera University of Vienna, Austria
Maro Vlachopoulou University of Macedonia, Greece
Isaak Vryzidis University of Piraeus, Greece
Andy Wong University of Strathclyde, UK
Lai Xu Bournemouth University, UK
Pascale Zaraté IRIT/Toulouse University, France

Steering Committee – EWG-DSS Coordination Board

Pascale Zaraté IRIT/Toulouse 1 Capitole University, France
Fátima Dargam SimTech Simulation Technology, Austria
Shaofeng Liu University of Plymouth, UK
Boris Delibašić University of Belgrade, Serbia
Isabelle Linden University of Namur, Belgium
Jason Papathanasiou University of Macedonia, Greece
Pavlos Delias Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology,
Greece

Local Organizing Team

Jason Papathanasiou University of Macedonia, Greece
Nikolaos Ploskas University of Macedonia, Greece
Theodore Tarnanidis University of Macedonia, Greece
Georgios Tsaples University of Macedonia, Greece
Panagiota Digkoglou University of Macedonia, Greece
Georgios Kotoulas Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion, Greece
Panagiotis Adamidis Alexander Technological Educational Institute
of Thessaloniki, Greece
Lucia Fanini IMBBC-HCMR, Greece

Sponsors

Working Group on Decision Support Systems (https://ewgdss.wordpress.

com)

Association of European Operational Research Societies

(www.euro-online.org)
XIV Organization

Institutional Sponsors

University of Toulouse, France (http://www.univ-tlse1.fr/)

IRIT Institut de Research en Informatique de Toulouse, France

(http://www.irit.fr/)
SimTech Simulation Technology, Austria (http://www.
SimTechnology.com)

Graduate School of Management, Faculty of Business,

University of Plymouth, UK (http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/)

Faculty of Organisational Sciences, University of Belgrade,

Serbia (http://www.fon.bg.ac.rs/eng/)

University of Namur, Belgium (http://www.unamur.be/)

University of Macedonia, Department of Business

Administration, Thessaloniki, Greece (http://www.uom.gr/
index.php?newlang=eng)

Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Greece

(http://www.teikav.edu.gr/index.php?lang=en)

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece (http://www.hcmr.

gr/en/)

Center for Research & Technology, Greece (https://www.certh.

gr/root.en.aspx)

(Continued)
 Organization XV

Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki,

Greece (https://www.teithe.gr)

Industrial Sponsors

REACH Consultancy (http://www.reach-consultancy.at/)

Deloitte (https://www2.deloitte.com/)

Springer (www.springer.com)

Lumina Decision Systems (www.lumina.com)

ExtendSim Power Tools for Simulation (http://www.extendsim.

com)

Paramount Decisions (https://paramountdecisions.com/)

1000 Minds (https://www.1000minds.com/)

 Contents

Decision Support Systems for a Sustainable Society

SIRPSS - Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning

Support System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Tong Wang, Qi Han, and Bauke de Vries

An Intelligent Multi-agent System Using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process

and Axiomatic Design as a Decision Support Method for Refugee
Settlement Siting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Maria Drakaki, Hacer Güner Gören, and Panagiotis Tzionas

Towards an Intelligent Integrated System for Urban Planning

Using GIS and Cloud Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Boudjemaa Khelifa, Mohamed Ridda Laouar, and Sean Eom

An Ontology-Based Decision Support Framework for Personalized

Quality of Life Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Marina Riga, Efstratios Kontopoulos, Kostas Karatzas,
Stefanos Vrochidis, and Ioannis Kompatsiaris

Decision Support Systems Serving the Public

Critical Events and Critical Infrastructures: A System Dynamics Approach. . . 55

Stefano Armenia, Georgios Tsaples, and Camillo Carlini

How to Model Stakeholder Participation for Flood Management . . . . . . . . . . 67

Marta Dell’Ovo, Francesca Torrieri, and Alessandra Oppio

Big Data Analytics to Improve the Decision-Making Process

in Public Safety: A Case Study in Northeast Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Jean Gomes Turet and Ana Paula Cabral Seixas Costa

An Interactive Learning Environment Based on System

Dynamics Methodology for Sustainable Mobility Challenges
Communication & Citizens’ Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Glykeria Myrovali, Georgios Tsaples, Maria Morfoulaki,
Georgia Aifadopoulou, and Jason Papathanasiou

Decision Support Systems in Management and Organizations

Skills and Mindsets for an Analytically Innovative Organisation . . . . . . . . . . 103

Yusuf-Ali Karbelkar and Mike Hart
XVIII Contents

Computer Supported Team Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Georgios Stavrou, Panagiotis Adamidis, and Jason Papathanasiou

A Group Decision-Making Model for Supplier Selection:

The Case of a Colombian Agricultural Research Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Jenny Milena Moreno Rodriguez, Takanni Hannaka Abreu Kang,
Eduarda Asfora Frej, and Adiel Teixeira de Almeida

Advances in Decision Support Systems’ Technologies and Methods

SK-DSSy: How to Integrate the YouTube Platform in a Cooperative

Decision Support? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Dario Torregrossa and Joachim Hansen

A DSS Model for Selection of Computer on Module

Based on PROMETHEE and DEX Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Gjorgji Nusev, Pavle Boškoski, Marko Bohanec,
and Biljana Mileva Boshkoska

Unveiling Hidden Patterns in Flexible Medical Treatment

Processes – A Process Mining Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Kathrin Kirchner and Petar Marković

A New Function for Ensemble Pruning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Souad Taleb Zouggar and Abdelkader Adla

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Decision Support Systems for a
Sustainable Society
 SIRPSS - Sustainable Industrial Site
Redevelopment Planning Support System

Tong Wang ✉
( )
, Qi Han, and Bauke de Vries
Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612AZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands
tong.wang.0821@gmail.com

Abstract. Abandoned industrial sites should be redeveloped in a sustainable way

to reduce waste land. Planning support systems (PSSs) can help in the early plan‐
ning phase by presenting possible outcomes of various redevelopment scenarios
to the planners. This paper presents a PSS to support sustainable industrial site
redevelopment decision based on past experiences. Past experiences are recorded
as cases in the system. Case-based reasoning (CBR) is applied. For sites needed
to be redeveloped, similar redeveloped cases are retrieved from the case library.
Strategies that the previous cases have applied are reviewed and the new site is
designed based on the comparison study of new case and past experiences,
together with the input from planners. Sustainability is dynamically evaluated on
site and regional level. A showcase is presented for the system illustration.

Keywords: Planning support system · Case-based reasoning · Sustainability

Redevelop strategy · Past experience

1 Introduction

1.1 Problem

Abandoned industrial land is a global concern. Local governments in China try to

provide more industrial land to attract investment and compete with their neighboring
cities [1]. As a result, during the period from 2001 to 2005, 8.78 million m2 of industrial
land is in need of redevelopment [2]. In the Netherlands, redundantly large supply of
very cheap industrial sites causes similar problems [3, 4]. According to the Dutch
national industrial site database IBIS, 1,052 industrial sites, equaling 28% of all indus‐
trial areas contain signs of obsolescence in 2012 [5].
The Netherlands is a densely populated country, with 501 people per square kilo‐
meters in 2014 [6]. It is important to reduce the amount of obsolete industrial sites for
sustainable development. More and more attention is put on sustainable industrial sites
redevelopment [7]. The new Spatial and Planning Act [8] is enforced in 2008 and it is
expected to be integrated into the new Environment and Planning Act [9] in 2018. These
new acts aim to simplify the procedures to speed up the decision-making process. This
makes industrial site redevelopment process easier than before. In 2012, 13% of the
identified obsolete places are planned for redevelopment, which amounts to a total area
of 11.582 million m2.

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

F. Dargam et al. (Eds.): ICDSST 2018, LNBIP 313, pp. 3–14, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90315-6_1
4 T. Wang et al.

