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Sugar in the Blood: A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire
In the late 1630s, lured by the promise of the New World, Andrea Stuart’s earliest known maternal ancestor, George Ashby, set sail from England to settle in Barbados. He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way: the farming of sugar cane, and the swiftly increasing demands for sugar worldwide, would not only lift George Ashby from abject poverty and shape the lives of his descendants, but it would also bind together ambitious white entrepreneurs and enslaved black workers in a strangling embrace. Stuart uses her own family story—from the seventeenth century through the present—as the pivot for this epic tale of migration, settlement, survival, slavery and the making of the Americas.
As it grew, the sugar trade enriched Europe as never before, financing the Industrial Revolution and fueling the Enlightenment. And, as well, it became the basis of many economies in South America, played an important part in the evolution of the United States as a world power and transformed the Caribbean into an archipelago of riches. But this sweet and hugely profitable trade--“white gold,” as it was known--had profoundly less palatable consequences in its precipitation of the enslavement of Africans to work the fields on the islands and, ultimately, throughout the American continents.
Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In examining how these forces shaped her own family--its genealogy, intimate relationships, circumstances of birth, varying hues of skin--she illuminates how her family, among millions of others like it, in turn transformed the society in which they lived, and how that interchange continues to this day. Shifting between personal and global history, Stuart gives us a deepened understanding of the connections between continents, between black and white, between men and women, between the free and the enslaved. It is a story brought to life with riveting and unparalleled immediacy, a story of fundamental importance to the making of our world.
As it grew, the sugar trade enriched Europe as never before, financing the Industrial Revolution and fueling the Enlightenment. And, as well, it became the basis of many economies in South America, played an important part in the evolution of the United States as a world power and transformed the Caribbean into an archipelago of riches. But this sweet and hugely profitable trade--“white gold,” as it was known--had profoundly less palatable consequences in its precipitation of the enslavement of Africans to work the fields on the islands and, ultimately, throughout the American continents.
Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In examining how these forces shaped her own family--its genealogy, intimate relationships, circumstances of birth, varying hues of skin--she illuminates how her family, among millions of others like it, in turn transformed the society in which they lived, and how that interchange continues to this day. Shifting between personal and global history, Stuart gives us a deepened understanding of the connections between continents, between black and white, between men and women, between the free and the enslaved. It is a story brought to life with riveting and unparalleled immediacy, a story of fundamental importance to the making of our world.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published May 3, 2012
237 people are currently reading
2625 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Stuart
8 books37 followersAndrea Stuart was born in Barbados in 1962. She spent many of her early years in Jamaica,where her father, Kenneth, was Dean of the medical school at the University College of the West Indies - the first university in the Caribbean.
In 1976, when she was a teenager, she moved with her family to England. She studied English at the University of East Anglia and French at the Sorbonne. Her book The Rose of Martinique: A Biography of Napoleon's Josephine, was published in the United States in 2004, has been translated into three languages, and won the Enid McLeod Literary Prize. Stuart's work has been published in numerous anthologies, newspapers, and magazines, and she regularly reviews books for The Independent. She has also worked as a TV producer.
In 1976, when she was a teenager, she moved with her family to England. She studied English at the University of East Anglia and French at the Sorbonne. Her book The Rose of Martinique: A Biography of Napoleon's Josephine, was published in the United States in 2004, has been translated into three languages, and won the Enid McLeod Literary Prize. Stuart's work has been published in numerous anthologies, newspapers, and magazines, and she regularly reviews books for The Independent. She has also worked as a TV producer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
October 21, 2023
Many families like my own are mixed-race on both sides, blending the histories of both oppressor and oppressed.
Stuart uses the structure of her family's history, from George Ashby's journey from England to Barbados in the 1630s, into the 21st century, to present the inextricably-linked stories of the British imposition of a sugar plantation economy onto the island and the horror of African slavery that made it possible. It's a complex task, but she's up to it, generally maintaining a historian's objective presentation of the extensive research she's done until the closing chapter, when she is far more blunt about her abhorrence of the choices her white ancestors made to purchase, exploit, rape, and torture enslaved Africans. She also argues that the Barbados slave economy and society served as a model for that of the American South, making this history of even more interest. This is a difficult, but important, book to read, and compelling.
The islanders sometimes moved to other less populous territories, but most frequently they went to North America; indeed many areas, such as the Carolinas, were largely settled by Barbadians. These migrants took with them knowledge of the plantation system and the blueprint of how to organize and manage a large number of slaves. Thus it could be said that Barbados was "the laboratory" for the slave and plantation system in many parts of America where cotton, tobacco and rice were later grown.
Stuart uses the structure of her family's history, from George Ashby's journey from England to Barbados in the 1630s, into the 21st century, to present the inextricably-linked stories of the British imposition of a sugar plantation economy onto the island and the horror of African slavery that made it possible. It's a complex task, but she's up to it, generally maintaining a historian's objective presentation of the extensive research she's done until the closing chapter, when she is far more blunt about her abhorrence of the choices her white ancestors made to purchase, exploit, rape, and torture enslaved Africans. She also argues that the Barbados slave economy and society served as a model for that of the American South, making this history of even more interest. This is a difficult, but important, book to read, and compelling.
The islanders sometimes moved to other less populous territories, but most frequently they went to North America; indeed many areas, such as the Carolinas, were largely settled by Barbadians. These migrants took with them knowledge of the plantation system and the blueprint of how to organize and manage a large number of slaves. Thus it could be said that Barbados was "the laboratory" for the slave and plantation system in many parts of America where cotton, tobacco and rice were later grown.
