The Effects that the Sugar Revolution had on the 18th century Caribbean Society
The Sugar became population in the West Indies. The English, French colonies who settled Caribbean island such as St.kitts in the early 16th grew tobacco in order to make money. For a little while they were able to make the profit. However by 1640’s the faced different competition from tobacco grower in virgina had certain advantages which are virgiana had large lots of fertile land. Virginia tobacco was cheaper and the quality was better. The English and French colonists found themselves in quandary as virgana tobacco was out selling their tobacco which meant they earned less money. Tobacco prices fell. the abundance of tobacco governs caused a glut on the
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In the British Parliament, antislavery voices grew stronger until eventually a bill to abolish the slave trade passed both houses in 1807. The British, being the major carriers of slaves and having abolished the trade themselves, energetically set about discouraging other states from continuing. The abolition of the slave trade was a blow from which the slave system in the Caribbean could not recover.
Before the slave trade ended, the Caribbean had taken approximately 47 percent of the 10 million African slaves brought to the Americas. Of this number, about 17 percent came to the British Caribbean. Although the white populations maintained their superior social positions, they became a numerical minority in all the islands. In the early nineteenth century, fewer than 5 percent of the total population of Jamaica, Grenada, Nevis, St. Vincent, and Tobago was white, fewer than 10 percent of the population of Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and the Virgin Islands. Only in the Bahamas, Barbados, and Trinidad was more than 10 percent of the total population white. By sharp contrast, Trinidad was the only colony in the British Caribbean to have fewer than 80 percent of its population enslaved. Sugar and slavery gave to the region a predominantly African population.
This demographic revolution had important social consequences. Rather than being a relatively homogeneous ethnic group divided into categories based on economic criteria, Caribbean society
During particular time periods whichever product rose to popularity, whether it be cotton, rum, tobacco, or sugar, became the means of buying and selling or trading. Two major products that the people of the “new world” depended on during the early colonial times were tobacco and sugar. Both Virginia and the Caribbean were able to be successful and bloom due to these two major products. Virginia and the Caribbean had many similarities as well as differences on how they changed economically and socially due to tobacco and sugar plantations.
Sunday of April 7th, 1765, a group of Rhode Island men boarded the Polly and took down the ship of its cargo carrying barrels of molasses from the sugar islands. This happened eight years before the Boston Tea Party, but the problem was the same. The British Parliament placed a tax on the sugar without letting the colonists have a chance to talk it over. This made the Americans enraged. The Americans needed to resist the tax, or they are just slaves to the British. Americans believed they had the right with what they built with their own strength, knowledge and will. They knew they had to obey laws, but only if they had a say in the making of the laws. The Americans would’ve resisted any tax the British put on them but when they taxed sugar,
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.
Throughout the time of the Roanoke catastrophe and the hardships of Jamestown, tobacco made its grand introduction as America’s newest cash commodity that would allow success to flourish in Virginia, with a permanent English presence. Tobacco was formally popularized by a man named John Rolfe in the year 1610 and became the top resource that helped the future of this colony thrive. Tobacco did all of this by turning an
With the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act by the British parliament in 1807, the attention of the campaigners against the slave trade switched to the issue of slavery itself. Although the trading in slaves itself had been banned , nothing had been done to free those already enslaved within the British Empire. In 1823 several religious groups, politicians and abolitionist supporters came together to form the Anti- Slavery Society who
Because the low-grade tobacco was being overproduced unceasingly, prices dropped over the years. Tobacco had been the colony’s sole way of income for many years. Berkeley attempted to improve conditions by introducing other industries and building new towns in several places. Unfortunately, the towns could not be maintained and other attempts only resulted in dissatisfaction and increased taxes. Taxes were also increased due to a need for defense against the Dutch and the Indians. The rising price of English manufactured goods and the increasingly limited English market created more problems for the Virginians.