Planners can choose to redevelop an industrial site in many ways, but which way is
the most suitable and why? Each region is different and therefore attention should be
paid on each region’s specific characteristics.
Decision support tools have been adopted in promoting industrial site redevelopment
process. Specifically for selecting suitable industrial sites for redevelopment,
Geographic Information System (GIS) is used by integrating various data in a geograph‐
ical environment to prioritize the most suitable sites based on users’ preferences [10].
Redevelopment outcomes are also assessed for different regions based on social,
economic and environmental attributes [11–13]. However, redevelopment impacts on
surrounding land use compositions are not yet addressed. The insight of land use tran‐
sitions on surrounding land uses can help to evaluate possible future scenarios and help
to find future suitable redevelopment sites. A system which can help analyze industrial
land redevelopment process and understand its impacts on neighboring land uses after
the transitions for each region is needed.
Moreover, to guide planners for the future land use design for a specific industrial
site, it is beneficial to learn from past experience to avoid unnecessary failure. Land use
development and redevelopment is an expensive and long term task. Using past expe‐
rience can help reduce costs and risks. For one thing, both positive and negative expe‐
riences can be learned. For another, looking into the past can serve as a starting point
for innovative designs for the future. In this paper, past experiences are recorded as cases
in the planning support system. Cases here represent industrial sites redeveloped or
under redevelopment processes. While in another example of such decision support tool
proposed by Delias [14] to support building permit outsourcing decision, cases are then
building permit application activities.
Past experience (cases) should be constructed in a database where users can consult
the system to find similar past cases and use those experience to design and to evaluate
the impacts for future design tasks, given the past case outcomes. For this purpose, Case-
based Reasoning (CBR) approach can be applied. Indexing and retrieving past cases are
of importance for such case library. Unique case representation structure should be
designed to include the important attributes for describing each case and further
matching past cases with the new case.
Sustainability evaluation should be included in the system as well. It should be not
only on site level or on regional level since industrial sites may compete with each other
in one region. As a result, sustainability indicators from both site and regional level
should be used to compare different scenarios.
To conclude, abandoned industrial sites should be transformed in a sustainable way
for a region. The impacts of such transition should be evaluated comprehensively.
Computer aided tools like planning support systems could be designed to help this
process by providing generic analyzing, designing and evaluating functions with the
help of past experience (cases). Specific functions of this planning support system
include selecting suitable sites for redevelopment, finding similar past experiences from
the case library and designing new site redevelopment strategies and evaluating the
impacts of such strategies for urban redevelopment process.
 SIRPSS - Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning Support System 5

1.2 Literature Review

PSS. Planning support systems for strategic spatial planning, water management, trans‐
port networks and tourisms planning combined with scenario analysis are common
examples [15]. For specific industrial land issues, not many references can be found
except for industrial site selection, evaluation and risk management for contaminated
sites [16, 17]. There are attempts for planning sustainable industrial area and modeling
industrial land redevelopment collaboration process [18]. However, the former focuses
on the evaluation of different scenarios and the latter is lack of spatial characteristics of
land use planning.

Case-Based Reasoning. Case-based reasoning (CBR) provides approaches to solve

problematic situations by finding similar cases from the past. A case is a contextualized
piece of knowledge representing an experience that teaches a fundamental lesson to
archive the goal of the reasoner, which normally contains a problem description and the
solution to the problem [19].
The CBR approach has been formalized into four steps: retrieve, reuse, revise and
retain as stated in [20]. In most cases, CBR is mainly used as a case retrieval system [19].
This is due to the fact that the revise process is not easy to automate.
Complex urban planning tasks require policy makers to discuss and adapt possible
solutions, rather than relying solely on an automatically determined solution from
similar cases. Therefore, in this research, focus is put on the retrieval process. In this
process, similarity assessment is especially emphasized because of its importance for
finding relevant cases [21–23]. To determine the similarity between cases, it is important
to describe the cases in the same “language” - case representation structure which deter‐
mines the way in which problems and solutions are encoded.
As stated by Wierzbicki [24], it is needed to show a kind of objectivity for situations
where the decision may have impacts on many other people. Even though full objectivity
is not achievable, rational objective ranking is desirable, with the help of available data
and past references (cases). For industrial site redevelopment planning support which
influences many parties involved, it is necessary to reach consensus on redevelopment
directions among decision makers. In our paper, this type of consensus is referred as
planning preferences for policy makers from each region. Different contexts have
different planning preferences. These preferences can be elicited by analyzing regional
zoning documents in which consensus are recorded and reflected by the frequency of
words used. More details are presented on how to obtain these regional specific prefer‐
ences [25]. To make it clearer for urban planners, these preferences are referred as
visions, as commonly called in the zoning documents.
Meanwhile, only cases that have similar demographic and spatial characteristics
should be considered as possible references for a new planning case [26, 27]. Quantifi‐
able geospatial and demographic characteristics are instrumental for policy makers to
make and evaluate planning decisions. As stated, not only the qualitative visions should
be considered, but also quantitative attributes should be included to describe cases. The
visions guide the redevelopment direction for a region while the quantitative attributes
serve as input to the design and evaluation of specific strategies, and to find the most
suitable redevelopment sites if needed.
6 T. Wang et al.

1.3 Objectives
This project is to propose a planning support system to support sustainable industrial
site redevelopment decision making. Past experience is stored, retrieved and learned for
the new tasks. Land use simulation model is constructed based on the past land use
dynamics. Important attributes for industrial site redevelopment design and sustaina‐
bility are identified and evaluated.

2 Methodology

2.1 PSS Functions

Figure 1 presents the five modules of the proposed system. Data integration module
combines regional and site level data. Site selection module chooses the most suitable
sites for redevelopment based on regional visions and specific attribute requirements.
Case library finds the most similar cases to the newly selected case. Their used strategies
for redevelopment and the impacts of such redevelopment for the site and the region are
presented. Based on the past experience, a possible redevelopment strategy for the new
site can be chosen by the users. The determined strategy is then imported into land use
simulation module. This module updates the land use situation dynamically and facili‐
tates sustainability evaluation. Visualization module presents charts, numbers and maps.

Fig. 1. SIRPSS modules

2.2 Research Flow

To explain the whole process, a research flow chart is presented in Fig. 2. Based on
future users’ requirements for a site and the regional visions from planners, suitable sites
for redevelopment can be found based on the suitability calculation in GIS environment
which integrates demographic data, building information and other GIS data. According
to the same principles, similar redeveloped cases can be retrieved. Not only visions
should be used to find similar past cases, but also other attribute values should be
 SIRPSS - Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning Support System 7

considered such as each site’s accessibility to infrastructure, surrounding situations,

population density and so on. After all, future users might have very specific require‐
ments to one site like the soil cannot be heavily polluted. The visions help us to find the
similar cases for the first step, and the following indicator or attribute values help us to
find the most similar cases. The zoning documents for similar redeveloped cases can
help compare the past experience with the current site at hand. Their similarities and
differences can be identified to design the most suitable scenario for the new sites. The
new design is imported into land use change simulation model so that future land use
situation can be presented. The past experience from zoning documents and the new
simulated land use situation for newly designed industrial site together help to evaluate
possible outcomes of the new redeveloped site, both on site level and on regional level.
This round can run several times for different scenarios and they can be compared.

Fig. 2. Research flow for SIRPSS

3 Case Study

3.1 North Brabant Region

The North Brabant region has been chosen as the case study. Many industrial sites in
this region have been redeveloped because of the limited land resources.

3.2 Data Collection

GIS data include land use maps [28], zoning maps [29], IBIS [5] and BAG [30] data.
They are found from DANS, Niewskaart Nederland, North Brabant databank and PDOK
[31] respectively.
Other economic, environmental and demographic data are mainly from CBS and
national geography databank. SBI codes are the activities codes for Dutch industry [32].
8 T. Wang et al.

They present the functions for each company in a building. SBI codes are used to inte‐
grate building information into GIS data so that more detailed description of past cases
and the new site can be achieved.

3.3 Case Library

To find the redeveloped industrial sites in North Brabant region and construct such case
library, a framework is presented [33]. In this paper, visions are extracted from zoning
plan documents for the changed industrial sites in the North Brabant region using natural
language processing tools. Besides the qualitative visions for redevelopment, quantifi‐
able attributes values are also calculated based on the data available. This adds possi‐
bilities for evaluating redevelopment impacts analysis via comparing the measures of
attributes value after and before redevelopment changes. The case representation struc‐
ture is presented in detail in another paper [25]. Figure 3 presents the structure. Each
case is represented by combining its transition form, regional redevelopment visions
and quantifiable attribute values on site and regional level which can reflect redevelop‐
ment impacts.

