The Society of Humanitarianism (Dutch: Maatschappij van Weldadigheid) was a Dutch private organization set up in 1818 by general Johannes van den Bosch to help poor families, mostly from the big cities, improve their lot in the aftermath of the Napoleonic French occupation by granting them farming land.

[2] The estate at Frederiksoord and the colonies built by the Society at Wilhelminaoord, Wortel and Veenhuizen were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021 for their testimony to a unique 19th century philosophical movement and their outstanding urban planning.

Building on the philosophy of the Enlightenment and the prevailing culture of colonialism at the time, Johannes van den Bosch he recognized this problem and attempted to implement a domestic colonization scheme where the poor would be provided a place to live and work off of the land.

The Society of Humanitarianism attempted to address the root causes of poverty, offering sustainable employed for all able-bodied poor people.

However, those who are born connected with, or in a state of, defencelessness or outright inability to labour, must of course be and remain subject to local care of civil Government, of the existing charity institutions, or of such Councils for assistance to the poor as have been established for centuries by the various religious denominations, for the support of its impoverished fellow believers.

That poverty alone, which springs from lack of employment while willing and able to perform labour, in my opinion demands and deserves our attention, to the extent that we are indivisible and participating citizens of a free State, because it is susceptible, through the collaboration of particular persons, to be positively combated, at times reduced, and perhaps once completely overcome, at least be contained within those limits where it will cease to be burdensome and even dangerous for society.

On August 25, 1818 - one week after the purchase of the property by the Estate Westerbeeksloot near modern-day Frederiksoord - he laid the foundation stone for the first settlers home.

A total of 52 families from all parts of the country were selected to participate in the experiment of Johannes van den Bosch.

On this simple theoretical principle Bertillon built a complicated identification method, in which body measurements were central.

[5] Johannes van den Bosch's project suffered depletion, because he always had to borrow to keep the Colonies in state money because of the disappointing yields.

Some managed to save well but others went back to the place of origin.The settler Peter Arends found that life in the colony was advertised as being better than it really was.

Also Isaac da Costa and Ottho Gerhard Heldring were fierce fighters of the ideas of Van den Bosch.

In their view, the poor and needy were a natural part of society so that the rich and wealthy could show their mercy as a token of Christian charity.

[5] The Society for Humanitarians was transformed into a foundation, which is responsible for the management of 1400 acres of cultured and forestry land, including a part of the National Park Drents-Friese Wold.