“THE SUGAR REVOLUTION”

SUGARBy the 16th Century sugar was fast becoming a necessity in Europe. Sugar was needed for a variety of different things from distilling and brewing to the making of cakes and biscuits.

Origins of Sugar The type of sugar cane which Columbus

introduced to the West Indies in 1493 originated in India in about 3000 BC

It came to Europe by way of Arabia and was known to the Spaniards in the eight century AD

The sugar taken to Hispaniola in 1493 came directly from Cyprus to the Canary Island in 1491 and from the Canary Island to Hispaniola

Some Canary islanders were also transported to help in cultivation

Change from Tobacco to Sugar

During the early years of settlement tobacco was the primary crop. Several factors accounted for the changeover from tobacco to sugar cane cultivation:

1. West Indian Tobacco could not compete neither in quantity nor in quality with that of the American colony of Virginia.

2. Like tobacco, sugar-cane was a tropical product and the growing of product was conducive to the climate.

3. The production of sugar also presented no real transportation problems as sugar was not too bulky to be transported on the small ships of the time.

Change from Tobacco to Sugar

4.The introduction of tea and coffee to Europe resulted in a greater demand for commodities to sweeten these products.

5.The English colonists readily accepted sugar as an alternative crop due to the efforts of the Dutch. The Dutch were expelled from Brazil by the Portuguese which led to tremendous economic losses. In order to regain these losses the Dutch not only supplied the English with the know how to produce sugar but they also supplied slaves to work on the plantations as well.

Consequences of the Sugar Revolution

Sugar profoundly changed the economic conditions, social structure and political organization of the islands.

Previously tobacco was produced on relatively small plots. These plots were much to small to cultivate sugar. Hence small estates adjacent to larger ones were acquired.

As sugar became more profitable and the demand for land increased so did the price of land.

Consequences of the Sugar Revolution

The change to sugar also affected the racial composition of the colonies.

Many of the whites who worked on the tobacco plantations found new work as inn keepers, clerks etc.

Others returned to Europe or migrated to the United States .

Many of the European bondservants who worked on the plantations also left.

Consequences of the Sugar Revolution

Sugar cultivation required a large disciplined workforce. The importation of negroes from Africa began.

In 1640 in Barbados their was approximately a few hundred slaves, by 1645 their was over 6,000 and 1685 their were over 45,000.

In contrast the white population decreased from 40,000 in 1645 to about 20,000 by 1685.

Consequences of the Sugar Revolution

The cultivation of sugar also increased the wealth to be obtained from the West Indies. This led to a change in in the system of governing the West Indies. The islands had previously been neglected by the British. However their recent profitability caused the British to bring their islands in the West Indies under closer control.

The increasing wealth of the West Indian colonies also caused the other European nations to attempt to wrestle the colonies away from one another.

Scenarios

Ted Smart is a Tobacco producer in the American colony of Virginia. He produces large amounts of tobacco that is of a very high quality.

Steven Wilson is a tobacco producer in the island of Barbados. He to produces tobacco however he doesn’t produce as much tobacco as Ted Smart, and the quality of his tobacco is not of a high quality.

Scenarios

If you had the choice of buying tobacco from either Ted or Steven who would you buy tobacco from?

Do you think that Steven Wilson will continue to produce tobacco?

Scenarios

Steven Wilson hears about a product that everyone in Europe is using to sweeten their tea and to bake. The product is called sugar. Columbus brought Sugar to the New World on one of his voyages from the Canary islands.

What would you do if you were in Steven’s position?

Scenarios

In order to produce sugar the Dutch merchants tell Steven that he will need large amounts of land and a large labour force. When Steven was producing tobacco he had a relatively small labour force made up of first Amerindians and then European bondservants. He also used a small piece of land to produce tobacco.

Scenarios

Steven’s neighbor Scott also plants tobacco but he decides that instead of producing sugar he will move back to Europe. Steven decides that he will produce sugar. In order to do so he decides to buy Scott’s tobacco plantation. Other tobacco producers in Barbados decide to follow Steven’s lead and they begin to look to acquire more land to produce sugar.

What do you think will happen to the price of land in Barbados?

Scenarios

Now that Steven has acquired more land he now needs to acquire labour to work on the sugar plantation. The Dutch merchants advise Steven to use the Africans as a form of labour. The Dutch merchants tell Steven that he will need about 150 Africans to work on his plantation. Steven agrees to this plan and many of the other tobacco planter who have decided to plant sugar follow his lead.