March 25, 2019
Because of the dearth of documentary evidence, much of the early part of the book concerning the journey of the author’s maternal ancestor, George Ashby, to Barbados, his arrival on the island and his daily life has by necessity to be speculation or generalisation based on the limited contemporary accounts of other settlers. The author paints a detailed picture of what it must have been like for settlers arriving on the island, coming to terms with the change in environment – new sights and smells, unfamiliar weather and seasonal variations, strange insects, exotic fruits and vegetables. All adding up to what the author pithily describes as ‘an assault of newness’.
The first workforce included ‘indentured servants’, often deportees from Ireland or Civil War prisoners, who worked alongside black slaves on terms akin to slavery. The author notes George Ashby’s good fortune in finding himself a wife given the few white women on the island at that time and his appearance in the first census on the island in 1650. Since African labour was regarded as essential for production of sugar – the so-called ‘white gold’- Stuart notes the shift in make-up of the population of Barbados from predominantly white to black. She makes the point that society was entirely organized around the slave system and that a legal system prevailed in which racism was ‘encoded’ because slaves were regarded as the property of their owners. In fact, she contends that Barbadians helped to invent the concept of ‘whiteness’ and the privileges and social superiority that went with it, and ‘blackness’ with its associated disadvantages. The consequences of this, the author contends, was to make Barbados ‘a place riven by inequality and teetering permanently on the brink of violence’.
The author charts the growing unrest amongst the slave population, including suicide by those who could see no other option. Small acts of defiance and sabotage resulted in grotesque and ferocious punishment. Stuart describes how the ‘tinderbox’ that was Barbados slave society ignited on 14th April 1816 when half the island went up in flames in a rebellion led by a slave known as Bussa. (A statue believed to be a model of him is situated on one of the island’s most prominent roundabout; many visitors to Barbados may have glimpsed it on their journey from the airport to the West Coast resorts.)
In the remaining part of the book, the author traces the fortunes of her family as successful plantation owners. The departure of her grandfather and his wife for the United States during a period of increased migration, their eventual return to Barbados and the first meeting of her father, Kenneth, and mother, Barbara, sees a new chapter in the family’s history. Although the family moved to Jamaica, the author recalls family holidays spent in Barbados. Later, settled in Britain, Stuart recalls becoming for the first time ‘acutely aware of her colour and all the stereotypes associated with it’. She also acknowledges how sugar and the slave trade have contributed to British life.
As someone who has spent a number of holidays in Barbados and grown to love the island and its people – so much so that my husband and I were married there (at Hunte’s Garden, since you ask) – I was naturally drawn to this book and found it full of fascinating information about the island’s history. However, it also raised moral questions for me about the legacy of the slave trade even as I, like other tourists, visit former plantation houses (‘commercially buffed and burnished’ in the words of the author) or drive through fields of sugar cane where slaves once toiled in harsh conditions.
Andrea Stuart writes: ‘In the Caribbean, the legacy of the sugar boom and the slave trade is not so easily ignored or forgotten… Sugar has transformed the landscape and the changed the region’s ecosystem. It has shaped our economies, traditions and national identities.’ And for the author, it’s personal as well. ‘Many families like my own are mixed-race on both sides, blending the histories of both oppressor and oppressed.’ I appreciated the author’s honesty about the ambivalence she feels about her family’s history.
The first workforce included ‘indentured servants’, often deportees from Ireland or Civil War prisoners, who worked alongside black slaves on terms akin to slavery. The author notes George Ashby’s good fortune in finding himself a wife given the few white women on the island at that time and his appearance in the first census on the island in 1650. Since African labour was regarded as essential for production of sugar – the so-called ‘white gold’- Stuart notes the shift in make-up of the population of Barbados from predominantly white to black. She makes the point that society was entirely organized around the slave system and that a legal system prevailed in which racism was ‘encoded’ because slaves were regarded as the property of their owners. In fact, she contends that Barbadians helped to invent the concept of ‘whiteness’ and the privileges and social superiority that went with it, and ‘blackness’ with its associated disadvantages. The consequences of this, the author contends, was to make Barbados ‘a place riven by inequality and teetering permanently on the brink of violence’.
The author charts the growing unrest amongst the slave population, including suicide by those who could see no other option. Small acts of defiance and sabotage resulted in grotesque and ferocious punishment. Stuart describes how the ‘tinderbox’ that was Barbados slave society ignited on 14th April 1816 when half the island went up in flames in a rebellion led by a slave known as Bussa. (A statue believed to be a model of him is situated on one of the island’s most prominent roundabout; many visitors to Barbados may have glimpsed it on their journey from the airport to the West Coast resorts.)
In the remaining part of the book, the author traces the fortunes of her family as successful plantation owners. The departure of her grandfather and his wife for the United States during a period of increased migration, their eventual return to Barbados and the first meeting of her father, Kenneth, and mother, Barbara, sees a new chapter in the family’s history. Although the family moved to Jamaica, the author recalls family holidays spent in Barbados. Later, settled in Britain, Stuart recalls becoming for the first time ‘acutely aware of her colour and all the stereotypes associated with it’. She also acknowledges how sugar and the slave trade have contributed to British life.
As someone who has spent a number of holidays in Barbados and grown to love the island and its people – so much so that my husband and I were married there (at Hunte’s Garden, since you ask) – I was naturally drawn to this book and found it full of fascinating information about the island’s history. However, it also raised moral questions for me about the legacy of the slave trade even as I, like other tourists, visit former plantation houses (‘commercially buffed and burnished’ in the words of the author) or drive through fields of sugar cane where slaves once toiled in harsh conditions.
Andrea Stuart writes: ‘In the Caribbean, the legacy of the sugar boom and the slave trade is not so easily ignored or forgotten… Sugar has transformed the landscape and the changed the region’s ecosystem. It has shaped our economies, traditions and national identities.’ And for the author, it’s personal as well. ‘Many families like my own are mixed-race on both sides, blending the histories of both oppressor and oppressed.’ I appreciated the author’s honesty about the ambivalence she feels about her family’s history.
