The Bitter Legacy of Sweetness, Sugars’ Boiling Truth
Sweetness Forged in Fire: Barbados Sugar-Boiling Legacy The Sweet Land: Barbados Sugar Production. Barbados, typically called the "Gem of the Caribbean," owes much of its historic prominence to one commodity: sugar. This golden crop changed the island from a little colonial outpost into a powerhouse of the international economy throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Yet, the sweet success of sugar was built on a foundation of oppressed labour, a reality that casts a shadow over its legacy. Boiling Sugar: A Lealthal Job Sugar production in the 17th and 18th centuries was a highly dangerous procedure. After collecting and squashing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in huge cast iron kettles till it took shape as sugar. These pots, typically arranged in a series called a"" train"" were heated up by blazing fires that workers needed to stoke continually. The heat was suffocating, and the work unrelenting. Enslaved workers sustained lo...