At
first settlers in America imported cane sugar from the West Indies.
However, after the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory
from France in 1803, plantation owners began growing sugar cane. This
crop was labour intensive and large numbers of slaves
were purchased to do this work.
The crushed cane was used for fuel, molasses and as a base for rum.
The industry grew rapidly and by 1830 New Orleans had the largest
sugar refinery in the world with an annual capacity of 6,000 tons.
A sugar plantation in 1823
(1)
Francis
Fredric, Fifty Years of Slavery (1863)
From
Welland we took boats to Maysville, Kentucky. My master had bought
a farm in Mason County, about twenty miles from Maysville. When we
arrived there we found a great deal of uncultivated
land belonging to the farm. The first thing the negroes did was to
clear the land of bush, and then to sow blue grass seed for the cattle
to feed upon. They then fenced in the woods for what is called woodland
pasture. The neighbouring planters came and showed my master how to
manage his new estate. They told the slaves how to tap the sugar-tree
to let the liquid out, and to boil it down so as to get the sugar
from it. The slaves built a great many log-huts; for my master, at
the next slave-market, intended to purchase more slaves.
I
was taken into the house to learn to wait at table--a fortunate chance
for me, since I had a better opportunity of getting food. I shall
never forget my first day in the kitchen. I was delighted to see some
bread in the pantry. I took piece after piece to skim the fat from
the top of the boiling-pot, overjoyed that I could have sufficient.
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