Barbados Molten Memories
Boiling Down Sweetness
Barbados Sugar Economy: A Tragic Exploitation. The beginning of the "plantation system" changed the island's economy. Large estates owned by wealthy planters controlled the landscape, with oppressed Africans supplying the labour needed to sustain the demanding process of planting, harvesting, and processing sugarcane. This system created immense wealth for the colony and strengthened its location as a key player in the Atlantic trade. But African slaves toiled in perilous conditions, and many died in the infamous Boiling room, as you will see next:
The Boiling Process: A Grueling Task
Making sugar in the days of colonial slavery was a perilous process. After collecting and crushing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in enormous cast iron kettles till it turned into sugar. These pots, often arranged in a series called a"" train"" were warmed by blazing fires that enslaved Africans had to stir continually. The heat was extreme, and the work unrelenting. Enslaved employees endured long hours, typically standing near the inferno, risking burns and exhaustion. Splashes of the boiling liquid were not unusual and could cause serious, even deadly, injuries.
Today, the big cast iron boiling pots points out this painful past. Spread across gardens, museums, and archaeological sites in Barbados, they stand as silent witnesses to the lives they touched. These relics encourage us to reflect on the human suffering behind the sweet taste that as soon as drove international economies.
HISTORICAL RECORDS!
Abolitionist Voices Expose the Hazards of Sugar Plantations
James Ramsay and other abolitionists brought attention to the gruesome conditions in Caribbean sugar plantations. The boiling home, filled with open barrels of scalding sugar, was a website of suffering, injury, and even death for enslaved employees.
The Dark Side of Sugar: - Check the link for More
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