The Sugar Revolution and West Indian History

This set explores the economic, social, and political shifts caused by the transition from tobacco to sugar in the Caribbean, as well as the logging industry in British Honduras.

Sugar Revolution

A sudden, drastic change from the cultivation of the cash crop tobacco to sugar cane cultivation and sugar production, exemplified in Barbados between 1640 and 1650.

Monoculture

The concentration on the cultivation of one crop, which occurred in English colonies where sugar made such great profits that planters neglected other crops.

Absenteeism

The practice of wealthy West Indian planters returning to England to live off the proceeds of their estates, facilitated by the enormous profits of the sugar industry.

Proprietary System

The political structure in British colonies before the Sugar Revolution where the territories were controlled by Lords-Proprietors.

Representative System

The political system put in place around 1660 to replace proprietorship as colonies became more valuable due to sugar wealth.

The Dutch

Traders and refugees who, after being expelled from Pernambuco, Brazil, provided Caribbean planters with capital, labor from West Africa, and technical expertise in sugar production.

Indentured servants

European laborers who were used before the Sugar Revolution but became less desirable due to being expensive, requiring land grants, and refusing to work alongside enslaved persons.

Virginia

A British North American colony that competed with Caribbean tobacco by producing a cheaper and better-quality product.

Logwood

A timber product from British Honduras (Belize) in high demand during the 17th and 18th centuries for making dyes for woolen cloth.

Mahogany

A hardwood used for furniture that replaced logwood as the primary trade timber in British Honduras after the demand for dyes decreased.

Huntsman

A skilled enslaved person in the logging industry responsible for locating mahogany trees ready for cutting, identified by their new red-brown leaves.

Axe man

A skilled enslaved worker who stood on a platform twelve feet above the ground to cut down large mahogany trees.

Trucking

Also known as carting, this was the process of dragging timber to the nearest river, often done at night using pitch pine torches to light the path.

Manumission

The legal release from slavery, which had a higher annual rate in the logging industry of British Honduras than in any other British colony.

Las Casas

A figure who suggested to the Spanish king that one Negro’s labor was more valuable than that of four Indians, influencing the shift to African enslaved labor.

Stratified society

A social structure that emerged after the Sugar Revolution where over 90% of the population was enslaved and status was strictly divided by race (white meant free, black meant enslaved).