Jamaican Sugar Plantations
When beginning to discuss sugar plantations in Jamaica, the word slavery comes to mind. This thought occurs because of the crucial role that the slaves played in attempting to make these plantations successful. During the 18th century, "the so-called sugar colonies were the most valuable possessions of overseas empires" (Floyd, 38). Sugar plantations produced money for not only the economy of Jamaica, but for their motherland England as well. Essentially these plantations were created because the aristocrats in Europe needed something to sweeten all of their drinks. However, with lack of space in Europe, the wealthy decided that plantations would flourish in Jamaica. Despite the success of these plantations, they were tools used to discriminate and exploit African-Americans. When the abolition of slavery occurred in Jamaica, the role of the sugar plantation significantly declined. One can say that sugar plantations in Jamaica were mass industries that were designed to belittle the Africans and give them little chance at success.
The island of Jamaica is roughly 4400 square miles and its size rivals that of Connecticut. "Most of the island comprises a rugged and highly dissected topography, with steeply sloping hills and sharply twisting valleys" (Floyd, vii). With this rugged terrain, it seems to be quite ironic that nearly half of the population lives off the land. The Jamaicans rely on exceptional soil, a good irrigation system and fertilizer to ensure that their most prosperous crops will flourish. Sugar is among these resources that has helped create a stable economy in Jamaica.
Jamaica established itself as a leading sugar producer in the 18th century after they decided that they had ...
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...ound to become broken down. With the harsh realities slaves faced everyday, it was inevitable that its collapse would come. Nonetheless, sugar cane production was able to produce a stable economy in Jamaica for several years and ultimately led to the success of an entire nation.
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Sugar plantations have a field where sugar cane stalks are cut and grown and then there are boiling house where sugar cane stalks are crushed and boiled which is all runned by slave labor. Because slaves planted the cane stalks, harvested sugar stalks, crushed them, and boiled the sugar stalks sugar was made(8). According to David richardson the slave Trade, Sugar, and British Economic growth, “An Average purchase price of adult male slave on west African coast in 1748 was 14£ and in 1768 was 16£”(9a).Because slaves were so cheap slave traders may profit by, selling adult male slaves to sugar plantation owners for twice as much as they bought them in Africa. John Campbell Candid and Impartial Considerations on the Nature of the Sugar Trade describes the slaves as “so necessary Negro slaves purchased in Africa by English merchants”(11). Because africa trade slaves to English merchants Africans got things they did not
Slave labor is the final factor that drove the sugar trade and made it so successful. Slaves were the manual laborers on the plantations, doing the actual harvesting and boiling because the owner wasn’t there to do so (Document 8). Without the slaves working the farm, everything was pretty much useless. There is also a direct correlation between the number of slaves and the tons of sugar produced. This is shown in Document 9, where the island of Jamaica starts out with 45,000 slaves, and produces 4,782 tons of sugar. When the number of slaves increases by less than half to 74,500, the amount of sugar produced is more than tripled at 15, 972 tons. This clearly exhibits how slaves were essential to sugar
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The majority of the nearly 500,000 slaves on the island, at the end of the eighteenth century endured some of the worst slave conditions in the Caribbean. These people were seen as disposable economic inputs in a colony driven by greed. Thus, they receive...
The Slave Revolution in the Caribbean Colonists in the eighteenth century created plantations that produced goods such as tobacco, cotton, indigo, and more importantly, sugar. These plantations required forced labor, and thus slaves were shipped from Africa to the new world. “The Caribbean was a major plantation that was a big source of Europe’s sugar, and increasing economic expansion. The French had many colonies, including its most prized possession Saint- Domingue (Haiti). ”
Sugar is not only a sweet substance used in coffee, cookies, and many other sweet tasting foods we love to eat and enjoy. It is truly a good that changed the world in many ways all the way back to its roots. In more than one way sugar is a useful and profitable tool, originating all the way back to the early middle middle ages. The sugar trade impacted the the Earth both socially and politically with the use of slaves brought to the Americas by the middle passage and other places. Economically, especially when prices dropped due to new technological improvements and slave abolishment all over the world. Lastly, the sugar trade impacted the world culturally, by leading
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“Nuh ebery thing dat ave sugar sweet” is a jamaican proverb which means not everything which has sugar is sweet or, don’t be tricked by an appearance. Jamaica definitely won’t fool you. Jamaica to tourists, is like a paradise. In the end, every place is unique in its own way and Jamaica is no exception. In this essay you will read about the following topics: Jamaica’s Geography, Jamaica’s History, The Lifestyle of Jamaicans, The Different Jamaican Cuisines , Music of Jamaica, and finally The Festivals of Jamaica.
The political and economic history of Jamaica is based upon its foundation as a slave colony. From the beginning, the colony was under Spanish rule that relied upon native slave laboring in the sugar fields. The first law to be implemented upon the island under Spanish rule was the Repartimiento, introduced by Governor Esquivel, the first governor of Jamaica. The law enabled colonists to apply for and receive special permission to use the natives for a period of time; forcing them into labors such as planting and logging (Bennett 70). Francisco de Garay, who became governor in 1514, enacted an other set of regulations called the Requermiento (The Requirement) (Bennett 70). This system was implemented with the basis that the colonists had to convert the natives to Christianity; Garay was hopeful that in doing so, the natives would “be tractable, properly maintained and live and greatly multiply” (Sherlock 70).
Colonialism in Jamaica established a lasting social and economic hierarchy that benefited the white minority at the expense of the black majority. The colonization of Jamaica began with the Spanish occupation of the island in the early 1500’s. The Spanish set up small-scale plantations on the island, while focusing on piracy as the key to profit. The Spanish effectively committed genocide upon the native Arawak population by the time English gunboats won the rule of Jamaica from the Spanish armada in 1655. The British immediately increased the slave trade in order to establish a thriving plantation economy (Lake, p.