The Deadly Labor of Sugar
Boiling Down Sweetness In 18th-century Barbados, sugar production counted on cast-iron syrup kettles, a method later embraced in the American South. Sugarcane was crushed using wind and animal-powered mills. The extracted juice was heated up, clarified, and evaporated in a series of cast-iron kettles of decreasing size to produce crystallized sugar. The Sweet Land: Barbados Sugar Economy. Barbados, frequently called the "Gem of the Caribbean," owes much of its historical prominence to one commodity: sugar. This golden crop transformed the island from a small colonial station into a powerhouse of the worldwide economy during the 17th and 18th centuries. Yet, the sweet success of sugar was built on a structure of shackled labour, a fact that casts a shadow over its legacy. The Boiling Process: A Lealthal Job Sugar production in the days of colonial slavery was an unforgiving process. After gathering and squashing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in huge c...