The Deadly Labor of Sugar
Boiling Down The Sweet In 18th-century Barbados, cane sugar was made in cast-iron syrup kettles, a technique later adopted in the American South. Sugarcane was squashed using wind and animal-powered mills. The drawn out juice was heated up, clarified, and vaporized in a series of iron kettles of reducing size to create crystallized sugar. The Rise of Sugar in Barbados. Sugarcane cultivation began in Barbados in the early 1640s, when the Dutch introduced sugar cane harvesting. By the mid-17th century, Barbados had actually turned into one of the wealthiest nests in the British Empire, making the label "Little England." But all was not sweetness in the land of Sugar as we discover next: Boiling Sugar: A Grueling Job Sugar production in the days of colonial slavery was a highly dangerous process. After gathering and crushing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in massive cast iron kettles till it took shape as sugar. These pots, frequently organized in a s...
