DBQ Essay – What Drove the Sugar Trade?
Beginning in the late 1600s and continuing through the 1700s the demand for sugar became incredibly high due to its addictive qualities. To supply the consumers with sugar they were craving, wealthy Europeans established sugar plantations throughout the Caribbean and built a thriving slave industry, so their need for cheap labor could be satisfied. Sugar consumption increased from 4.6lbs to 16.2lbs per capita annually from 1700 to 1770 due to the increasing addiction of the consumers. The manufacturers were faced with maintaining a high crop yield, but luckily the Caribbean islands provided an ideal location for growing cane sugar. Once plantations were constructed yet another issue confronted the owners, cheap labor. For the plantations to produce large enough quantities of sugar to fulfill the demand, many slaves were necessary; thus, a successful slave industry arose with the aid of these wealthy entrepreneurs who hoped to own successful plantations. The absentee owners in England, Spain, and France became increasingly wealthy as the demand and industry for sugar
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On any sizeable sugar plantation expensive goods and equipment were necessary if it was to produce effectively and therefore it was a substantial investment (Doc 6). Peter Macinnis refers to this need for considerable investment as the first curse of sugar; due to the fact that establishing a sugar plantation was an expensive endeavor only families that already had the means were able to do so (Doc 7). Without slaves the sugar industry would have failed, almost every aspect of the process of manufacturing sugar was done by slaves, as the demand rose so did the number of slaves, but there was a high price to pay if one was to acquire the amount of slaves necessary on a large plantation (Doc
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Show MoreFirst, the Sugar Act was mainly about controlling the trade of rum. Rum was a profitable product, and rum was made from molasses. The molasses was imported into the colonies in large amounts from large plantation owners in the British West Indies and used for rum. Great Britain was providing cheap labor from Africa and making them work in the sugarcane plantations in the West Indies. From there, the West Indies sent the molasses to the colonies in America.
The transatlantic slave trade was a brutal and inhumane enterprise, where millions of Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas under brutal conditions (Bailyn 140). The conditions for enslaved Africans on English sugar plantations were often horrific, with harsh punishments and long working hours in hot and humid conditions (Fisher 47). Nonetheless, it is undeniable that the use of enslaved labor was a crucial factor in the success of the English colonies in the Caribbean. The use of slave labor allowed the English to cultivate crops such as sugar cane at a much lower cost, and thus gain a competitive advantage in the global market (Fisher 34). Without the labor of enslaved Africans, it is unlikely that the English would have been able to establish such profitable and successful sugar
In Hawaii, in the 1800s, King Kamehameha the fourth and the planters needed to import foreign workers to make more sugar. Plantation life in Hawaii in the 1800s was not easy. They had harsh living conditions, working conditions were difficult to work in, and racial differences made it unfair. Living condition was harsh because those who worked on the plantation had to live in a 10 foot-square room with a kitchen according to source #1. In source #1
Sugar was one of the most demanding goods, thus, the sugar production increased dramatically. Slaves played a huge part in this since they were the ones who help produce sugar. If it was not for the distilled drinks, then the slave trade would not have been so big and caused disputes about slavery. Journal #8.
The French and Indian War left England with a debt of £130,000,000. To help pay off the debt Britain set up taxes, to collect money, on frequently used products by the colonists. The Molasses Act put a six pence tax on every gallon of molasses. The colonists thought this was a lot of money to pay so they did everything to avoid it. This act was not really enforced and the colonists did not really obey this act.
The invention of the cotton gin created a market for cotton that the planters could hardly supply without cheap labor. Almost every available acre was brought under cotton culture as the small farmers were driven into the West. The demand for slaves to work the fields was enormous. This led to the development of the plantation system of the Far South and Southwest, where masters were near constantly extending their holdings of lands and slaves. Efforts to form new slave states were common, most prominent of these efforts was that to annex Texas.
The sugar trade was a money making machine and was driven by consumer demand, perfect farming land, and the hours of labor. In the seventeen and eighteen hundreds Great Britain had a money making business know as the sugar trade. The sugar trade made it so Britain would buy slaves from Africa and send them over to the Caribbean where they would farm sugar. The sugar trade was affected majorly by consumer demand.
Slavery first came to the colonies in 1619. When the first Africa slave arrived in Jamestown. Jamestown found success in mass producing tobacco. In order to increase production, slaves were imported in to met the demand. Slavery was not very popular in the beginning because of the cost.
In the 17th centuries early settlers came to America in the hope of taking their custom and traditions forward. However, the environment and geography brought changes to their lifestyles. Soon, people became to alter their pattern of living in the different colonies. During the 17th and 18th centuries, geography and the environment profoundly influenced the economic development and overall health and success of the two regions called the Chesapeake and the New England, which began to form in the early 17th century.
Millions of years ago, the Earth was divided into two the Old and New Worlds. This lasted for quite some time, so long that different evolutions began. For example, on one side of the Atlantic rattlesnakes developed, but on the other, vipers grew. The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of non-native plants, animals, and diseases brought to the Americas from Europe and vice versa. This all happened after 1492.
The plantations previously constructed by the Spaniards produced an abundant amount of coffee and sugar that was exporting to Europe. They produced 60% of Europe 's sugar and 40% of its coffee which allowed St. Domingue to become one of the wealthiest colonies in the world. Essentially homing more slaves than any other segregated county an exception to
The more slaves the more sugar that could be produced was the idea that most plantation owners had. These slaves were owned by wealthy British men. The rich men had enough money to buy lots of slaves and produce lots of sugar. This brings back the main idea because none of the sugar could have been produced without any of the labor. Labor is the beginning to this story of the Sugar Trade and without that chapter, it would be incomplete.
2. Sugarcane plantations – The sugarcane plantation was a plantation that had sugar as its main crop. Sugarcane became a popular crop throughout the world. These plantations were all across Brazil. The European workers died quickly while working in the plantations from different diseases.
Their lives were short and they were expected to live from five to six years, which was considered a large profit to the slave owners, as they were able to purchase new and healthier slaves with no financial loss. They were also heavily mistreated; being forced to work for hours under the scorching sun, with terrible living conditions and poor nutrition. Slaves were seen as barely human, and the loss of one only meant the loss of the slave owner’s financial gain. Sugar was produced by the masses, but it cost thousands of human lives. Overall, although both colonies benefited and profited from slavery, the numbers and the demand in Meso-America greatly surpassed those from North America’s, and resulted in slave trade being banned much later in those