Barbados Molten Memories
Boiling Sugar: The Bitter Side of Sweet Barbados Sugar Wealth. Sugarcane growing began in Barbados in the early 1640s, when Dutch merchants presented sugar production. By the mid-17th century, Barbados had become one of the most affluent nests in the British Empire, earning the label "Little England." But all was not sweetness in the land of Sugar as we discover next: Boiling Sugar: A Lealthal Job Sugar production in the 17th and 18th centuries was an unforgiving procedure. After harvesting and crushing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in huge cast iron kettles up until it turned into sugar. These pots, typically arranged in a series called a"" train"" were heated up by blazing fires that workers needed to stir continually. The heat was suffocating, the flames unforgiving and the work unrelenting. Enslaved workers withstood long hours, often standing close to the inferno, running the risk of burns and exhaustion. Splashes of the boiling liquid were no...