Read
February 2, 2016As compelling a family memoir as you are ever likely to read.
Although very well written, the read is difficult because of the subject matter; there is very little joy as the author pulls no punches regarding her family's role in the sugar-based slavery of Barbados. The descriptions of the sugar business and the slaves central role in it are fascinating and brutal. And shameful.
The blending of family history with the history of Barbados is, for the most part, very well done, although I tended to skip a few sections on the family tree where there was no hope of remembering all the names. This was not a major detraction. By and large, the family references made the history more poignant and memorable.
Stuart also does a good job showing the modern consequences of the slave history. The most thrilling part of the book is the perseverance of those who were enslaved as they struggled (and still struggle) to make their way in a world they didn't create. I came away feeling we need to honor that struggle more than we do.
Although very well written, the read is difficult because of the subject matter; there is very little joy as the author pulls no punches regarding her family's role in the sugar-based slavery of Barbados. The descriptions of the sugar business and the slaves central role in it are fascinating and brutal. And shameful.
The blending of family history with the history of Barbados is, for the most part, very well done, although I tended to skip a few sections on the family tree where there was no hope of remembering all the names. This was not a major detraction. By and large, the family references made the history more poignant and memorable.
Stuart also does a good job showing the modern consequences of the slave history. The most thrilling part of the book is the perseverance of those who were enslaved as they struggled (and still struggle) to make their way in a world they didn't create. I came away feeling we need to honor that struggle more than we do.
March 8, 2017
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h5xcjDescription: In the late 1630s, lured by the promise of the New World, Andrea Stuart’s earliest known maternal ancestor, George Ashby, set sail from England to settle in Barbados. He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way: the farming of sugar cane, and the swiftly increasing demands for sugar worldwide, would not only lift George Ashby from abject poverty and shape the lives of his descendants, but it would also bind together ambitious white entrepreneurs and enslaved black workers in a strangling embrace. Stuart uses her own family story—from the seventeenth century through the present—as the pivot for this epic tale of migration, settlement, survival, slavery and the making of the Americas.
As it grew, the sugar trade enriched Europe as never before, financing the Industrial Revolution and fueling the Enlightenment. And, as well, it became the basis of many economies in South America, played an important part in the evolution of the United States as a world power and transformed the Caribbean into an archipelago of riches. But this sweet and hugely profitable trade--“white gold,” as it was known--had profoundly less palatable consequences in its precipitation of the enslavement of Africans to work the fields on the islands and, ultimately, throughout the American continents.
Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In examining how these forces shaped her own family--its genealogy, intimate relationships, circumstances of birth, varying hues of skin--she illuminates how her family, among millions of others like it, in turn transformed the society in which they lived, and how that interchange continues to this day. Shifting between personal and global history, Stuart gives us a deepened understanding of the connections between continents, between black and white, between men and women, between the free and the enslaved. It is a story brought to life with riveting and unparalleled immediacy, a story of fundamental importance to the making of our world.
February 6, 2016
I read this for my book club. It had an interesting connection to another book we read earlier in our 2015-16 season, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, which briefly touches on France and Haiti in some of the same time period.
The author traces her maternal family line back to 1620, when the first Ashby emigrated from England to Barbados. Like many white landowners in the Caribbean, he started a sugar plantation. The next few generations built the plantation and moved from low-on-the-pyramid planters to the upper crusts of the island, largely due to slave labor and luck (hurricanes hitting other plantations more, etc.) And just like in most stories of slavery, the white land owners had children with the female slaves. This is simultaneously the story of the Ashby family and Barbados.
I feel like I have learned a lot in the last 10 years about slavery in the south, but I did not know much about slavery in the Caribbean. There are some parallels of course, but the international trade aspect of the islands make it a bit more complicated. The author is focused on Barbados but provides helpful comparisons with what was going on in Haiti and Jamaica, both countries I have been to in that same period of time without knowing much about the history. She also touches on 20th century Jamaica, making me want to return to A Brief History of Seven Killings, which I started but didn't finish.
It should be interesting to talk about in book club!
The author traces her maternal family line back to 1620, when the first Ashby emigrated from England to Barbados. Like many white landowners in the Caribbean, he started a sugar plantation. The next few generations built the plantation and moved from low-on-the-pyramid planters to the upper crusts of the island, largely due to slave labor and luck (hurricanes hitting other plantations more, etc.) And just like in most stories of slavery, the white land owners had children with the female slaves. This is simultaneously the story of the Ashby family and Barbados.
I feel like I have learned a lot in the last 10 years about slavery in the south, but I did not know much about slavery in the Caribbean. There are some parallels of course, but the international trade aspect of the islands make it a bit more complicated. The author is focused on Barbados but provides helpful comparisons with what was going on in Haiti and Jamaica, both countries I have been to in that same period of time without knowing much about the history. She also touches on 20th century Jamaica, making me want to return to A Brief History of Seven Killings, which I started but didn't finish.
It should be interesting to talk about in book club!
September 7, 2013
"Sugar in the blood" is a term often used to describe a certain type of illness. The title is particularly appropriate for this book in that it not only describes a sociological illness, but the product that runs as an influence over a culture, an island, and a family. A person can develop an addiction to sweetness and, in this case, create "acceptable" excuses for the slavery that helps it to prosper.
I was initially confounded by the book because the author's agenda appeared to be all over the place. It's a family history, it's the history of Barbados, it's a sociological analysis of why evil can be easily accepted, it's an exploration of empires and culture, and it is a self-reflection by a writer torn by conflicting feelings. I have honestly never read another book quite like it. However, the result of exploring so many dimensions at one time is an enhanced understanding from multiple dimensions.
