Elisabeth was the seventh child of Nanoe, a former slave and concubine of a planter. Nanoe had been ransomed ("manumitted") by her own children, who themselves had already been ransomed. Thus Elisabeth, Nanoe's youngest child, was born a free black. She was proud of that throughout her life.

Businesswoman

She lived with her half-sister Maria Jansz. who was married to the merchant Frederik Coenraad Bossé. She learned writing, arithmetic and did Bossé's administration. Elisabeth Samson was an excellent businesswoman and she acquired a large fortune in trade and with her plantations, which she owned with Carl Otto Creutz with whom she lived. But marrying a white man was her dream. After the death of Otto Creutz, Elisabeth wanted to marry Christoph Braband, sexton and organist of the Reformed church. In 1764 they declared their intention to marry, but the marriage was forbidden by the Raden van Politie, the highest governing body. The reason: official mixing of the black and white population was not allowed. Informally, of course, there were many mixtures, for which there were even all kinds of words, such as mestizo and mulatto. Elisabeth addressed the States General in the Netherlands directly. Only after three years came a verdict: there was no law prohibiting marriage between white and black. Unfortunately, Christoph Braband had now died. But nothing now stood in the way of Elisabeth's marriage to another white man. On December 21, 1767, she married Hermanus Daniel Zobre in Paramaribo. But that did not mean she was admitted to the white elite. Elisabeth Samson primarily owned coffee plantations, which yielded high profits in the 18th century. The value of her possessions at her death in 1771 was over a million guilders. She was buried in the Nieuwe Oranjetuin in Paramaribo.

Blonde wig

Historian and author Cynthia McLeod spent years researching Elisabeth Samson and turned it into a biography and later a novel, The Free Negress Elisabeth. One of the scenes in the book describes how, after her marriage, Elisabeth receives an invitation to the governor's New Year's reception. She goes there, wearing a blonde wig, but is looked down upon by all the guests. Iris also gave her fictional portrait of Elisabeth a blond wig and a tragic look.

Recently Cynthia McLeod was in the Netherlands and she told Humanity in Action students about this famous and wealthy Surinamese. One of them asked, "And did she have slaves of her own on her plantations?" "Certainly" McLeod replied "and I know what your next question is: and how did she treat her slaves?". She explained that she did take better care of her slaves than most plantation owners. Housing, for example, was better than usual. But slavery itself was taken for granted, even for someone whose mother had been a slave.

For information on the other two individuals in the triptych: Wilhelmina van Kelderman and Fabi Labi Dikan.