The plantation systems in the Caribbean were its most distinctive and characteristic economic form. These plantation systems were created in the New World during the early years of the sixteenth century and were mostly staffed with slaves imported from Africa. It was Spain that pioneered sugar cane, sugar making, African slave labour, and the plantation form in the Caribbean. Before long, within a century, the French and British became the world’s greatest makers and exporters of sugar. The
While sugar has become one of the most common commodities in the world, the labor-intensive process of making sugar is often forgotten. With the crop dating back to 8000 B.C., its historical presence is evident, although the industry in the Caribbean did not truly begin until the early 1500s. In between that time, different types of sugar cane were tested, yet plantations continued to return to Saccharum officinarum, which was the same strand domesticated in New Guinea in 8000 B.C. Through the use
Differing Perspectives of the Caribbean The Caribbean has been an unexplained region throughout the test of time because there are many different depictions of what actually is happening. The ranging cultures in the Caribbean bring about many different points of view. A perfect example is how Cliff, Mintz, and Benitez-Rojo describe their version of the Caribbean. They discuss affairs in the Caribbean from the days of slave trading to present day issues. In analyzing their anecdotes and books
Sweetness and Power Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History Some of the most brilliant minds have made many unorthodox suggestions. This is the case with Sidney Mintz’s thesis in Sweetness and Power: The Place of Modern History. Mintz’s suggestions that industrial capitalism originated in the Caribbean sugar plantations may seem to contradict the European version of world history fed to most of the Western world, but is nevertheless supported by substantial evidence.
The Identity and History of the Caribbean The Caribbean is a vastly diverse area representing the effects of colonialism, slavery, and the combination of many cultures. Since the arrival of Europeans the Caribbean islands have been going through constant change. The loss of native peoples and the introduction of the plantation system had immediate and permanent reprocussions on the islands. The Plantation system set up a society which consisted of a large, captive lower class and a powerful
An example would be the Sugar Revolution, “a series of interrelated changes that altered
During the period of 1640-1690 the expansion of the Caribbean “economy, was made possible by the expansion of the European colonisation over the Atlantic. However Africans were captured for slave trade to sustain the development of sugar industry, through slave labour to produce sugarcane.” (Grouchier & Walton, 1629: 418-420). The scramble for Africa brought about gender inequality within the African society, the European invasion in the Atlantic introduced some political conflicts regarding the
"The Caribbean" The Caribbean, a region usually exoticized and depicted as tropical and similar in its environmental ways, cannot be characterized as homogenous. Each individual island has their own diverse historical background when it comes to how and when they became colonized, which European country had the strongest influence on them, and the unique individual cultures that were integrated into one. The three authors Sidney W. Mintz, Antonio Benitez-Rojo, and Michelle Cliff, all and address
History of Slavery in the Caribbean The institution of slavery has played a major role in the history, and the shaping of the Caribbean. Therefore, in order to truly understand the Caribbean one must completely understand slavery itself. Slavery can be defined as belonging to a person, or being treated like a piece of property, and not having any individual freedom This was essentially the life many Africans lived for many centuries in the Caribbean . The master’s had total freedom and control
Life of a Slave in the Caribbean The experience of Caribbean slavery is vital in understanding the contemporary social structure of the region. It was the introduction of an estimated four million Africans to the Caribbean which made these islands melting pots of culture and society. Since Africans had such a tremendous impact on the region, it is important that we recognize the nature of slavery and how it transformed their lives. Although most agree that the institution was dehumanizing, the
Slavery in the Caribbean The beginning of slavery in the Caribbean can be traced back to the emergence of piracy in the 16th and 17th centuries. This eventually led to the promotion of slave trading and sugar plantations. While enslaved on the sugar plantations, slaves were treated very poorly. Plantation owners treated their slaves so poorly that most were undernourished and diseased. Slaves were even forced to work on their "spare" time to provide for their own needs. Needless to say, slaves
What drove sugar trade? Sugar was first grown in New Guinea around 9000 years ago, which New guinea traders trade cane stalks to different parts of the world. In the New world christopher columbus introduced cane sugar to caribbean islands. At first sugar was unknown in Europe but was changed when sugar trade first began. Sugar trade was driven by the factors of production land which provided all natural resources labor what provided human resources for work and capital which includes all the factories
The Sugar Interest is one cause of the American Revolution. Sugar was the foundation of the economy in the West Indies. Sugar cane was a rich man's crop. The Sugar Interest was at the apex of its power in 1763. The plantation owners had only one thing in mind, money. The colonists will not be reminded that they still needed British military protection from France and Spain because of The Treaty of 1763. The Treaty caused a war with the Indians, which made the colonists realize they need help and
Plantation and Race in the Caribbean The incredible history of the Caribbean is indeed, one of the most rich, and at the same time troubling, of the New World. Its incredibly heterogeneous population and its social racial base make it a very difficult place to, for instance, live and raise a family. While some children may have a future because of their light complexion, the others are doomed to a life of poverty in the unforgiving culture and society of the Caribbean. Three people have taken
What started the sugar trade the sugar trade started because of the New Guinea traders. In the introduction of the sugar trade it says that New Guinea traders were the ones that helped expand the sugar trade due to them caring the sugar cane all the way to India to trade then from India it slowly diffused to the Mediterranean. In the fifteenth century the Portuguese became the new sugar cane producers that had the largest plantations in (Brazil no wonder Brazil is the only Latin American country
Antonio Benintez-Rojo writes on postindustrial societies inaccurate views of the Caribbean as a common archipelago and calls on postindustrial societies to reexamine their view of the Caribbean. In this paper the following topics in The Repeating Island will be examined in validating Benitez- Rojo’s perspective that the Caribbean is a meta-archipleago with no boundaries or center: Columbus’s machine to the sugar-making machine, the apocalypse to chaos, rhythm to polyrhythm, and literature to
Discuss the Relationship between sugar and slavery in the Early Modern Period. "No commodity on the face of the Earth has been wrested from the soil or the seas, from the skies or the bowels of the earth with such misery and human blood as sugar" ...(Anon) Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated
The Caribbean Identity The way in which Benítez-Rojo and Mintz tackle the question of Caribbean identity in their articles, is a removed, objective ideal, in contrast to Michelle Cliff’s portrayal of Jamaican identity. Cliff’s portrayal touches the heart and soul of Caribbean identity. While Mintz and Benítez-Rojo are investigating trends in the Caribbean as a whole, from an outside perspective, Cliff offers the personal, tactile imagery of what it is to live in the Caribbean, utilizing the objective
slavery in the Caribbean carried over its practice in the American South. The slave system was implemented in the Caribbean on a larger scale before the South implemented their system. The slave plantations of the Caribbean served as a learning platform for the slavery system in the south. The development of Caribbean slave laws, slave revolts, transfer of information on this practice to the South and the South’s implementation of these slave laws, and the slave issues in check. The Caribbean
Maryland. The research of Sidney Mintz is focalized to the history of the diverse region of the Caribbean. He has had a multitude of articles, editorials, and books published regarding the culturally relevant effects the sugar industry had on social populations of the Caribbean island nations. Mintz has been the recipient of several awards throughout his career including but not limited to: The Caribbean Review Medalist, 1983; Smithsonian Council, 1985-91; Huxley Memorial Lecturer and Medalist, 1994;