There is much here for the casual reader and the historian alike. New life journeys, pirates, raging natural disasters, rebellions, and a devastating portrayal of "the peculiar institution" of slavery that changes everyone involved with it. Although I had read a bit about the Caribbean island history some years ago, I felt that I have a more thorough knowledge now delivered in a manner that was involving, easy to understand, and relatable to many societal issues that we face now.
It is definitely worth the read.
One side note to myself: Is it possible that Ian Fleming was aware of Drax Hall when he was seeking another villain for James Bond?
I was initially confounded by the book because the author's agenda appeared to be all over the place. It's a family history, it's the history of Barbados, it's a sociological analysis of why evil can be easily accepted, it's an exploration of empires and culture, and it is a self-reflection by a writer torn by conflicting feelings. I have honestly never read another book quite like it. However, the result of exploring so many dimensions at one time is an enhanced understanding from multiple dimensions.
There is much here for the casual reader and the historian alike. New life journeys, pirates, raging natural disasters, rebellions, and a devastating portrayal of "the peculiar institution" of slavery that changes everyone involved with it. Although I had read a bit about the Caribbean island history some years ago, I felt that I have a more thorough knowledge now delivered in a manner that was involving, easy to understand, and relatable to many societal issues that we face now.
It is definitely worth the read.
One side note to myself: Is it possible that Ian Fleming was aware of Drax Hall when he was seeking another villain for James Bond?
March 31, 2013
My thoughts:
• The author effectively blends the history of Barbados with the history of her ancestors on the island – so it is both a history of Barbados and a history of her family – so the book is both universal and intimate
• The reading experience was uneven for me – I thought the second half was a better flow and read more easily and was more relatable.
• As this is the history of Barbados, sugar and empire in the Caribbean – the story is organized around her first identifiable ancestor to come to Barbados (maternal ancestor – George Ashby ) in the late 1630s and that like most of the families in the Caribbean started out ethnically white and over time have become predominately black. She does a good job of showing this transition though the book meanderings in places before we get to this transition.
• Much time is spent on why, what, how Barbados(and Caribbean) was during this initial period – what the European powers wanted from the Caribbean. There are interesting tidbits of history here – that at first pirates were “encouraged” in the Caribbean as at the time the European powers were at war with each other and the Caribbean was too far away to effectively fight in Caribbean so the pirates helped to keep the status quo on who owned each island but when Europe was more settled then these countries declared war on the pirates. Also interesting was the references of the early white settlers in Barbados who left for the US after a series of hurricanes and how they brought their slaves and helped formed/influenced of the slave cultures along the Carolinas,
• The author is an Afro-Caribbean but it took a little time to get to her “black” ancestors and at this point the book picked up for me.
• I liked how the author spoke to all of the rebellions and acts against slavery by the blacks and the effect of the Haitian revolution on the island.
• The author explains the “habits/rules/traditions” of Barbados and the interaction between the masters and slaves – speaks how some of it was different from US and other islands – how white master ancestor acknowledged his non-white ancestors with them having two names while other slaves only one name – how building this mixed race group was important to be a buffer as whites were in the minority, etc.
• The author does a good job of showing Barbados post-emancipation and the issues that came with it for the island, region, and the world.
• It is apparent that the author has done a great deal of research to speak to the universal and the specifics and there is an extensive bibliography at the end.
• I think this book would be interesting to those who are interested to those wanted to learn more about slavery and its legacy in the Caribbean from a Barbados pov.
• This book is a welcome addition to the canon of our past and how there is so much for us to learn about who we are today and as many have said the past is never really past.
• The author effectively blends the history of Barbados with the history of her ancestors on the island – so it is both a history of Barbados and a history of her family – so the book is both universal and intimate
• The reading experience was uneven for me – I thought the second half was a better flow and read more easily and was more relatable.
• As this is the history of Barbados, sugar and empire in the Caribbean – the story is organized around her first identifiable ancestor to come to Barbados (maternal ancestor – George Ashby ) in the late 1630s and that like most of the families in the Caribbean started out ethnically white and over time have become predominately black. She does a good job of showing this transition though the book meanderings in places before we get to this transition.
• Much time is spent on why, what, how Barbados(and Caribbean) was during this initial period – what the European powers wanted from the Caribbean. There are interesting tidbits of history here – that at first pirates were “encouraged” in the Caribbean as at the time the European powers were at war with each other and the Caribbean was too far away to effectively fight in Caribbean so the pirates helped to keep the status quo on who owned each island but when Europe was more settled then these countries declared war on the pirates. Also interesting was the references of the early white settlers in Barbados who left for the US after a series of hurricanes and how they brought their slaves and helped formed/influenced of the slave cultures along the Carolinas,
• The author is an Afro-Caribbean but it took a little time to get to her “black” ancestors and at this point the book picked up for me.
• I liked how the author spoke to all of the rebellions and acts against slavery by the blacks and the effect of the Haitian revolution on the island.
• The author explains the “habits/rules/traditions” of Barbados and the interaction between the masters and slaves – speaks how some of it was different from US and other islands – how white master ancestor acknowledged his non-white ancestors with them having two names while other slaves only one name – how building this mixed race group was important to be a buffer as whites were in the minority, etc.
• The author does a good job of showing Barbados post-emancipation and the issues that came with it for the island, region, and the world.
• It is apparent that the author has done a great deal of research to speak to the universal and the specifics and there is an extensive bibliography at the end.
• I think this book would be interesting to those who are interested to those wanted to learn more about slavery and its legacy in the Caribbean from a Barbados pov.
• This book is a welcome addition to the canon of our past and how there is so much for us to learn about who we are today and as many have said the past is never really past.
March 10, 2017
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the week:
Four writers create a personal portrait, exploring their sense of identity and what it feels like to be at home in Britain.