Fig. 3. Case representation structure

3.4 Suitable Redevelopment Cases

Visions. To showcase the PSS, the assumed vision for redevelopment is reuse of
existing buildings and smooth transition; as a result, we have given high weights to total
floor areas and light industry activities for each abandoned site in the region. As a result,
sites with the most abandoned buildings and with light industry are selected. This is
automatically executed in our PSS. Users can then change weights for quantitative
attributes and then the similarity is automatically updated. More attributes can be added
later based on regional development visions. A web tool can be found at http://
sirpss.com/cases/.
 SIRPSS - Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning Support System 9

3.5 Similar Case Retrieval

The most similar cases are found as Lichttoren + Victoriapark Eindhoven and Drie
Hoefijzers based on the weight settings for current visions. Users can click on these two
cases, detailed information is listed based on common structures of zoning plan docu‐
ments, as shown in Table 1. Attributes are also included to show the dynamic temporal
change such as population density before and after the redevelopment. More concrete
information beside the calculated attribute values can also be consulted from the related
zoning documents.

Table 1. Similar cases detailed information

Case Drie Hoefijzers Lichttoren + Victoriapark
Eindhoven
Location Nearby Station Breda Eindhoven center
Size (hectares) 8 4.74
Plan use Mixed Business center, office, housing
Surrounding A bigger development zone City center
Noise Optimal acoustic design Exemption given for higher
values
Soil Needs to be remediated Heavy metal contaminated
Energy usage Goal: Energy neutral in 2015 A heat pump system; Renewable
energy
Road design A new residential street on west Connection to highway A2/E25
Expected outcome 120 houses, southern part Hotel: 15,500 m2, Office:
connects to the city with public 3,650 m2, Commercial:
spaces; northern separated from
4,250 m2, Parking (276 spaces):
southern
8,000 m2, 128 lofts
Visions Monumental buildings, Industrial image, Historical
Historical image, Sustainable image, High quality urban
energy, Public participation, environment, Railway,
Soil sanitation, Quality of life, Durability, Flexibility, Mixed
Acoustic design, Mixed function, Reuse existing
function, Archaeological buildings, Social housing,
values, Improve accessibility, Expats, Monumental buildings,
Reuse existing buildings, Green area, Service facility,
Smooth transition Office, Improve quality,
Livability, Smooth transition,
High-rise buildings,
Connection, Stay, Flexibility
Population density before 5,343 per km2 5,555 per km2
Residents before 1,450 990
Population density after 7,807 per km2 5,496 per km2
Residents after 2,130 1,080
10 T. Wang et al.

3.6 Target Case Design

The situation for the target case is listed below in Table 2. Planners can use this infor‐
mation to compare the current case with past experience and design future uses.

Table 2. Target case detailed information including scenario design

Case Target Case
Location North of Bergen op Zoom, center of
Halsteren
Size (hectares) 24.6
Previous use Manufacture of concrete products;
Manufacture of motorcycles; Renting of
consumer goods; Shops selling water sports
goods; Taxi operation; Sale and repair of
passenger cars and light motor vehicles;
Notaries; Social clubs; Petrol stations;
Wholesale of computers; Wholesale of
heating and cooling equipment; Sale and
repair of passenger cars and light vehicles;
Mortgage, bank and savings bank agencies
Plan use (hectares) Mixed use, 9.3 for housing, 10 for public
facilities, 5.3 for light industry
Surrounding Near a bus stop (on the west), 1.5 km to train
station at south, industrial area (north) with
houses and green area (west)
Distance to city center 4.3 km to center of Bergen op zoom, center
of Halsteren
Noise, Air quality, Odor Near industrial area, noise should be
reduced
Soil Needs to be cleaned for concrete factory
Nature Transition zones between the west and site
for nature protection
Public transport More bus lines

We have constructed a mixed use area where on the southeast it is transformed into
housing since the southern area of the site is mainly residential land. North of the site is
maintained to be industrial area since the northern side stays as a big industrial park. To
the west side, there is green area so the west side of the site is transformed into public
facilities to facilitate the new site and also provide smooth transition between the side
and the surrounding green area. The scenario is presented in Fig. 4. Detailed scenario
designs are implemented in ArcMap for site level indicator calculation. To incorporate
this new design into the regional sustainability analysis, this scenario is imported as
zoning plans into the land use change simulation module so that future land use situation
can be simulated using such models. Regional sustainability indicators regarding phys‐
ical conditions are therefore predicted.
 SIRPSS - Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning Support System 11

Fig. 4. Target site design (Color figure online)

Sustainability Evaluation

Site Level. We used two indicators to illustrate the idea of using SIRPSS to evaluation
site level sustainability, namely distance to public services and residence numbers. After
the transition, with the new public facilities, site distance to public services is reduced
to 0 m, while before the transition the minimum distance to public services is 500 m.
Based on the past experience, one case increases 680 residence for an area of 8 ha while
the other 90 for 4.74 ha. We then assume that the new case can increase residence by
52 (averaged by each hectare from two cases) * 9.3 ha for residential area based on the
scenario design; which equals to 484.

Regional Level. We present one regional land use composition change situation to
illustrate the influences of industrial site redevelopment on the region. Figure 5 shows
that recreational land relative presence is increased after industrial sites being trans‐
formed into housing in the neighborhood area from 100 m to 200 m. In other words,
industrial sites have a negative influence on the appearance of recreation, compared with
housing’s influence on recreation in this range for the whole region. This reflects that
housing and recreational land has some level of synergy effect in short distance. After
200 m, there is less recreational land after the transition than before. Other indicators
besides physical indicators can also be calculated with available data.

4 Conclusions and Discussion

This paper presents a planning support system to help design sustainable industrial site
redevelopment strategies. The core of the system is case based reasoning. A case library
is constructed. Based on the new case at hand, visions and specific requirements are
provided by the users to find similar cases from the regional library. The past experience
including their used strategies and impacts of such redevelopment is imposed onto the
new case at hand. As a result, scenarios are designed for the new case and the sustain‐
ability impacts are evaluated on site and regional level. This system can help planners
12 T. Wang et al.

Fig. 5. Industrial land to housing impacts on regional land use compositions

and individual industrial land users to communicate different plans and evaluate the
impacts on site and regional sustainability. It could also raise the enthusiasm for using
the planning support systems. A region can even strengthen its competitiveness by
offering such kind of system to allow individuals visualizing their own plans for the site.
More data should be collected to show the full functionality of sustainability eval‐
uation. At this moment, only very limited indicators are calculated because of the limited
data. Case library can be enriched using more data source and case representation struc‐
ture can be further explored. Qualitative and quantitative attributes should be better
combined to represent each case.
Workshops should be organized to ask policy makers opinions about this type of
planning support systems applicability in their daily practice.

Acknowledgements. The corresponding author is financially supported by the China Scholarship

Council under grant number [201207720002]. We would like to thank for their support.

References

1. Huang, Z., Du, X.: Strategic interaction in local governments industrial land supply: evidence
from China. Urban Stud. 54, 1328–1346 (2016)
2. Xie, J., Li, F.: Overview of the current situation on brownfield remediation and redevelopment
in China. In: Sustainable Development - East Asia and Pacific Region Discussion Papers.
World Bank, Washington, DC (2010)
3. Olden, H.: Remmende factoren bij het herstructureren van bedrijventerreinen. STOGO
Onderzoek + Advies, Utrecht (2007)
4. Van Der Krabben, E., Buitelaar, E.: Industrial land and property markets: market processes,
market institutions and market outcomes: the dutch case. Eur. Plan. Stud. 19, 2127–2146
(2011)
5. Nijssen, C.E.G.E., Kremers, A.: IBIS werklocaties de stand van zaken in planning en uitgifte
van werklocaties op 1 januari 2013 en de uitgifte in 2012. ARCADIS, Arnhem, The
Netherlands (2013)
6. World DataBank: Population density (people per sq. km of land area). World DataBank
(2014)
 SIRPSS - Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning Support System 13

