Sugarcane is a species of tropical grass with a hard, thick stem that can reach several meters tall. Originating from eastern Asia, sugarcane was brought to the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus, and since then has grown exponentially, impacting the Caribbean culture and economy dramatically. Its rapid growth caused the introduction of slavery into the New World, mixing different cultures together in the process. Sugarcane became so valuable in other parts of the world, that its trade stock skyrocketed, jumpstarting one of the biggest trade systems in history.
Beginnings and Growth
When Europeans expanded their powerful influence to the Caribbean, they brought enslaved Africans with them, and immediately saw the potential of sugarcane, as it grew well in the tropical climate. In Texaco, Chamoiseau states: “Up [in the highlands], the békés did not have a claw in the soil. Because their cane was only profitable on lands where their plow worked with ease, they had settled by the sea, on the good ashes of the North, the center’s alluvial flows, and on some Southern plateaus. They had only tackled the hills up to the coffee’s height” (Chamoiseau 121). Early settlers figured out the most efficient methods for the production and cultivation of sugarcane, growing it in primarily tropical areas. They quickly learned that more manpower was needed, prompting the introduction of enslaved persons into the Caribbean, sparking the Triangle Trade system, and impacting the future of sugarcane’s value. Sugarcane and enslaved person farming had extreme importance in the growth and development of the western hemisphere. Since then, things have changed dramatically, including the abolition of slavery.
Uses
Sugarcane has a variety of uses that involve different industries. Sugarcane is primarily processed into sugar and distributed to make bread, beverages, cakes, candies, canned fruits and vegetables, and other foods. The rest is simply put in bags and sent straight to consumers. G.B. Hagelburg notes the underrated value of sugarcane: “A good starting point is the relative efficiency of sugar cane as a converter of solar energy into vegetable products, a quality incidentally shared by sugar beet. As a rule, sugar cane (and sugar beet) produce larger quantities of utilizable calories per land unit in a given time than any other cultivated plant in their respective climatic zones. Under optimum conditions, cane furnishes annually over twenty tons of dry matter per hectare. Roughly half the dry matter is in the form of sugars utilizable as food or feed. The other half is mainly fiber. As fresh bagasse, it has a fuel value equivalent to about 0.18 its weight of fuel oil, but it is potentially more valuable as a raw material for paper products, building materials and furfural” (10). Not only is sugarcane in high demand because of its value in the food industry, but it can also be used in producing biofuels, which can be used for heating and electricity generation. The sugarcane plant itself can also be used as a thatch and for livestock. Clearly, the value of sugarcane is too good to pass up.
Slavery
The novel Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau explores the life of enslaved people in the sugarcane industry in the early 1800s, primarily telling the story of a formerly enslaved person, Esternome Laborieux. Being an enslaved person was described as being the lowest of the low: “It dominated the whole, seemed to inhale all. The oxen’s exhaustion, the enslaved peoples’ despair, the cane’s beauty, the mills’ soft hiss, this mud, these smells, the rotten bagasse exited in order to feed its magnificent airs of power … To be dismissed to the fields, outside humanity, became a permanent fear for [Esternome], the worst of all possible punishments” (Chamoiseau 44). Sugarcane field workers worked long hours planting, maintaining, and harvesting the sugarcane under hot and dangerous tropical conditions (“Slave Labor”). The enslaved field workers had to cut down acres of sugarcane and transport it to a wind-, water-, or animal-driven mill, where the juices were extracted from the crop (Slave labor). Farming sugarcane was incredibly exhausting, and it took a toll on the lives of those farming it; it was the worst job to work. Sugarcane is described to have such beauty and grace, which is shocking considering the horrific evil surrounding its farming and cultivation. Chamoiseau uses the juxtaposition between sugarcane and slavery with perfection to highlight one of the biggest stains on humanity’s legacy.
Impact on Trade
Trade has become a significant factor in globalization, as it helps different cultures and communities connect and share. The immense profits and rising demand for sugarcane spread like wildfire in the New World, allowing for trade in the Caribbean to become more common and necessary: “Firms around the world import goods and services, in order to use them as inputs to produce goods and services that are later exported. The imported goods and services incorporated in a country’s exports are a key indicator of economic integration – they tell us something about ‘global value chains’, where the different stages of the production process are located across different countries” (Ortiz-Ospina et al.). Imports and exports are constantly being produced, continuing to link everything and everyone together on a daily basis. Sugarcane is incredibly important in the exponential growth of trade in the last century. In fact, it is the pioneer of trade in the Caribbean. Exports today are more than 40 times larger than in 1913, which shows how far global trade has come, and how impactful it can be in the future (Ortiz-Ospina et al.). Global export value has steadily increased over the past few decades, rising from 25% in 1990 to about 30% today (Ortiz-Ospina et al.). Without the introduction of sugarcane and the growth of the global trade market, perhaps the world wouldn’t look like the one we know today.
Works Cited
Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban, Diana Beltekian, and Max Roser. “Trade and Globalization.” Our World in Data. Oct. 2018, https://ourworldindata.org/trade-and-globalization. Accessed 29 March 2022.
Chamoiseau, Patrick. Texaco. Trans. Rose-Myriam Réjouis & Val Vinokurov. NY: Vintage, 1997.
Hagelberg, G. B. The Caribbean Sugar Industries: Constraints and Opportunities. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974
“Slave Labor,” Slavery and Remembrance. https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0056. Accessed 4 April 2022.
Editorial Collective
John Morra, Arden Brady, Matéa Diekema