'Sugar In The Blood' by Andrea Stuart. Read by Lorraine Burroughs.
This selection of original non-fiction is taken from a glorious and sometimes feistily cantankerous celebration of Britain.
Andrea Stuart arrived from Barbados in the mid 1970s, aged 14 yrs. Hers was a plantation owning Bajan family descended from an 18th century English emigrant. The essay explores the painful contradictions of race, money and class - all transcended by that arbitrary signifier, skin colour.
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h5xcj
Four writers create a personal portrait, exploring their sense of identity and what it feels like to be at home in Britain.
'Sugar In The Blood' by Andrea Stuart. Read by Lorraine Burroughs.
This selection of original non-fiction is taken from a glorious and sometimes feistily cantankerous celebration of Britain.
Andrea Stuart arrived from Barbados in the mid 1970s, aged 14 yrs. Hers was a plantation owning Bajan family descended from an 18th century English emigrant. The essay explores the painful contradictions of race, money and class - all transcended by that arbitrary signifier, skin colour.
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h5xcj
Read
June 14, 2019The thing that made this book great - the author's own ancestral research in telling the story of slave trade/plantation life in Barbados (and similarly for other colonized "sugar islands") - also contributed to some of its pitfalls.
In Part 1, Stuart continues to refer to her great* grandfather, George Ashby, with about 10 greats - all written out right there in the text (and in the audiobook). She does this a number of times, and it was just the beginning of some lax editorial decisions. There was so much research and then a big info-dump on the page. When the original sources are scant or non-existant, Stuart falls into conjecture (this "would have" happened they "would have" thought, stated frequently ). A little editing work would have made for a more positive reading experience, and a tighter story.
Part 2 evened out, and much time is spent with her ancestors in the early part of the 19th-century.This section was more absorbing, had more records to pull from, and placed her family's history in a broader context of events in / around the Caribbean, the UK, and in the US.
Part 3 includes her grandparents' and parents' generation in the US and back in Barbados, coming together for Barbados' independence from Britain in 1966, and her youth in the UK and Barbados.
In Part 1, Stuart continues to refer to her great* grandfather, George Ashby, with about 10 greats - all written out right there in the text (and in the audiobook). She does this a number of times, and it was just the beginning of some lax editorial decisions. There was so much research and then a big info-dump on the page. When the original sources are scant or non-existant, Stuart falls into conjecture (this "would have" happened they "would have" thought, stated frequently ). A little editing work would have made for a more positive reading experience, and a tighter story.
Part 2 evened out, and much time is spent with her ancestors in the early part of the 19th-century.This section was more absorbing, had more records to pull from, and placed her family's history in a broader context of events in / around the Caribbean, the UK, and in the US.
Part 3 includes her grandparents' and parents' generation in the US and back in Barbados, coming together for Barbados' independence from Britain in 1966, and her youth in the UK and Barbados.
June 12, 2013
This book was a conglameration of "heard-it-a-dozen-times-before" and "really?-that's-so-interesting!" The first category gave good context for the latter. I also rather enjoyed the author's personal great-great-great grandparent details because they gave a human face to the story of Barbados, about which I knew almost nothing specifically, and I learned a lot about the slave rebellions of the Carribean and the differences between types of slavery on the tropical sugar plantations and that of the American South.
Still, though, if I had to recommend one non-fiction book about slavery and the Columbian Exchange, it would be "1493" If I was allowed two, it would be "1493" and "The Black Count" If you read BOTH of those and are still hungry for MORE books on the complexities of race and class in the colonial world, THEN I would recommend "Sugar in the Blood"
Still, though, if I had to recommend one non-fiction book about slavery and the Columbian Exchange, it would be "1493" If I was allowed two, it would be "1493" and "The Black Count" If you read BOTH of those and are still hungry for MORE books on the complexities of race and class in the colonial world, THEN I would recommend "Sugar in the Blood"
July 17, 2022
I give Andrea Stuart credit for writing a story so many of us who are Diasporan Africans would find all too painful to write. For her to center her slave-owning ancestors for so much of the story is unsettling, but it's the historical reality. There are records available for historians or journalists to reconstruct their lives. As Stuart marks, the records tell a different story of the enslaved. They are strange names on the ledgers of the slave-owner. There lacks the rich context to reconstruct their stories other than piecing it together through the broad stories of enslaved persons in the Americas, which she does. One thing I appreciate about this work is how the slave system in the Caribbean replicated itself in the American South. There were nuances and particulars, but the system operated on the same basis---profit, exploitation, and racism. There's a lot to deal with in this book. It deserves a second reading.
June 23, 2020
The author is descended from both white Barbados plantation owners and slaves who originally worked on them. She has written a history of Barbados and used some of her ancestors as illustration.
Her earliest known ancestor emigrated to Barbados and bought an area of uncleared land to become one of the first planters there. His was a small plantation and, like most at the time, he would have worked it himself with the help of bonded labourers. Over time and as other crops gave way to sugar cultivation, the mainly white bonded labourers were replaced by imported African slaves. The growth of sugar cultivation and the growth in slavery went hand in hand.
Some five generations later, the author's last white ancestor made a particularly fortuitous marriage and became wealthy and a person of importance in Barbadian society. He also had several children by his female slaves, who although not legally recognised, did receive favourable treatment. He freed some during his lifetime and ensured others had a trade, and on his death made his most openly acknowledged family his heirs. The time coincided with the gradual ending of slavery in the British Empire, so those not freed during his lifetime or in his will all became free later.
The mixed race (or coloured) Barbadians, particularly those who owned some property or could set up a business, tended to form a middle-class layer and were sometimes prejudiced towards the black former slaves, so a social hierarchy based on shades of skin colour was perpetuated even after emancipation. The author's own family, on her mother's side, flourished within this society for several generations before and after independence. The fall in the price of sugar and the use of sugar beet rather than cane hit the Barbadian economy hard in later years (although it has since become an upmarket tourist destination).