7. Louw, E., Bontekoning, Y.: Planning of industrial land in the Netherlands: its rationales and
consequences. Tijdschr. Voor Econ. En Soc. Geogr. 98, 121–129 (2007)
8. Summary National Policy Strategy for Infrastructure and Spatial Planning. Ministerie van
Infrastructuur en Milieu, The Hague, the Netherlands (2011)
9. Environment and Planning Act. Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu (2016)
10. Aktas, C.B., Bartholomew, P., Church, S.: Application of GIS to prioritize brownfield sites
for green building construction based on LEED criteria. J. Urban Plan. Dev. 143(3), 04017004
(2017). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000387
11. Jigoria-Oprea, L., Popa, N.: Industrial brownfields: an unsolved problem in post-socialist
cities. A comparison between two mono industrial cities: Resita (Romania) and Pancevo
(Serbia). Urban Stud. 54, 2719–2738 (2016)
12. Kiss, E.: Spatial impacts of post-socialist industrial transformation in the major Hungarian
cities. Eur. Urban Reg. Stud. 11, 81–87 (2004)
13. Ploegmakers, H., Beckers, P.: Evaluating urban regeneration: an assessment of the
effectiveness of physical regeneration initiatives on run-down industrial sites in the
Netherlands. Urban Stud. 52, 2151–2169 (2015)
14. Delias, P.: A positive deviance approach to eliminate wastes in business processes: the case
of a public organization. Ind. Manag. Data Syst. 117, 1323–1339 (2017)
15. Geertman, S., Stillwell, J.C.H. (eds.): Planning Support Systems Best Practice and New
Methods. Springer, Dordrecht (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8952-7
16. Witlox, F., Timmermans, H.: MATISSE: a knowledge-based system for industrial site
selection and evaluation. Comput. Environ. Urban Syst. 24, 23–43 (2000)
17. Zabeo, A., Pizzol, L., Agostini, P., Critto, A., Giove, S., Marcomini, A.: Regional risk
assessment for contaminated sites part 1: vulnerability assessment by multicriteria decision
analysis. Environ. Int. 37, 1295–1306 (2011)
18. Blokhuis, E., Snijders, C.C.P., Han, Q., Schaefer, W.F.: Conflicts and cooperation in
brownfield redevelopment projects: application of conjoint analysis and game theory to model
strategic decision making. J. Urban Plan. Dev. 138, 195–205 (2012)
19. Biswas, S.K., Sinha, N., Purkayastha, B.: A review on fundamentals of case-based reasoning
and its recent application in different domains. Int. J. Adv. Intell. Paradig. 6, 235 (2014)
20. Aamodt, A., Plaza, E.: Case-based reasoning: foundational issues, methodological variations,
and system approaches. AI Commun. 7, 39–59 (1994)
21. Cunningham, P.: A taxonomy of similarity mechanisms for case-based reasoning. IEEE
Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. 21, 1532–1543 (2009)
22. Lopez De Mantaras, R., Mcsherry, D., Bridge, D., Leake, D., Smyth, B., Craw, S., Faltings,
B., Maher, M.L., Cox, M.T., Forbus, K., Keane, M., Aamodt, A., Watson, I.: Retrieval, reuse,
revision and retention in case-based reasoning. Knowl. Eng. Rev. 20, 215 (2005)
23. Wess, S., Althoff, K.-D., Derwand, G.: Using k-d trees to improve the retrieval step in case-
based reasoning. In: Wess, S., Althoff, K.-D., Richter, M.M. (eds.) EWCBR 1993. LNCS,
vol. 837, pp. 167–181. Springer, Heidelberg (1994). https://doi.org/
10.1007/3-540-58330-0_85
24. Wierzbicki, A.P.: The need for and possible methods of objective ranking. In: Ehrgott, M.,
Figueira, J.R., Greco, S. (eds.) Trends in Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis, vol. 142, pp.
37–56. Springer, Boston (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5904-1_2
25. Wang, T., Han, Q., de Vries, B.: Sustainable industrial site redevelopment planning support:
a case-based reasoning approach. Int. J. E-Plan. Res. 6, 39–53 (2017)
26. Du, Y., Wen, W., Cao, F., Ji, M.: A case-based reasoning approach for land use change
prediction. Expert Syst. Appl. 37, 5745–5750 (2010)
14 T. Wang et al.

27. Li, X., Liu, X.: An extended cellular automaton using case-based reasoning for simulating
urban development in a large complex region. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 20, 1109–1136 (2006)
28. Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, Kadaster: Bestand Bodemgebruik 2003 – BBG 2003
(2003). https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-z8n-fc2u
29. Documentatie bij het GIS bestand van de Nieuwe Kaart van Nederland (2010).
www.nieuwekaart.nl
30. Kadastre: BAGViewer (2017). https://bagviewer.kadaster.nl/lvbag/bag-viewer/index.html#?
geometry.x=160000&geometry.y=455000&zoomlevel=0
31. PDOK: PDOK Viewer (2016). http://pdokviewer.pdok.nl/
32. Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek: Standaard Bedrijfsindeling 2008. Centraal Bureau voor
de Statistiek (2017)
33. Wang, T., Jessurun, J., Han, Q., de Vries, B.: A model to construct case base for sustainable
industrial area redevelopment. In: Proceedings of IAMG 2015, pp. 1264–1272. International
Association for Mathematical Geology (IAMG), Freiberg (2015)
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
would put them down. And now the steps of this crime follow each
other so fast, at such fatally quick time, that the millions of virtuous
citizens, whose agents the government are, have no place to
interpose, and must shut their eyes until the last howl and wailing of
these tormented villages and tribes shall afflict the ear of the world.
I will not hide from you, as an indication of the alarming distrust,
that a letter addressed as mine is, and suggesting to the mind of the
Executive the plain obligations of man, has a burlesque character in
the apprehensions of some of my friends. I, sir, will not beforehand
treat you with the contumely of this distrust. I will at least state to you
this fact, and show you how plain and humane people, whose love
would be honor, regard the policy of the government, and what
injurious inferences they draw as to the minds of the governors. A
man with your experience in affairs must have seen cause to
appreciate the futility of opposition to the moral sentiment. However
feeble the sufferer and however great the oppressor, it is in the
nature of things that the blow should recoil upon the aggressor. For
God is in the sentiment, and it cannot be withstood. The potentate
and the people perish before it; but with it, and as its executor, they
are omnipotent.
I write thus, sir, to inform you of the state of mind these Indian
tidings have awakened here, and to pray with one voice more that
you, whose hands are strong with the delegated power of fifteen
millions of men, will avert with that might the terrific injury which
threatens the Cherokee tribe.
With great respect, sir, I am your fellow citizen,
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
 IV
ADDRESS

DELIVERED IN CONCORD ON THE

ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMANCIPATION OF THE
NEGROES IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES,
AUGUST 1, 1844.

There a captive sat in chains,

Crooning ditties treasured well
From his Afric’s torrid plains.
Sole estate his sire bequeathed,—
Hapless sire to hapless son,—
Was the wailing song he breathed,
And his chain when life was done.

