Barbados Sugar’s Unseen History\ Sugar Iron and Fire

Sweetness Forged in Fire: Barbados Sugar-Boiling Legacy



Barbados Sugar Wealth. Sugarcane growing started in Barbados in the early 1640s, when the Dutch introduced crop. The island's soil and favourable climate made it an ideal location for harvesting sugar. By the mid-17th century, Barbados had become one of the wealthiest colonies in the British Empire, earning the nickname "Little England."By the mid-17th century, Barbados had actually become one of the most affluent 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 Grueling Job

Sugar production in the 17th and 18th centuries was  a perilous procedure. After gathering and crushing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in massive cast iron kettles until it took shape as sugar. These pots, frequently set up in a series called a"" train"" were heated up by blazing fires that workers had to stir continually. The heat was suffocating, , and the work unrelenting. Enslaved employees withstood long hours, often standing close to the inferno, risking burns and fatigue. Splashes of the boiling liquid were not unusual and might cause serious, even deadly, injuries.

Living in Constant Peril

The dangers were constant for the enslaved workers tasked with tending these kettles. They laboured in intense heat, inhaling dangerous gases from the boiling sugar and burning fuel. The work demanded extreme effort and accuracy; a moment of negligence might result in accidents. In spite of these difficulties, shackled Africans brought amazing ability and ingenuity to the process, making sure the quality of the final product. This item sustained economies far beyond Barbados" shores.


Now, the big cast iron boiling pots function as pointers of this painful past. Spread across gardens, museums, and historical sites in Barbados, they stand as silent witnesses to the lives they touched. These antiques motivate us to review the human suffering behind the sweetness that when drove international economies.


HISTORICAL RECORDS!

Abolitionist Voices Attest to the Deadly Fate of Boiling Sugar

Accounts, such as James Ramsay's works, shed light on the gruesome risks shackled workers dealt with in Caribbean sugar plantations. The boiling locations, with its open vats of scalding sugar, was a site of unimaginable suffering -- one of many horrors of plantation life.


{
Boiling Sugar: The Bitter Side of Sweet |The Dark Side of Sugar: A History in Iron |Sweetness Forged in Fire |
Molten Memories: The Iron Pots of Sugar |

Boiling Down Sweetness