Her earliest known ancestor emigrated to Barbados and bought an area of uncleared land to become one of the first planters there. His was a small plantation and, like most at the time, he would have worked it himself with the help of bonded labourers. Over time and as other crops gave way to sugar cultivation, the mainly white bonded labourers were replaced by imported African slaves. The growth of sugar cultivation and the growth in slavery went hand in hand.
Some five generations later, the author's last white ancestor made a particularly fortuitous marriage and became wealthy and a person of importance in Barbadian society. He also had several children by his female slaves, who although not legally recognised, did receive favourable treatment. He freed some during his lifetime and ensured others had a trade, and on his death made his most openly acknowledged family his heirs. The time coincided with the gradual ending of slavery in the British Empire, so those not freed during his lifetime or in his will all became free later.
The mixed race (or coloured) Barbadians, particularly those who owned some property or could set up a business, tended to form a middle-class layer and were sometimes prejudiced towards the black former slaves, so a social hierarchy based on shades of skin colour was perpetuated even after emancipation. The author's own family, on her mother's side, flourished within this society for several generations before and after independence. The fall in the price of sugar and the use of sugar beet rather than cane hit the Barbadian economy hard in later years (although it has since become an upmarket tourist destination).
July 25, 2016
**Received from Goodreads first reads.
3.5 stars
This is such a well written book and an obvious labor of love from the Author. This book is also dense with history. It is obvious that the Author did a tremendous amount of research prior to writing this book. Not just research about her family but research on migration, life onboard a boat/ship, life of the endendured servent, slave trade, life of a slave, and life on Barbados. This is not a fast read. The amount of information that is presented does take some time to get through, but it is worth the time and effort.
3.5 stars
This is such a well written book and an obvious labor of love from the Author. This book is also dense with history. It is obvious that the Author did a tremendous amount of research prior to writing this book. Not just research about her family but research on migration, life onboard a boat/ship, life of the endendured servent, slave trade, life of a slave, and life on Barbados. This is not a fast read. The amount of information that is presented does take some time to get through, but it is worth the time and effort.
January 19, 2014
First 2/3 of the book were great, gives real insight on both the lives of the planters and the slaves. Recommended reading if you want to see just really how bad slavery was. Last part of the book seemed a bit rushed.
September 24, 2018
Sugar in the blood is a family history embedded in the colonial development and settlement of Barbados. It’s a story that tells of the developing slave culture based on sugarcane. It explains how sugar cane emerged as a cash crop and how sugar cane is processed. It also delves into the slave life of her family based on first hand accounts of other islands in the Caribbean and similar stories. The author speculates on her family history using some secondary sources as well. But it’s a good story of Barbados going from being a colony to a nation.
February 26, 2013
I saw a very positive mention of this title somewhere and was intriqued immediately, my primary motive being the fact that it was about the history of Barbados, an island I had vacationed on a few years back. At the time I was struck by the fields of sugar cane and the people we saw in the fields working the cane and was left wondering about their lives.
Andrea Stuart does a marvelous job of recreating the history of this island nation thru the device of tracing her own family's roots back to the English adventurer who first came to Barbados to seek his fortune back in the 1630's. Her recreation of what life was like for the earliest settlers, how slavery came to the island and how it and sugar cultivation shaped subsequent generations of not only her family, but the island, the caribbean and the world at large made for riveting reading. Readers of Adam Hochschild' brilliant Bury the Chains will recognize some familiar ground, but this author's insertion of her own family into the greater narrative personalizes the sad history and its ongoing implications for the modern world.
Her only ommission; the fact that some of the best rums in the world come from Barbados.
Andrea Stuart does a marvelous job of recreating the history of this island nation thru the device of tracing her own family's roots back to the English adventurer who first came to Barbados to seek his fortune back in the 1630's. Her recreation of what life was like for the earliest settlers, how slavery came to the island and how it and sugar cultivation shaped subsequent generations of not only her family, but the island, the caribbean and the world at large made for riveting reading. Readers of Adam Hochschild' brilliant Bury the Chains will recognize some familiar ground, but this author's insertion of her own family into the greater narrative personalizes the sad history and its ongoing implications for the modern world.
Her only ommission; the fact that some of the best rums in the world come from Barbados.
July 18, 2013
I am always on the lookout for books that will fill in my knowledge of history yet not seem as though they were written by a professor. This one fills the bill. Ms Stuart traces the bloody history of Barbados and the sugar industry along with a parallel memoir of her family's role in that plantation culture. The descriptions of slavery, which begin in Africa, then describe the middle passage and life on the sugar plantations, are so graphic that they will give you nightmares. Slavery was an unspeakable holocaust that still causes pain to this day. Barbados was a paradise. Balmy sea breezes, lush greenery, and the curse of being a perfect climate for cultivating sugar cane. The tale takes us from the days of "discovery" in the seventeenth century up until the present which is economically dominated by tourism. If you are curious about how skin color came to determine the Caribbean caste system, read this book.
March 9, 2019
This is an engrossing and accessible history that uses the experience of one family's history to tell a broader story of Barbados. Stuart covers large swathes relatively briefly, alternating with a deep dive into society, politics, culture and living arrangements in particular ages (the mid-seventeenth century colonial beginnings, the early-mid nineteenth century plantation lifestyle through to emancipation, post WW1 emigre experiences in Harlem, her parents lives from the 1950s in Barbados and Jamaica). This approach works very well, sustaining interest and giving a sense of changes over time.
