Boiling Down Sweetness
The Dark Side of Sugar The Rise of Barbados Sugar Wealth. Sugarcane growing began in Barbados in the early 1640s, when the Dutch came to help with sugar production. By the mid-17th century, Barbados had become one of the wealthiest colonies in the British Empire, earning the nickname "Little England." But all was not sweetness in the land of Sugar as we discover next: The Boiling Process: A Lealthal Job Producing sugar in the 17th and 18th centuries was an unforgiving procedure. After collecting and crushing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in enormous cast iron kettles till it crystallized into sugar. These pots, often arranged in a series called a"" train"" were heated by blazing fires that enslaved Africans needed to stoke continuously. The heat was suffocating, , and the work unrelenting. Enslaved employees withstood long hours, frequently standing close to the inferno, risking burns and exhaustion. Splashes of the boiling liquid were not unusual...