ADDRESS
EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES

Friends and Fellow Citizens: We are met to exchange

congratulations on the anniversary of an event singular in the history
of civilization; a day of reason; of the clear light; of that which makes
us better than a flock of birds and beasts; a day which gave the
immense fortification of a fact, of gross history, to ethical
abstractions. It was the settlement, as far as a great Empire was
concerned, of a question on which almost every leading citizen in it
had taken care to record his vote; one which for many years
absorbed the attention of the best and most eminent of mankind. I
might well hesitate, coming from other studies, and without the
smallest claim to be a special laborer in this work of humanity, to
undertake to set this matter before you; which ought rather to be
done by a strict coöperation of many well-advised persons; but I
shall not apologize for my weakness. In this cause, no man’s
weakness is any prejudice: it has a thousand sons; if one man
cannot speak, ten others can; and, whether by the wisdom of its
friends, or by the folly of the adversaries; by speech and by silence;
by doing and by omitting to do, it goes forward. Therefore I will
speak,—or, not I, but the might of liberty in my weakness. The
subject is said to have the property of making dull men eloquent.
It has been in all men’s experience a marked effect of the
enterprise in behalf of the African, to generate an overbearing and
defying spirit. The institution of slavery seems to its opponent to
have but one side, and he feels that none but a stupid or a malignant
person can hesitate on a view of the facts. Under such an impulse, I
was about to say, If any cannot speak, or cannot hear the words of
freedom, let him go hence,—I had almost said, Creep into your
grave, the universe has no need of you! But I have thought better: let
him not go. When we consider what remains to be done for this
interest in this country, the dictates of humanity make us tender of
such as are not yet persuaded.[104] The hardest selfishness is to be
borne with. Let us withhold every reproachful, and, if we can, every
indignant remark. In this cause, we must renounce our temper, and
the risings of pride. If there be any man who thinks the ruin of a race
of men a small matter, compared with the last decoration and
completions of his own comfort,—who would not so much as part
with his ice-cream, to save them from rapine and manacles, I think I
must not hesitate to satisfy that man that also his cream and vanilla
are safer and cheaper by placing the negro nation on a fair footing
than by robbing them. If the Virginian piques himself on the
picturesque luxury of his vassalage, on the heavy Ethiopian manners
of his house-servants, their silent obedience, their hue of bronze,
their turbaned heads, and would not exchange them for the more
intelligent but precarious hired service of whites, I shall not refuse to
show him that when their free-papers are made out, it will still be
their interest to remain on his estate, and that the oldest planters of
Jamaica are convinced that it is cheaper to pay wages than to own
the slave.
The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady
gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records
between the material and the moral nature. From the earliest
monuments it appears that one race was victim and served the other
races. In the oldest temples of Egypt, negro captives are painted on
the tombs of kings, in such attitudes as to show that they are on the
point of being executed; and Herodotus, our oldest historian, relates
that the Troglodytes hunted the Ethiopians in four-horse chariots.
From the earliest time, the negro has been an article of luxury to the
commercial nations. So has it been, down to the day that has just
dawned on the world. Language must be raked, the secrets of
slaughter-houses and infamous holes that cannot front the day, must
be ransacked, to tell what negro slavery has been. These men, our
benefactors, as they are producers of corn and wine, of coffee, of
tobacco, of cotton, of sugar, of rum and brandy; gentle and joyous
themselves, and producers of comfort and luxury for the civilized
world,—there seated in the finest climates of the globe, children of
the sun,—I am heart-sick when I read how they came there, and how
they are kept there. Their case was left out of the mind and out of the
heart of their brothers. The prizes of society, the trumpet of fame, the
privileges of learning, of culture, of religion, the decencies and joys
of marriage, honor, obedience, personal authority and a perpetual
melioration into a finer civility,—these were for all, but not for them.
For the negro, was the slave-ship to begin with, in whose filthy hold
he sat in irons, unable to lie down; bad food, and insufficiency of
that; disfranchisement; no property in the rags that covered him; no
marriage, no right in the poor black woman that cherished him in her
bosom, no right to the children of his body; no security from the
humors, none from the crimes, none from the appetites of his
master: toil, famine, insult and flogging; and, when he sank in the
furrow, no wind of good fame blew over him, no priest of salvation
visited him with glad tidings: but he went down to death with dusky
dreams of African shadow-catchers and Obeahs hunting him.[105]
Very sad was the negro tradition, that the Great Spirit, in the
beginning offered the black man, whom he loved better than the
buckra, or white, his choice of two boxes, a big and a little one. The
black man was greedy, and chose the largest. “The buckra box was
full up with pen, paper and whip, and the negro box with hoe and bill;
and hoe and bill for negro to this day.”
But the crude element of good in human affairs must work and
ripen, spite of whips and plantation laws and West Indian interest.
Conscience rolled on its pillow, and could not sleep. We sympathize
very tenderly here with the poor aggrieved planter, of whom so many
unpleasant things are said; but if we saw the whip applied to old
men, to tender women; and, undeniably, though I shrink to say so,
pregnant women set in the treadmill for refusing to work; when, not
they, but the eternal law of animal nature refused to work;—if we saw
men’s backs flayed with cowhides, and “hot rum poured on,
superinduced with brine or pickle, rubbed in with a cornhusk, in the
scorching heat of the sun;”—if we saw the runaways hunted with
bloodhounds into swamps and hills; and, in cases of passion, a
planter throwing his negro into a copper of boiling cane-juice,—if we
saw these things with eyes, we too should wince. They are not
pleasant sights. The blood is moral: the blood is anti-slavery: it runs
cold in the veins: the stomach rises with disgust, and curses slavery.
Well, so it happened; a good man or woman, a country boy or girl,—
it would so fall out,—once in a while saw these injuries and had the
indiscretion to tell of them. The horrid story ran and flew; the winds
blew it all over the world. They who heard it asked their rich and
great friends if it was true, or only missionary lies. The richest and
greatest, the prime minister of England, the king’s privy council were
obliged to say that it was too true. It became plain to all men, the
more this business was looked into, that the crimes and cruelties of
the slave-traders and slave-owners could not be overstated. The
more it was searched, the more shocking anecdotes came up,—
things not to be spoken. Humane persons who were informed of the
reports insisted on proving them. Granville Sharpe was accidentally
made acquainted with the sufferings of a slave, whom a West Indian
planter had brought with him to London and had beaten with a pistol
on his head, so badly that his whole body became diseased, and the
man useless to his master, who left him to go whither he pleased.
The man applied to Mr. William Sharpe, a charitable surgeon, who
attended the diseases of the poor. In process of time, he was healed.
Granville Sharpe found him at his brother’s and procured a place for
him in an apothecary’s shop. The master accidentally met his
recovered slave, and instantly endeavored to get possession of him
again. Sharpe protected the slave. In consulting with the lawyers,
they told Sharpe the laws were against him. Sharpe would not
believe it; no prescription on earth could ever render such iniquities
legal. ‘But the decisions are against you, and Lord Mansfield, now
Chief Justice of England, leans to the decisions.’ Sharpe instantly sat
down and gave himself to the study of English law for more than two
years, until he had proved that the opinions relied on, of Talbot and
Yorke, were incompatible with the former English decisions and with
the whole spirit of English law. He published his book in 1769, and
he so filled the heads and hearts of his advocates that when he
brought the case of George Somerset, another slave, before Lord
Mansfield, the slavish decisions were set aside, and equity affirmed.
[106] There is a sparkle of God’s righteousness in Lord Mansfield’s
judgment, which does the heart good. Very unwilling had that great
lawyer been to reverse the late decisions; he suggested twice from
the bench, in the course of the trial, how the question might be got
rid of: but the hint was not taken; the case was adjourned again and
again, and judgment delayed. At last judgment was demanded, and
on the 22d June, 1772, Lord Mansfield is reported to have decided in
these words:
“Immemorial usage preserves the memory of positive law, long
after all traces of the occasion, reason, authority and time of its
introduction, are lost; and in a case so odious as the condition of
slaves, must be taken strictly (tracing the subject to natural
principles, the claim of slavery never can be supported). The power
claimed by this return never was in use here. We cannot say the
cause set forth by this return is allowed or approved of by the laws of
this kingdom; and therefore the man must be discharged.”
 This decision established the principle that the “air of England is
too pure for any slave to breathe,” but the wrongs in the islands were
not thereby touched. Public attention, however, was drawn that way,
and the methods of the stealing and the transportation from Africa
became noised abroad. The Quakers got the story. In their plain
meeting-houses and prim dwellings this dismal agitation got
entrance. They were rich: they owned, for debt or by inheritance,
island property; they were religious, tender-hearted men and women;
and they had to hear the news and digest it as they could. Six
Quakers met in London on the 6th of July, 1783,—William Dillwyn,
Samuel Hoar, George Harrison, Thomas Knowles, John Lloyd,
Joseph Woods, “to consider what step they should take for the relief
and liberation of the negro slaves in the West Indies, and for the