The history is brutal, of course. Stuart is not interested in minimising the suffering of slavery, but neither does she discuss it gratuitously. Her tone is cool and analytic, if not at all detached, and it forms a part of the picture. In the powerful final chapter, Stuart makes it clear that she, like many, regards the legacy of intense violence and abuse to be a key contributor to the current instability of countries like Jamaica. She argues, echoing arguments I recently encountered in Black and British: A Forgotten History that the world must understand the cost of our sugar addiction in global terms, the impact of her family's story is global, not just local.
For all this, the book is a pleasure to read. Stuart has that rare gift among historians of capturing a sense of people and place. Excitement and hope permeate the times, as well as despair and arrogance. She eschews both hyperbole and inserting herself into the text (unless, in the last chapters, she was in fact present), instead letting the story she is telling breathe.
It was a little frustrating that the focus, influenced by the historic record, is strongest upon specific white men, and then general information about slave life in the early part. The latter part of the book also maintains a focus on her male ancestors, and I would dearly have loved to learn more about women's lives. This is a relatively minor quibble, however, given how much is packed into a relatively short book.
Highly recommended.
Read for 2019 Reading Challenge #10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title
The history is brutal, of course. Stuart is not interested in minimising the suffering of slavery, but neither does she discuss it gratuitously. Her tone is cool and analytic, if not at all detached, and it forms a part of the picture. In the powerful final chapter, Stuart makes it clear that she, like many, regards the legacy of intense violence and abuse to be a key contributor to the current instability of countries like Jamaica. She argues, echoing arguments I recently encountered in Black and British: A Forgotten History that the world must understand the cost of our sugar addiction in global terms, the impact of her family's story is global, not just local.
For all this, the book is a pleasure to read. Stuart has that rare gift among historians of capturing a sense of people and place. Excitement and hope permeate the times, as well as despair and arrogance. She eschews both hyperbole and inserting herself into the text (unless, in the last chapters, she was in fact present), instead letting the story she is telling breathe.
It was a little frustrating that the focus, influenced by the historic record, is strongest upon specific white men, and then general information about slave life in the early part. The latter part of the book also maintains a focus on her male ancestors, and I would dearly have loved to learn more about women's lives. This is a relatively minor quibble, however, given how much is packed into a relatively short book.
Highly recommended.
Read for 2019 Reading Challenge #10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title
July 23, 2020
“Getting rid of slavery was proving a more difficult task than getting rid of the slave trade. A lot of this had to do with class. Those involved in the trade tended to be from lower down the social scale, “roughnecks” who wouldn’t be welcome in the more salubrious drawing rooms of the metropolis. The planters, on the other hand, were from the same caste as many of the country’s legislators...”
“In Jamaica, a vast crowd of the newly free surrounded a coffin, inscribed “Colonial slavery, died July 31st, 1838, aged 276 years.” On the stroke of midnight the abolitionist missionary William Knibb cried: “The monster is dead! The negro is free! Three cheers for the queen!” Then the coffin, a chain, handcuffs and an iron collar were buried and, in the soil above them, a tree of liberty was planted.”
“As I grew up, I realized that my perpetual sense of displacement, the fate of most migrants, was something that would never leave me and that I could make a life nonetheless. I understood that migration was a kind of death, in which one’s old self must be buried in order for a new self to be born, and that this move has made me who I am today.”
“Whatever its rights and wrongs, it is impossible not to be in awe of the daring of the migrants who found the strength in themselves to leave behind the limitations imposed on them in their home country, in the hope of finding something better elsewhere. Somehow they managed to push past the natural inertia that binds most of us to the familiar, and despite the fear of perishing in a strange land, they went anyway. Once there, the success of people like George Ashby was largely a result of how well he adjusted to the New World and how successfully he came to terms with the loss of the Old.”
“In Jamaica, a vast crowd of the newly free surrounded a coffin, inscribed “Colonial slavery, died July 31st, 1838, aged 276 years.” On the stroke of midnight the abolitionist missionary William Knibb cried: “The monster is dead! The negro is free! Three cheers for the queen!” Then the coffin, a chain, handcuffs and an iron collar were buried and, in the soil above them, a tree of liberty was planted.”
“As I grew up, I realized that my perpetual sense of displacement, the fate of most migrants, was something that would never leave me and that I could make a life nonetheless. I understood that migration was a kind of death, in which one’s old self must be buried in order for a new self to be born, and that this move has made me who I am today.”
“Whatever its rights and wrongs, it is impossible not to be in awe of the daring of the migrants who found the strength in themselves to leave behind the limitations imposed on them in their home country, in the hope of finding something better elsewhere. Somehow they managed to push past the natural inertia that binds most of us to the familiar, and despite the fear of perishing in a strange land, they went anyway. Once there, the success of people like George Ashby was largely a result of how well he adjusted to the New World and how successfully he came to terms with the loss of the Old.”
October 24, 2021
“The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past” - William Faulkner
This combination history and family memoir packs a punch, so much so that it took me over a month to read. Thankfully, the audio was great and kept me moving along (slowly).
I learnt a lot but I also found myself emotionally engaged by the personal history the author used. It was an effective way of highlighting the humanity behind the facts. Of course I probably added another 50 books I need to supplement my reading with so … proceed with caution here.
I was actually impressed by the writing quite a bit. This book isn’t dry like some history book. For examples, this is the author description of the English love of their homeland:
“Wedded to their native soil likes snails to their shell” - it made me smile
In going through my notes I realised I had not much coherent to add other than noting a lot of things I just did not know. It was a long list. I did find my attention wandered a little bit near the end but I blame my general fatigue for that.
5 stars (despite the wobble and slow pace of this). Worth checking out of you want a powerful, personal introduction to the region’s history.
This combination history and family memoir packs a punch, so much so that it took me over a month to read. Thankfully, the audio was great and kept me moving along (slowly).
