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Know more about the role of sugar 

A note on language.

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We have decided to use the term 'plantation' in PNS. Many now use 'labour camp' to describe places where the enslaved were held against their will and forced to work for the benefit of enslavers, wider economies and and international customers. These places held on to power through overwhelming violence and intimidation, and was bravely faced by, and resisted, in countless ways by millions over centuries. We in no way want to minimise this. We use the word 'plantation' (although as can be seen in many areas of Project North Star enslaved people were held in many jobs and had a multitude of occupations and skills.) as we want to remind our users that the labour camp produced something that was used. Be it sugar, cotton, tobacco, or a multitude of other commodities these things were used by others. Their enforced labour had a direct economic benefit that was denied to them along with their freedom. In using it we do not want to go along with any connotation that 'plantations' had even the slightest benevolent aspect to them. 

 

Mintz states: ‘by 1650 in England, the nobility and the wealthy had become inveterate sugar eaters, and sugar figured in their medicine, literary imagery and displays of rank. By 1800, sugar had become a necessity - albeit a costly and rare one - in the diet of the English person; by 1900, it was supplying neatly one fifth of the calories in the English diet.’[1]

 

Sugar had been in Europe since the 1100’s. Sugar had been in Northeast England for centuries. Even the Venerable Bede, in the 8th Century, left sugar and spices to his fellow brothers.[2] It was treated like a spice - rich, exotic and was very much for the nobility. By the 1600’s sugar had become something a new and rich middle class could just about afford. It was used as a decoration before eating, shaped into miniature and not so miniature sculptures. The whiter the sugar, the more expensive it was as this showed it had been refined more.[3] Customers preferred white sugar, so technology was developed to drain the sugar of all its molasses before the cones were wrapped in paper.[4]

 

When England later started to expand to the Americas and other parts of the world the drinks and foods they introduced, tea, coffee, chocolate was all made more palatable with sugar added.

 

Sugar was grown by European powers before transatlantic travel in the Canary Islands and other places close to Europe.

 

With the increase in demand came the increase in plantations owned by the British. Sugar grown by enslaved Africans had already been pioneered by other European powers, but the British increased and accelerated the process. The increase in the production of sugar led to a lowering of the price. The lower price meant more people could buy it (the less rich) and therefore demand only grew. Inikori states the high sixteenth century prices had fallen to about 1s.3d per lb by the 1630’s. Despite an increase in the customs duties [Yes when the British awoke to the idea of taxing sugar, it made even more money for Britain] they fell to about 7d. In the 1680’s.[5]

 

John Charlton states in Hidden Chains that on June 4th, 1752, The Experiment was launched from Headlam’s Landing in Newcastle. In October it sailed for Jamaica. On June 13th, 1753, it returned to the Tyne bringing, ‘a cargo of sugar, rum, pimento, coffee, cotton, mahogany and lignum vitae.’[6]

 

There were five sugar houses in Newcastle town centre alone in the 18th and 19th centuries.[7] and two in Gateshead that were owned by John Graham Clarke[8] who also shipped sugar into Newcastle.[9] (NEEDS A LINK TO THE GRAHAM CLARKE PAGE WHEN I WRITE THIS ONE)

 

Sugar fuelled the Industrial Revolution in England. As well as producing huge wealth for many in all parts of the country it also literally fuelled its workers. Mintz notes how curious it is that for ‘the common people’ to use items from two different sides of the world. It shows how dependant the British economy had become on its colonies and how much people needed sugar to sweeten other colony imports.[10] Was this the first time in human history when common people had become so used to products made so far away, no longer luxury items, but everyday essentials? Leading on after sugar, cotton grown in Britain’s colonies and in America, where Britain was one of its biggest buyers, relied on foreign made products and products made by enslaved people. As Inikori states, ‘it is hard to overstate the dynamic role of the cotton industry in the Industrial Revolution.[11]

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[1] Mintz, S.W. (2018) Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. New York: Penguin Books. Pg 5-6

[2] Mintz, S.W. (2018) Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. New York: Penguin Books. P 74

[3] Mintz, S.W. (2018) Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. New York: Penguin Books. p87-92

[4] Newberry (2021) Newberry, Digital Collections for the Classroom. Available at: https://dcc.newberry.org/?p=16944#:~:text=So%2C%20the%20harvested%20cane%20was,be%20drained%20from%20the%20sugar (Accessed: 24 September 2023).

 

[5] Inikori, J.E. (2002) Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England a study in International Trade and Economic Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. P 208

[6] Charlton, J. (2008) Hidden chains: The Slavery Business and Northeast England. Newcastle upon Tyne: Tyne Bridge Publishing. Pg 101

[7] http://www.mawer.clara.net/loc-newc.html accessed 29th May 2022

[8] https://www.gateshead.gov.uk/media/30157/Gateshead-the-Transatlantic-Slave-Trade/pdf/Gateshead_and_the_Transatlantic_Slave_Trade.pdf?m=637708401286770000 accessed 07/01-2023.

[9] The ‘Black Indies’: The Northeast connection with the Slavery Business. History & Social Action Publications. Sean Crighton. August 2020. Pg. 6. Accessed 24 Sept 2023

This is worth reading in full but on sugar, Mr Crieghton lists a number of northeast businessmen involved in various phases of importing and selling sugar, also on the items made to serve sugar, silver tongs etc made in the region.

[10] Mintz, S.W. (2018) Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. New York: Penguin Books. p116

[11] Inikori, J.E. (2002) Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England a study in International Trade and Economic Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pg 374

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