Barbados Sugar’s Unseen History

The Bitter Side of Sweet

In 18th-century Barbados, sugar production required the use of cast-iron syrup kettles, an approach later embraced in the American South. Sugarcane was crushed using wind and animal-powered mills. The drawn out juice was heated, clarified, and evaporated in a series of pots of reducing size to create crystallized sugar.

Sugar in Barbados. Sugarcane growing began in Barbados in the early 1640s, when Dutch merchants presented sugar production. By the mid-17th century, Barbados had turned into one of the wealthiest nests in the British Empire, earning the label "Little England." But all was not sweetness in the land of Sugar as we discover next:



Boiling Sugar: A Lealthal Task

Making sugar in the days of colonial slavery was  a perilous process. After gathering and crushing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in massive cast iron kettles up until it turned into sugar. These pots, typically organized in a series called a"" train"" were heated by blazing fires that workers had to stir continuously. The heat was extreme, and the work unrelenting. Enslaved employees endured long hours, often standing near the inferno, running the risk of burns and fatigue. Splashes of the boiling liquid were not uncommon and might cause extreme, even fatal, injuries.

A Life of Constant Peril

The risks were constant for the enslaved employees entrusted with working these kettles. They worked in sweltering heat, breathing in dangerous gases from the burning fuel. The work demanded intense effort and accuracy; a moment of inattention might result in mishaps. Regardless of these obstacles, oppressed Africans brought impressive skill and ingenuity to the process, ensuring the quality of the end product. This product fueled economies far beyond Barbados" shores.


Now, the large cast iron boiling pots points out this unpleasant past. Spread across gardens, museums, and archaeological sites in Barbados, they stand as quiet witnesses to the lives they touched. These relics motivate us to review the human suffering behind the sweetness that once drove worldwide economies.


HISTORICAL RECORDS!


The Truth of Sugar Production Revealed in Historical Records

The boiling house was among the most harmful places on a Caribbean sugar plantation. Abolitionist authors, including James Ramsay, documented the stunning conditions shackled employees withstood, from harsh heat to fatal accidents in open sugar barrels.


Sweet Taste Forged in Fire - Check the link for More

The Iron Heart of Barbados' Sugar