What will happen to the population of the West Indian colonies?

Scenarios

Steven and his fellow sugar planter’s have now begun to successfully produce sugar. Due to the fact that there is a large amount of people who wish to buy sugar Steven and his fellow sugar planter’s make huge profits. The British government who had previously neglected the West Indian colonies, now decide to pay more attention to them as the colonies are now making immense profits.

The British government implement a system of government that allows them to have more control of the West Indian colonies.

Exercise

Based on the scenarios that you have just heard about answer the following questions:

Identify two reasons why the West Indian planters change from producing tobacco to sugar?

Examine the changes that took place in the West Indian colonies due to the change from tobacco to sugar.

Which of the changes that took place fall under the following headings:

Social, Economic and Political.

Sugar Revolution

“Sugar Revolution” should only be applied to the change from tobacco to sugar cultivation which took place:

In the mid to late seventeenth century In the eastern Caribbean islands belonging to

the English and French Where the monoculture of sugar became the

rule Where the social changes were equally

revolutionary, e.g. small holdings were swallowed by large estates; indentured servants were dispossessed; black slaves dominated the populations by a ratio of at least 10 to 1

Sugar Revolution

There was no “ Sugar Revolution” in the Greater Antilles because:

Sugar cultivation and production developed slowly

Sugar was never cultivated to the exclusion of other farming

White urban and rural population always remained a large population of the total population

Cuba was so large that for two hundred years the Spanish hardly needed another source of sugar

Reasons for The Sugar Revolution West Indian tobacco prices fell when tobacco from Virginia,

in greater quantity and of better quality, began to be sold in Europe

The Dutch who were loosing their colonies of Brazil between 1624 and 1654, helped the English and French colonies begin sugar cultivation with capital, expertise, slaves and transport

Barbados changed from tobacco to sugar in the decade 1640 and 1650, the epitome of the sugar revolution

Concomitant changes were the increase in the size of land holdings; fall in numbers of land owners; increase in land prices; polarization of society into white planters and black slaves; and a black to white ratio of at least 10:1

Other facts relating to “The Sugar Revolution”

The Leeward Islands experienced the sugar revolution later than Barbados. It lasted longer but was not so complete

Jamaica rapidly became a sugar island after 1670 but sugar was not replacing anything

St Domingue became the leading sugar producer of the French islands but it was a new colony

Martinique and Guadeloupe experienced gradual revolutions over the period of 1670 to 1770, but these were incomplete as tobacco growing and small holding remained

Cultivation of Sugar Cane Before sugar cane was cultivated the land had to be prepared

The ground had to be cleared of bush, shrubs and grass and where necessary drainage and irrigation canals dug

Because there were no ploughs tilling was done by the slaves with heavy digging hoes

This process was called “holing”

Cultivation of Sugar Cane Holes were dug about 4 feet square

and from 6-9 inches deep

The hole was filled with manure, soil and a cane cutting

In 12- 15 months the crop was ready for reaping

Cultivation of Sugar Cane The reaping was usually done by

slaves using cutlasses and machetes Cut canes were tied in bundles and

transported to factories in carts

Manufacturing of Sugar

At the factory the canes were passed through mills consisting of rotating iron rollers

The juice or liquid was extracted and conveyed by gutters into receptacles called siphons

The cane trash was collected, dried and used as fuel under the various boilers

The siphons of juice were clarified by heating, the impurities were skimmed off and later used with molasses in the distillation of rum

Manufacturing of Sugar

The liquor was transferred to a large boiler where it was heated until it became so thick that one drop would stretch between ones fingers

The sticky substance was emptied into a large shallow cooler where it remained until it was almost cold

It remained in this position for 3 wks during which the molasses dripped out leaving behind sugar crystals

Labour force before African slavery The profits of the sugar planters

depended on having enough labor for the yearly cycle of planting, hoeing, cutting, hauling, crushing, boiling and packing

However it was becoming difficult to recruit European labor on the most desperate Europeans would leave home for such plantation work

So the planters came to rely for their labor on dishonest recruiters

The recruiters signed up simple youths who had no idea where the sugar islands were and what future to expect

Labor continued..

European suppliers often kidnapped sailors and fishermen and hustled them on board a ship bound for the West Indies

Convicts and prisoners of war were another means of acquiring labor

Convicts and prisoners did not meet the growing demand of English and French planters for more labor therefore they turn to the Africans

THE END

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