discouragement of the slave-trade on the coast of Africa.” They
made friends and raised money for the slave; they interested their
Yearly Meeting; and all English and all American Quakers. John
Woolman of New Jersey, whilst yet an apprentice, was uneasy in his
mind when he was set to write a bill of sale of a negro, for his
master. He gave his testimony against the traffic, in Maryland and
Virginia. Thomas Clarkson was a youth at Cambridge, England,
when the subject given out for a Latin prize dissertation was, “Is it
right to make slaves of others against their will?” He wrote an essay,
and won the prize; but he wrote too well for his own peace; he began
to ask himself if these things could be true; and if they were, he
could no longer rest. He left Cambridge; he fell in with the six
Quakers. They engaged him to act for them. He himself interested
Mr. Wilberforce in the matter. The shipmasters in that trade were the
greatest miscreants, and guilty of every barbarity to their own crews.
Clarkson went to Bristol, made himself acquainted with the interior of
the slave-ships and the details of the trade. The facts confirmed his
sentiment, “that Providence had never made that to be wise which
was immoral, and that the slave-trade was as impolitic as it was
unjust;”[107] that it was found peculiarly fatal to those employed in it.
More seamen died in that trade in one year than in the whole
remaining trade of the country in two. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox were
drawn into the generous enterprise. In 1788, the House of Commons
voted Parliamentary inquiry. In 1791, a bill to abolish the trade was
brought in by Wilberforce, and supported by him and by Fox and
Burke and Pitt, with the utmost ability and faithfulness; resisted by
the planters and the whole West Indian interest, and lost. During the
next sixteen years, ten times, year after year, the attempt was
renewed by Mr. Wilberforce, and ten times defeated by the planters.
The king, and all the royal family but one, were against it. These
debates are instructive, as they show on what grounds the trade was
assailed and defended. Everything generous, wise and sprightly is
sure to come to the attack. On the other part are found cold
prudence, bare-faced selfishness and silent votes. But the nation
was aroused to enthusiasm. Every horrid fact became known. In
1791, three hundred thousand persons in Britain pledged
themselves to abstain from all articles of island produce. The
planters were obliged to give way; and in 1807, on the 25th March,
the bill passed, and the slave-trade was abolished.
The assailants of slavery had early agreed to limit their political
action on this subject to the abolition of the trade, but Granville
Sharpe, as a matter of conscience, whilst he acted as chairman of
the London Committee, felt constrained to record his protest against
the limitation, declaring that slavery was as much a crime against the
Divine law as the slave-trade. The trade, under false flags, went on
as before. In 1821, according to official documents presented to the
American government by the Colonization Society, 200,000 slaves
were deported from Africa. Nearly 30,000 were landed in the port of
Havana alone. In consequence of the dangers of the trade growing
out of the act of abolition, ships were built sharp for swiftness, and
with a frightful disregard of the comfort of the victims they were
destined to transport. They carried five, six, even seven hundred
stowed in a ship built so narrow as to be unsafe, being made just
broad enough on the beam to keep the sea. In attempting to make
its escape from the pursuit of a man-of-war, one ship flung five
hundred slaves alive into the sea. These facts went into Parliament.
In the islands was an ominous state of cruel and licentious society;
every house had a dungeon attached to it; every slave was worked
by the whip. There is no end to the tragic anecdotes in the municipal
records of the colonies. The boy was set to strip and flog his own
mother to blood, for a small offence. Looking in the face of his
master by the negro was held to be violence by the island courts. He
was worked sixteen hours, and his ration by law, in some islands,
was a pint of flour and one salt herring a day. He suffered insult,
stripes, mutilation at the humor of the master: iron collars were
riveted on their necks with iron prongs ten inches long; capsicum
pepper was rubbed in the eyes of the females; and they were done
to death with the most shocking levity between the master and
manager, without fine or inquiry. And when, at last, some Quakers,
Moravians, and Wesleyan and Baptist missionaries, following in the
steps of Carey and Ward in the East Indies, had been moved to
come and cheer the poor victim with the hope of some reparation, in
a future world, of the wrongs he suffered in this, these missionaries
were persecuted by the planters, their lives threatened, their chapels
burned, and the negroes furiously forbidden to go near them. These
outrages rekindled the flame of British indignation. Petitions poured
into Parliament: a million persons signed their names to these; and
in 1833, on the 14th May, Lord Stanley, Minister of the Colonies,
introduced into the House of Commons his bill for the Emancipation.
The scheme of the Minister, with such modification as it received
in the legislature, proposed gradual emancipation; that on 1st
August, 1834, all persons now slaves should be entitled to be
registered as apprenticed laborers, and to acquire thereby all the
rights and privileges of freemen, subject to the restriction of laboring
under certain conditions. These conditions were, that the prædials
should owe three fourths of the profits of their labor to their masters
for six years, and the non-prædials for four years.[108] The other
fourth of the apprentice’s time was to be his own, which he might sell
to his master, or to other persons; and at the end of the term of years
fixed, he should be free.
With these provisions and conditions, the bill proceeds, in the
twelfth section, in the following terms: “Be it enacted, that all and
every person who, on the first August, 1834, shall be holden in
slavery within any such British colony as aforesaid, shall upon and
from and after the said first August, become and be to all intents and
purposes free, and discharged of and from all manner of slavery, and
shall be absolutely and forever manumitted; and that the children
thereafter born to any such persons, and the offspring of such
children, shall, in like manner, be free, from their birth; and that from
and after the first August, 1834, slavery shall be and is hereby utterly
and forever abolished and declared unlawful throughout the British
colonies, plantations, and possessions abroad.”
The Ministers, having estimated the slave products of the colonies
in annual exports of sugar, rum and coffee, at £1,500,000 per
annum, estimated the total value of the slave property at 30,000,000
pounds sterling, and proposed to give the planters, as a
compensation for so much of the slaves’ time as the act took from
them, 20,000,000 pounds sterling, to be divided into nineteen shares
for the nineteen colonies, and to be distributed to the owners of
slaves by commissioners, whose appointment and duties were
regulated by the Act. After much debate, the bill passed by large
majorities. The apprenticeship system is understood to have
proceeded from Lord Brougham, and was by him urged on his
colleagues, who, it is said, were inclined to the policy of immediate
emancipation.
The colonial legislatures received the act of Parliament with
various degrees of displeasure, and, of course, every provision of
the bill was criticised with severity. The new relation between the
master and the apprentice, it was feared, would be mischievous; for
the bill required the appointment of magistrates who should hear
every complaint of the apprentice and see that justice was done him.
It was feared that the interest of the master and servant would now
produce perpetual discord between them. In the island of Antigua,
containing 37,000 people, 30,000 being negroes, these objections
had such weight that the legislature rejected the apprenticeship
system, and adopted absolute emancipation. In the other islands the
system of the Ministry was accepted.
The reception of it by the negro population was equal in nobleness
to the deed. The negroes were called together by the missionaries
and by the planters, and the news explained to them. On the night of
the 31st July, they met everywhere at their churches and chapels,
and at midnight, when the clock struck twelve, on their knees, the
silent, weeping assembly became men; they rose and embraced
each other; they cried, they sung, they prayed, they were wild with
joy, but there was no riot, no feasting. I have never read anything in
history more touching than the moderation of the negroes. Some
American captains left the shore and put to sea, anticipating
insurrection and general murder. With far different thoughts, the
negroes spent the hour in their huts and chapels. I will not repeat to
you the well-known paragraph, in which Messrs. Thome and Kimball,
the commissioners sent out in the year 1837 by the American Anti-
Slavery Society, describe the occurrences of that night in the island
of Antigua. It has been quoted in every newspaper, and Dr.
Channing has given it additional fame. But I must be indulged in
quoting a few sentences from the pages that follow it, narrating the
behavior of the emancipated people on the next day.[109]
“The first of August came on Friday, and a release was proclaimed
from all work until the next Monday. The day was chiefly spent by the
great mass of the negroes in the churches and chapels. The clergy
and missionaries throughout the island were actively engaged,
seizing the opportunity to enlighten the people on all the duties and
responsibilities of their new relation, and urging them to the
attainment of that higher liberty with which Christ maketh his children
free. In every quarter, we were assured, the day was like a Sabbath.
Work had ceased. The hum of business was still: tranquillity
pervaded the towns and country. The planters informed us that they
went to the chapels where their own people were assembled,
greeted them, shook hands with them, and exchanged the most
hearty good wishes. At Grace Hill, there were at least a thousand
persons around the Moravian Chapel who could not get in. For once
the house of God suffered violence, and the violent took it by force.
At Grace Bay, the people, all dressed in white, formed a procession,
and walked arm in arm into the chapel. We were told that the dress
of the negroes on that occasion was uncommonly simple and
modest. There was not the least disposition to gayety. Throughout
the island, there was not a single dance known of, either day or
