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HIS106 TTH 9:30-10:45

02/25/2010

The Spread and Cultivation of Sugar in the Columbian Era

No crop is more representative of the Columbian Exchange than the sugar cane. For the

purpose of this paper, sugar cane and all other sugar crops will be referred to as sugar. Again, it

is difficult to posit any other crop as having the most critical impact than that of sugar – a crop

that embodies without question the Columbian Exchange. Not only did sugar play a

quintessential role, but it was even introduced to the Americas by Columbus himself as he had

acquired the plant from his father-in-law’s plantation located within Madeira. Pomeranz

illustrates further how sugar, a plant originating in Asia thrust itself (through no will unto itself)

towards the forefront of emerging ―New World‖ colonial empires, global economy, and ecology:

[Sugar] was a truly international crop, combining an Asian

plant, European capital, African Labor, and American soil
(Pomeranz, 88).

Undoubtedly, the forces giving rise to the use of an extraordinary amount of primarily

African labor, the forces that drove Europeans to relocate Africans ―en masse‖ for labor

purposes, were necessarily nonnormative and profit based. Hence, the discovery of sugar as

being essential to daily life amidst the swelling European class stratification caused its demand to

skyrocket. Without any doubt, its consumption increases dramatically per capita in the 18 th

century – and it is also consumed by all socioeconomic demographics since it is sold at a

relatively affordable price in terms of the average European consumer. The problem however is

tied to the impossibility for sugar to be cultivated in Europe. Therefore, in one sense, the

European’s desire for sugar eventuate its production being ―outsourced‖ to the colonies. Also,
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the means of rapid mass sugar production is linked intrinsically with slave labor as Graves points

out:

Such forms of [sugar] production, which developed within

the economic organization of the mercantilist empires of
seventeenth century Europe, have traditionally been almost
synonymous with the institution of slavery (Graves, 214).

Consequently, the spread and cultivation of sugar turns the normative ―Old World‖

slavery practices into justification for mass forced plantation labor. Eventually the enslaved and

those related or allied in some manner would be able to denounce this amoral institution:

For a long time the voices of the slaves themselves were

unintelligible to their white buyers and sellers, although the
cries and moans of human hurt needed no translation
(Axtell, 413).

Indeed, the impact of sugar comes full circle when the means for its production can no

longer be tolerated and can no more be seen as the norm in the eyes of mankind. This

antislavery tract for children titled The Black Man’s Lament reveals the nature of ―New World‖

sugar production:

When 18 months complete their growth,

Then the tall canes' rich juices fill;
And we, to bring their liquor forth,
Convey them to the bruising-mill.
That mill, our labour, every hour,
Must with fresh loads of canes supply;
And if we faint, the cart-whip's power,
Gives force which nature's powers deny (Tadman, 1534).

Again, in terms of sugar consumption, by only considering the case of the British; from

the start of the 18th century until the late 1790s, its consumption increased from four to twelve
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pounds per capita. Sugar then, became a major export good for much of the Americas as well as

in India. Here it is important to note the ecological effect of sugar, because it hinders the growth

of other, more immediately essential crops afforded to us throughout creation. Once again,

politics and resulting economics directed and sustained sugar production instead of common

sense or practical governance which was evidently lacking as Alexander highlights:

In subordinating subsistence rice farming to the demands

of sugar cultivation, it severely constrained the ability of
the Javanese to increase rice production. The stagnation of
Javanese agriculture during the colonial period was less a
product of ecology or demography than political economy
(Alexander, 216-17).

Furthermore, all elements related to the entire sugar production on these European ruled

plantations continued to have a depopulating and debilitating effect on the African slave

population. The European frame of mind was such that they held little personal anguish if any of

the slaves died in the process. For the Europeans, it was cheaper to replenish those dead with a

―fresh‖ boatload from Africa (particularly from the north and along the coast of Africa). It is

indeed tragic that Africans became so easily reduced to a ―tool‖ used to ―freely‖ and ―cheaply‖

provide sugar to Europe:

…sugar planting systematically brought together a lethal

combination of factors that persistently and almost
inevitably produced natural decrease among slaves.
Significantly, sugar planting, while dominant in the rest of
the Americas, was always of very minor significance in
North America (Tadman, 1536-7).
Therefore, it is not shocking that the majority of African slaves were shipped to toil long,

insufferable, backbreaking hours on sugar plantations:

…sugar was the great plantation crop, with at least some

60 to 70 percent of all Africans who survived the Atlantic
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voyage to the Americas ending up on sugar plantations

(Tadman, 1537).

Evidently, there was little desire on the European’s part to work themselves to meet the

rising demand in their respective sovereignties. Not only did the Colombian Exchange spread

sugar around the globe, it also slowly spread the death of people on the African continent around

the world:

…no other crop or economic activity had the potential to

create natural decrease on the scale that sugar did
(Tadman, 1537).

Also, compared with the workload and working conditions of other plantations, the sugar

plantations proved to be the most severe:

Wherever slaves were not engaged in the production of

sugar their chances of survival were greater (Tadman,
1546).

Thus, a new European ―sugar regime‖ came to fruition, as Europeans imposed their will

all the more on their slaves. Therefore the size and scope of these plantations increased

dramatically in accordance with worldwide demand for sugar:

…the sugar regime meant huge plantations, the importation

of large numbers of young-adult African males, and the
presence of many Africans who could pass on vivid
memories of a world far different from that of white planter
society (Tadman, 1562).

Economically, whence sugar was found to be a highly profitable and lucrative enterprise,

the global markets began to boom and explode across the world. This era directly following

after the initial exchanges within the Columbian Exchange are revolutionary because all

elements of economy, ecology, religion, and society merge together as a result:

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Sugar planting had major implications in terms of

economic dynamics: it demanded a great scale, huge
capital investment, an unbalanced slave-rearing policy,
and intensive slave buying (Tadman, 1563).

Whatsoever therefore is consequent of the role of sugar throughout the Columbian

Exchange, its journey from the Asian to the American continents put into motion a whirlwind of

events that have had a profound impact on the modern world:

…in terms of economic dynamics, in terms of the slave

experience, there were highly significant things that were
special about sugar…the sugar crop [has] decisive
importance in explaining major contrasts in the population
history of slaves across the Americas. (Tadman, 1564).

Finally, it will serve well to point out that sugar is the key element within the complex

web spun by these emerging global economies and policies. Without the spread of sugar to all

corners of the earth, the demand for slave labor and the harshness and inhumanness thereof

would have no doubt become but a whisper since the entire process to grow and to eventually

refine sugar retrospectively created unnecessary death and enslavement.

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Axtell, James. "Moral Reflections on the Columbian Legacy." The History Teacher, Vol. 25, No.
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