The High Price of Sugar
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Kenyatta University *
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105
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History
Date
Nov 24, 2024
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docx
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3
Uploaded by gafferlui
Jamariauna Washington
HIST
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Sep, 17, 2023
The High Price of Sugar
1.
When was sugar making introduced in the Americas and Caribbean?
In the sixteenth century, the Atlantic sugar plantations on So Tomé, Madeira, and the
Canary Islands in the Iberian "Empire of the Islands" aided in the establishment of
sugarcane plantations in the Americas, notably in the Spanish Caribbean and Brazil.
Dutch and Sephardic merchants, for example, assisted in the establishment of slave-based
sugar plantations in Barbados and Jamaica, as well as on the Wild Coast (Guyanas) and in
the French Caribbean territories.
2.
What European group was the first to produce and export sugar from the New
World?
The Spaniards in the Caribbean were the first European country to produce and export
sugar because of the pioneering efforts in the territories in Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.
3.
What led to the cultivation of sugar cane in the English colonies?
Sugar arrived in England for the first time in the 11th century, carried back by soldiers
returning from the Crusades in what is now the Middle East. It remained a rarefied luxury
for the next 500 years, until Portuguese colonists began making it at a more industrial
level in Brazil during the 1500s.
4.
Describe the conditions of sugar cane cultivation for slaves who worked in the
fields?
The life of a slave was unbearably difficult, often beyond their capacity to endure. The
workday was never ending, and minor infractions frequently resulted in beatings. A
particularly harsh owner treated Mary Prince, a slave who was living on a variety of
Caribbean islands around the beginning of the 19th century, as follows: "To strip me
naked-to hang me up by the wrists and lay my flesh open with the cow-skin, was an
ordinary punishment for even a slight offence." Some slaves committed infanticide and
suicide as a result of the conditions on plantations.
5.
What conditions did African slaves endure in the sugar mills?
The task was less physically taxing for the slaves who fed the mill, but it presented
different risks. The so-called feeders were prone to having their fingers trapped in the
vertical rollers that crushed the cane, especially when they were exhausted. Even while it
must have been horrible, the alternative was worse. Flipping a switch wouldn't have
stopped the rollers. "The slave would be crushed to death if the limb wasn't chopped off."
6.
According to the article, what was the impact of sugar cultivation in the New World
and how did it impact the Atlantic slave trade?
Sugar cultivation had a huge impact in the New World as the fast deforestation merely
increased the area's susceptibility to erosion and drought. The ecosystem was severely
damaged by planters who cleared massive areas of forest land. More than two thirds of
the Antiguan British colony was covered in trees in 1690. By 1751, planters had cleared
every acre that could be used for farming. From digging, planting, and harvesting the
sugarcane to crushing, boiling, and curing it, a vast workforce was required. The Atlantic
slave trade grew more important as European crusaders seized the sugar plantations. Tens
of thousands of slaves were imported from Africa by Antiguan planters to satisfy the need
for labor.
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