night, nor so much as a fiddle played.”
On the next Monday morning, with very few exceptions, every
negro on every plantation was in the field at his work. In some
places, they waited to see their master, to know what bargain he
would make; but for the most part, throughout the islands, nothing
painful occurred. In June, 1835, the Ministers, Lord Aberdeen and
Sir George Grey, declared to the Parliament that the system worked
well; that now for ten months, from 1st August, 1834, no injury or
violence had been offered to any white, and only one black had been
hurt in 800,000 negroes: and, contrary to many sinister predictions,
that the new crop of island produce would not fall short of that of the
last year.
But the habit of oppression was not destroyed by a law and a day
of jubilee. It soon appeared in all the islands that the planters were
disposed to use their old privileges, and overwork the apprentices; to
take from them, under various pretences, their fourth part of their
time; and to exert the same licentious despotism as before. The
negroes complained to the magistrates and to the governor. In the
island of Jamaica, this ill blood continually grew worse. The
governors, Lord Belmore, the Earl of Sligo, and afterwards Sir Lionel
Smith (a governor of their own class, who had been sent out to
gratify the planters), threw themselves on the side of the oppressed,
and were at constant quarrel with the angry and bilious island
legislature. Nothing can exceed the ill humor and sulkiness of the
addresses of this assembly.
I may here express a general remark, which the history of slavery
seems to justify, that it is not founded solely on the avarice of the
planter. We sometimes say, the planter does not want slaves, he
only wants the immunities and the luxuries which the slaves yield
him; give him money, give him a machine that will yield him as much
money as the slaves, and he will thankfully let them go. He has no
love of slavery, he wants luxury, and he will pay even this price of
crime and danger for it. But I think experience does not warrant this
favorable distinction, but shows the existence, beside the
covetousness, of a bitterer element, the love of power, the
voluptuousness of holding a human being in his absolute control. We
sometimes observe that spoiled children contract a habit of annoying
quite wantonly those who have charge of them, and seem to
measure their own sense of well-being, not by what they do, but by
the degree of reaction they can cause. It is vain to get rid of them by
not minding them: if purring and humming is not noticed, they squeal
and screech; then if you chide and console them, they find the
experiment succeeds, and they begin again. The child will sit in your
arms contented, provided you do nothing. If you take a book and
read, he commences hostile operations. The planter is the spoiled
child of his unnatural habits, and has contracted in his indolent and
luxurious climate the need of excitement by irritating and tormenting
his slave.
Sir Lionel Smith defended the poor negro girls, prey to the
licentiousness of the planters; they shall not be whipped with
tamarind rods if they do not comply with their master’s will; he
defended the negro women; they should not be made to dig the
cane-holes (which is the very hardest of the field work); he defended
the Baptist preachers and the stipendiary magistrates, who are the
negroes’ friends, from the power of the planter. The power of the
planters, however, to oppress, was greater than the power of the
apprentice and of his guardians to withstand. Lord Brougham and
Mr. Buxton declared that the planter had not fulfilled his part in the
contract, whilst the apprentices had fulfilled theirs; and demanded
that the emancipation should be hastened, and the apprenticeship
abolished. Parliament was compelled to pass additional laws for the
defence and security of the negro, and in ill humor at these acts, the
great island of Jamaica, with a population of half a million, and
300,000 negroes, early in 1838, resolved to throw up the two
remaining years of apprenticeship, and to emancipate absolutely on
the 1st August, 1838. In British Guiana, in Dominica, the same
resolution had been earlier taken with more good will; and the other
islands fell into the measure; so that on the 1st August, 1838, the
shackles dropped from every British slave. The accounts which we
have from all parties, both from the planters (and those too who were
originally most opposed to the measure), and from the new freemen,
are of the most satisfactory kind. The manner in which the new
festival was celebrated, brings tears to the eyes. The First of August,
1838, was observed in Jamaica as a day of thanksgiving and prayer.
Sir Lionel Smith, the governor, writes to the British Ministry, “It is
impossible for me to do justice to the good order, decorum and
gratitude which the whole laboring population manifested on that
happy occasion. Though joy beamed on every countenance, it was
throughout tempered with solemn thankfulness to God, and the
churches and chapels were everywhere filled with these happy
people in humble offering of praise.”
The Queen, in her speech to the Lords and Commons, praised the
conduct of the emancipated population:[110] and in 1840 Sir Charles
Metcalfe, the new governor of Jamaica, in his address to the
Assembly expressed himself to that late exasperated body in these
terms: “All those who are acquainted with the state of the island
know that our emancipated population are as free, as independent in
their conduct, as well conditioned, as much in the enjoyment of
abundance, and as strongly sensible of the blessings of liberty, as
any that we know of in any country. All disqualifications and
distinctions of color have ceased; men of all colors have equal rights
in law, and an equal footing in society, and every man’s position is
settled by the same circumstances which regulate that point in other
free countries, where no difference of color exists. It may be
asserted, without fear of denial, that the former slaves of Jamaica
are now as secure in all social rights, as freeborn Britons.” He further
describes the erection of numerous churches, chapels and schools
which the new population required, and adds that more are still
demanded. The legislature, in their reply, echo the governor’s
statement, and say, “The peaceful demeanor of the emancipated
population redounds to their own credit, and affords a proof of their
continued comfort and prosperity.”
I said, this event is signal in the history of civilization. There are
many styles of civilization, and not one only. Ours is full of
barbarities. There are many faculties in man, each of which takes its
turn of activity, and that faculty which is paramount in any period and
exerts itself through the strongest nation, determines the civility of
that age: and each age thinks its own the perfection of reason. Our
culture is very cheap and intelligible. Unroof any house, and you
shall find it. The well-being consists in having a sufficiency of coffee
and toast, with a daily newspaper; a well glazed parlor, with marbles,
mirrors and centre-table; and the excitement of a few parties and a
few rides in a year. Such as one house, such are all. The owner of a
New York manor imitates the mansion and equipage of the London
nobleman; the Boston merchant rivals his brother of New York; and
the villages copy Boston. There have been nations elevated by great
sentiments. Such was the civility of Sparta and the Dorian race,
whilst it was defective in some of the chief elements of ours. That of
Athens, again, lay in an intellect dedicated to beauty. That of Asia
Minor in poetry, music and arts; that of Palestine in piety; that of
Rome in military arts and virtues, exalted by a prodigious
magnanimity; that of China and Japan in the last exaggeration of
decorum and etiquette. Our civility, England determines the style of,
inasmuch as England is the strongest of the family of existing
nations, and as we are the expansion of that people. It is that of a
trading nation; it is a shopkeeping civility. The English lord is a retired
shopkeeper, and has the prejudices and timidities of that profession.
And we are shopkeepers, and have acquired the vices and virtues
that belong to trade. We peddle, we truck, we sail, we row, we ride in
cars, we creep in teams, we go in canals,—to market, and for the
sale of goods. The national aim and employment streams into our
ways of thinking, our laws, our habits and our manners. The
customer is the immediate jewel of our souls. Him we flatter, him we
feast, compliment, vote for, and will not contradict. It was, or it
seemed the dictate of trade, to keep the negro down. We had found
a race who were less warlike, and less energetic shopkeepers than
we; who had very little skill in trade. We found it very convenient to
keep them at work, since, by the aid of a little whipping, we could get
their work for nothing but their board and the cost of whips. What if it
cost a few unpleasant scenes on the coast of Africa? That was a
great way off; and the scenes could be endured by some sturdy,
unscrupulous fellows, who could go, for high wages, and bring us the
men, and need not trouble our ears with the disagreeable particulars.
If any mention was made of homicide, madness, adultery, and
intolerable tortures, we would let the church-bells ring louder, the
church-organ swell its peal and drown the hideous sound. The sugar
they raised was excellent: nobody tasted blood in it. The coffee was
fragrant; the tobacco was incense; the brandy made nations happy;
the cotton clothed the world. What! all raised by these men, and no
wages? Excellent! What a convenience! They seemed created by
Providence to bear the heat and the whipping, and make these fine
articles.
But unhappily, most unhappily, gentlemen, man is born with
intellect, as well as with a love of sugar; and with a sense of justice,
as well as a taste for strong drink. These ripened, as well as those.
You could not educate him, you could not get any poetry, any
wisdom, any beauty in woman, any strong and commanding
character in man, but these absurdities would still come flashing out,
—these absurdities of a demand for justice, a generosity for the
weak and oppressed. Unhappily, too, for the planter, the laws of
nature are in harmony with each other: that which the head and the
heart demand is found to be, in the long run, for what the grossest
calculator calls his advantage. The moral sense is always supported
by the permanent interest of the parties. Else, I know not how, in our
world, any good would ever get done.[111] It was shown to the
planters that they, as well as the negroes, were slaves; that though
they paid no wages, they got very poor work; that their estates were
ruining them, under the finest climate; and that they needed the