In addition to the American Indians’ discovery of the tobacco plant, the farmers of the Virginia Colony undoubtedly changed tobacco forever. In 1660, English factories were stocked to the brim with tobacco which caused the product’s price to drop immensely. The colonists
Over time, certain people helped cultivate Jamestown to be a thriving colony. One of the biggest assets that helped the Jamestown colony is the perfecting of tobacco. John Rolfe spent his time in the west indies perfecting tobacco. This eventually was brought over to Virginia where tobacco could finally be planted and not fail as a crop.(OI) This helped the English very much with their economics because the selling of the tobacco would mean they are making a profit and somewhat starting to rebuild the colony. Tobacco was becoming so popular and was the main crop of Virginia. People started advertising it to increase it’s popularity even more by saying, “Tobacco will thy life renew; then fear not death, nor killing care, Whil’ fl we have left Virginia here”(DOC 3). This advertising is just one of many, tobacco was such a popular production. They guaranteed that tobacco would keep you living and stay far from death as if it was a good thing to smoke a lot of tobacco, which means a lot of tobacco would have to be bought. This is an economic surplus. The more money they make on tobacco, the more money the English make in the old world. Mercantilism was a very big cause on why the new world was also discovered. If they could have profits from somewhere else they could make more money and use it on more stuff. Native American’s were trouble when the Jamestown colony was weak, but with the help of John,
The people of England then traded with the Dutch, increasing demand for tobacco (Pecquet 471). Sir Walter Raleigh also contributed to the introduction of smoking tobacco in America and to the English queen, Elizabeth I (Cotton 2-3). The settlers of Roanoke Island smoked tobacco and soon presented the idea of smoking tobacco in court which became a new trend (3). Later on, as the demand for tobacco rose, more labor was needed to supply enough to satisfy the tobacco requirement ("The Growth of the Tobacco " 3).
Sugar has been a staple in the diets of Europeans for centuries. From desserts to tea, sugar has been added to everything. While it is unhealthy in large doses, the demand for the saccharide does not falter. Before sugar could be mass produced by machines, much of the labor was done by slaves. While this benefitted white Europeans, they were the only ones to have profited from this new sugar craze. The African population suffered immensely from the sugar industry as the working conditions of sugar plantations were brutal and they had no civil rights as slaves.
By the time that the slave trade had been abolished in Britain and her colonies in 1807 eleven million men, women and children had been snatched from their homes. For historians understanding the factors that led to the abolition of the trade remains an important task. Whilst there is clearly a consensus on the main factors that led to this seismic and historic event there is obviously a difference in opinion on the most important due to the degree of subjectivity the question poses.
Every little step to ending slavery made a greater and great opposition to the idea of slavery. The international slave trade was abolished in 1808 after Thomas Jefferson had signed a bill that prohibited the importation of all slaves into the United States in 1807, and the British House of Lords passed an act that abolished the slave trade in Britain. The map shows dates of early emancipation of slaves by state and distinguishes between emancipation by state law
What was ONE cause that precipitated the sugar revolution in Cuba during the second half of the 18th century?
The rise of sugar as a commodity in England situated England as the world’s leading consumer. The increasing popularity of coffeehouses among middle-class English people, as well the introduction of tea from China, fueled the counties. England’s growing interest in coffee and tea greatly increased the demand for sugar leading to a significant effect on Africa and its people. The high English demand for sugar required land to expand sugar plantations, and an efficient source of labor to produce, creating a connection between all three. For example, if there was not enough demand, there would have been no point in planting sugar and if cheap labor could not be obtained, it would not be worth doing so on such a large scale because it would have been expensive and unprofitable. Since they had all these contributing factors in their favor the British were able to gain profit from sugar plantations, which worked as a significant contributor towards their economy. To meet the land requirements the British picked their Caribbean colonies because of their control of that region and its climate. After finding the land for plantations, England had to find the source of labor to work these plantations. The English turned into Africa for cheap slave labor. The British had tried the local Caribbeans to work on the plantations but these people were already affected by the diseases that were brought to the area by Europeans. As a result, there were not many Caribbean people to work the
When most people think about sugar, their first thoughts are not: heart disease, addiction, or slow and painful death; yet, unfortunately, these conditions are very real consequences of the unregulated and excessive consumption of sugar. In Nature’s article, “The Toxic Truth About Sugar” (2012), Robert Lustig, pediatric endocrinologist; Laura Schmidt, Professor of Health Policy at UCSF; and Claire Brindis, Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy at UCSF, evaluate the world’s ever-increasing and toxic struggle with the substance sugar – also discussing counter measures to promote healthier diets amongst American’s and other societies. Lustig and his colleagues develop their argument using statistical evidence as they address the global impact of sugar, refuting minor oppositions, before dissecting each harmful aspect of the substance – even comparing it to substances more known for their toxicity. Eventually, presenting readers with possible routes of regulation, the authors firmly suggest government intervention in the production and sale of sugary foods. Although the argument is well executed, I remain unconvinced that government intervention is actually necessary.