 Among the first British settlers were many Jews  and one of the oldest synagogues in the Americas is found in Paramaribo.The population of the town was greatly increased after 1873, when former slaves (who had been freed in 1863) were allowed to stop working for their former masters and leave the sugar plantations.Paramaribo has remained the capital of Suriname, from its colonial days through the independence of Suriname in 1975 to the present day.