severest monopoly laws at home to keep them from bankruptcy. The
oppression of the slave recoiled on them. They were full of vices;
their children were lumps of pride, sloth, sensuality and rottenness.
The position of woman was nearly as bad as it could be; and, like
other robbers, they could not sleep in security. Many planters have
said, since the emancipation, that, before that day, they were the
greatest slaves on the estates. Slavery is no scholar, no improver; it
does not love the whistle of the railroad; it does not love the
newspaper, the mail-bag, a college, a book or a preacher who has
the absurd whim of saying what he thinks; it does not increase the
white population; it does not improve the soil; everything goes to
decay. For these reasons the islands proved bad customers to
England. It was very easy for manufacturers less shrewd than those
of Birmingham and Manchester to see that if the state of things in the
islands was altered, if the slaves had wages, the slaves would be
clothed, would build houses, would fill them with tools, with pottery,
with crockery, with hardware; and negro women love fine clothes as
well as white women. In every naked negro of those thousands, they
saw a future customer. Meantime, they saw further that the slave-
trade, by keeping in barbarism the whole coast of eastern Africa,
deprives them of countries and nations of customers, if once
freedom and civility and European manners could get a foothold
there. But the trade could not be abolished whilst this hungry West
Indian market, with an appetite like the grave, cried, ‘More, more,
bring me a hundred a day;’ they could not expect any mitigation in
the madness of the poor African war-chiefs. These considerations
opened the eyes of the dullest in Britain. More than this, the West
Indian estate was owned or mortgaged in England, and the owner
and the mortgagee had very plain intimations that the feeling of
English liberty was gaining every hour new mass and velocity, and
the hostility to such as resisted it would be fatal. The House of
Commons would destroy the protection of island produce, and
interfere in English politics in the island legislation: so they hastened
to make the best of their position, and accepted the bill.
These considerations, I doubt not, had their weight; the interest of
trade, the interest of the revenue, and, moreover, the good fame of
the action. It was inevitable that men should feel these motives. But
they do not appear to have had an excessive or unreasonable
weight. On reviewing this history, I think the whole transaction
reflects infinite honor on the people and parliament of England. It
was a stately spectacle, to see the cause of human rights argued
with so much patience and generosity and with such a mass of
evidence before that powerful people. It is a creditable incident in the
history that when, in 1789, the first privy council report of evidence
on the trade (a bulky folio embodying all the facts which the London
Committee had been engaged for years in collecting, and all the
examinations before the council) was presented to the House of
Commons, a late day being named for the discussion, in order to
give members time,—Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister,
and other gentlemen, took advantage of the postponement to retire
into the country to read the report. For months and years the bill was
debated, with some consciousness of the extent of its relations, by
the first citizens of England, the foremost men of the earth; every
argument was weighed, every particle of evidence was sifted and
laid in the scale; and, at last, the right triumphed, the poor man was
vindicated, and the oppressor was flung out. I know that England has
the advantage of trying the question at a wide distance from the spot
where the nuisance exists; the planters are not, excepting in rare
examples, members of the legislature. The extent of the empire, and
the magnitude and number of other questions crowding into court,
keep this one in balance, and prevent it from obtaining that
ascendency, and being urged with that intemperance which a
question of property tends to acquire. There are causes in the
composition of the British legislature, and the relation of its leaders to
the country and to Europe, which exclude much that is pitiful and
injurious in other legislative assemblies. From these reasons, the
question was discussed with a rare independence and magnanimity.
It was not narrowed down to a paltry electioneering trap; and, I must
say, a delight in justice, an honest tenderness for the poor negro, for
man suffering these wrongs, combined with the national pride, which
refused to give the support of English soil or the protection of the
English flag to these disgusting violations of nature.
Forgive me, fellow citizens, if I own to you, that in the last few days
that my attention has been occupied with this history, I have not
been able to read a page of it without the most painful comparisons.
Whilst I have read of England, I have thought of New England.
Whilst I have meditated in my solitary walks on the magnanimity of
the English Bench and Senate, reaching out the benefit of the law to
the most helpless citizen in her world-wide realm, I have found
myself oppressed by other thoughts. As I have walked in the
pastures and along the edge of woods, I could not keep my
imagination on those agreeable figures, for other images that
intruded on me. I could not see the great vision of the patriots and
senators who have adopted the slave’s cause:—they turned their
backs on me. No: I see other pictures,—of mean men; I see very
poor, very ill-clothed, very ignorant men, not surrounded by happy
friends,—to be plain,—poor black men of obscure employment as
mariners, cooks or stewards, in ships, yet citizens of this our
Commonwealth of Massachusetts,—freeborn as we,—whom the
slave-laws of the States of South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana
have arrested in the vessels in which they visited those ports, and
shut up in jails so long as the vessel remained in port, with the
stringent addition, that if the shipmaster fails to pay the costs of this
official arrest and the board in jail, these citizens are to be sold for
slaves, to pay that expense. This man, these men, I see, and no law
to save them. Fellow citizens, this crime will not be hushed up any
longer. I have learned that a citizen of Nantucket, walking in New
Orleans, found a freeborn citizen of Nantucket, a man, too, of great
personal worth, and, as it happened, very dear to him, as having
saved his own life, working chained in the streets of that city,
kidnapped by such a process as this. In the sleep of the laws, the
private interference of two excellent citizens of Boston has, I have
ascertained, rescued several natives of this State from these
Southern prisons. Gentlemen, I thought the deck of a Massachusetts
ship was as much the territory of Massachusetts as the floor on
which we stand. It should be as sacred as the temple of God. The
poorest fishing-smack that floats under the shadow of an iceberg in
the Northern seas, or hunts whale in the Southern ocean, should be
encompassed by her laws with comfort and protection, as much as
within the arms of Cape Ann or Cape Cod. And this kidnapping is
suffered within our own land and federation, whilst the fourth article
of the Constitution of the United States ordains in terms, that, “The
citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several States.” If such a damnable
outrage can be committed on the person of a citizen with impunity,
let the Governor break the broad seal of the State; he bears the
sword in vain.[112] The Governor of Massachusetts is a trifler; the
State-House in Boston is a play-house; the General Court is a
dishonored body, if they make laws which they cannot execute. The
great-hearted Puritans have left no posterity. The rich men may walk
in State Street, but they walk without honor; and the farmers may
brag their democracy in the country, but they are disgraced men. If
the State has no power to defend its own people in its own shipping,
because it has delegated that power to the Federal Government, has
it no representation in the Federal Government?[113] Are those men
dumb? I am no lawyer, and cannot indicate the forms applicable to
the case, but here is something which transcends all forms. Let the
senators and representatives of the State, containing a population of
a million freemen, go in a body before the Congress and say that
they have a demand to make on them, so imperative that all
functions of government must stop until it is satisfied. If ordinary
legislation cannot reach it, then extraordinary must be applied. The
Congress should instruct the President to send to those ports of
Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans such orders and such force
as should release, forthwith, all such citizens of Massachusetts as
were holden in prison without the allegation of any crime, and should
set on foot the strictest inquisition to discover where such persons,
brought into slavery by these local laws at any time heretofore, may
now be. That first; and then, let order be taken to indemnify all such
as have been incarcerated. As for dangers to the Union, from such
demands!—the Union already is at an end when the first citizen of
Massachusetts is thus outraged. Is it an union and covenant in which
the State of Massachusetts agrees to be imprisoned, and the State
of Carolina to imprison?[114] Gentlemen, I am loath to say harsh
things, and perhaps I know too little of politics for the smallest weight
to attach to any censure of mine,—but I am at a loss how to
characterize the tameness and silence of the two senators and the
ten representatives of the State at Washington. To what purpose
have we clothed each of those representatives with the power of
seventy thousand persons, and each senator with near half a million,
if they are to sit dumb at their desks and see their constituents
captured and sold;—perhaps to gentlemen sitting by them in the
hall? There is a scandalous rumor that has been swelling louder of
late years,—perhaps wholly false,—that members are bullied into
silence by Southern gentlemen. It is so easy to omit to speak, or
even to be absent when delicate things are to be handled. I may as
well say, what all men feel, that whilst our very amiable and very
innocent representatives and senators at Washington are
accomplished lawyers and merchants, and very eloquent at dinners
and at caucuses, there is a disastrous want of men from New
England. I would gladly make exceptions, and you will not suffer me
to forget one eloquent old man, in whose veins the blood of
Massachusetts rolls, and who singly has defended the freedom of
speech, and the rights of the free, against the usurpation of the
slave-holder.[115] But the reader of Congressional debates, in New