I learnt a lot but I also found myself emotionally engaged by the personal history the author used. It was an effective way of highlighting the humanity behind the facts. Of course I probably added another 50 books I need to supplement my reading with so … proceed with caution here.
I was actually impressed by the writing quite a bit. This book isn’t dry like some history book. For examples, this is the author description of the English love of their homeland:
“Wedded to their native soil likes snails to their shell” - it made me smile
In going through my notes I realised I had not much coherent to add other than noting a lot of things I just did not know. It was a long list. I did find my attention wandered a little bit near the end but I blame my general fatigue for that.
5 stars (despite the wobble and slow pace of this). Worth checking out of you want a powerful, personal introduction to the region’s history.
April 15, 2019
Not an easy read, but a terrific historical read for anyone with an interest in the history of the Caribbean islands, or a more fine-tuned understanding of the way in which the history of slavery has created the basis for who so many of us in all of the Americas (Caribbean Is., America, Brazil & other parts of Central & S. America) are today. Stuart really did her research, and the depth and breadth of her grasp on this topic is impressive.
June 2, 2020
Fascinating history of Stuart's family history from leaving the UK in the 1600's to go to the West Indies (Barbados) and the development of sugar plantations where so many Africans were exploited. She takes you all the way up to the present.
May 10, 2024
This is more history of Barbados lesson than novel. Struggled to get through.
June 22, 2021
Book 28 for Invisible cities
Country: Barbados
Country: Barbados
April 2, 2016
It's rare for a book to impact me as strongly as Andrea Stuart's Sugar in the Blood. Stuart skillfully weaves a family genealogy with a geopolitical and economic history of Barbados, then wraps it up with an analysis of the way we are still impacted by the 17th century sugar industry.
Sugar was rarely used in Europe before the 17th century. Sugar then would have come from India, and like other rare spices from that part of the world, it was used sparingly. When Stuart's ancestor George Ashby left England for Barbados, he was part of a great migration of Europeans to the New World. Ashby was a poor man, but he thought his prospects would be better in the New World than in the Old. And, to an extent, he was right. He had never owned land in England, but in Barbados he was able to purchase nine acres. Like many others on the island, he began to farm sugar. Barbados had been uninhabited, so it was truly virgin land--swampy, dense, jungle virgin land. Ashby had to fight inch by inch to create a space to plant, in a climate that was very different from the one he was accustomed to. But inch by inch, he prevailed, and by the time he died, he had 21 acres and several African slaves.
Stuart juxtaposes the migration of the Europeans with that of the Africans. A sea voyage in these times was frightening enough, but the captured Africans had no idea where they were being taken nor for what purpose they were being taken there. They were treated no better than animals. In fact, one suspects that beloved horses and dogs were treated far better.
Stuart describes the contrast in lifestyle between the European masters and the African slaves. The sugar planters of Barbados were particularly brutal to their slaves. It was cheaper to let a slave die and replace him. The life expectancy of an African slave was seven years after he was captured. Stuart does not stint on describing the particular brutality the women slaves suffered. Rape was ubiquitous. Sometimes a man would give his son a slave girl as a present to use for his sexual fulfillment. Some men, of course, had better relationships with slave women, allowing them to live in the big house and manage the household in the way a white woman would; however, there were privileges linked to race that these favored slaves were denied. And, of course, there were children born of these unions of violence and exploitation. Some masters acknowledged their children; most did not. One of Stuart's ancestors, Robert Cooper Ashby, had several relationships with slave women and fathered numerous children. Several he acknowledged and provided for. Stuart is descended from one of these slave women.
Stuart explains the history of Barbados and sugar, tracing the rise and fall of the industry. She tells of the slave rebellions and the brutal retaliation. But most importantly, she analysis how the early sugar industry impacts us today. The racial lines drawn during this time exist even today, as racism became institutionalized. The attitudes about race our own forefathers developed during this time reside in us today. We see a binary of black and white because that's the line of thinking that developed on the plantations. You could not treat another human being as brutally as these slaves were treated unless you believed they were somehow different and inferior to you. This attitude persists.
Stuart also discusses our relationship with sugar and its role in our food. The rise of obesity and diabetes can be directly linked to our consumption of sugar. Our attitudes about it were born on those plantations long ago.
Stuart's book is thorough, interesting, and thought-provoking. I highly, highly recommend it.
Sugar was rarely used in Europe before the 17th century. Sugar then would have come from India, and like other rare spices from that part of the world, it was used sparingly. When Stuart's ancestor George Ashby left England for Barbados, he was part of a great migration of Europeans to the New World. Ashby was a poor man, but he thought his prospects would be better in the New World than in the Old. And, to an extent, he was right. He had never owned land in England, but in Barbados he was able to purchase nine acres. Like many others on the island, he began to farm sugar. Barbados had been uninhabited, so it was truly virgin land--swampy, dense, jungle virgin land. Ashby had to fight inch by inch to create a space to plant, in a climate that was very different from the one he was accustomed to. But inch by inch, he prevailed, and by the time he died, he had 21 acres and several African slaves.
Stuart juxtaposes the migration of the Europeans with that of the Africans. A sea voyage in these times was frightening enough, but the captured Africans had no idea where they were being taken nor for what purpose they were being taken there. They were treated no better than animals. In fact, one suspects that beloved horses and dogs were treated far better.
Stuart describes the contrast in lifestyle between the European masters and the African slaves. The sugar planters of Barbados were particularly brutal to their slaves. It was cheaper to let a slave die and replace him. The life expectancy of an African slave was seven years after he was captured. Stuart does not stint on describing the particular brutality the women slaves suffered. Rape was ubiquitous. Sometimes a man would give his son a slave girl as a present to use for his sexual fulfillment. Some men, of course, had better relationships with slave women, allowing them to live in the big house and manage the household in the way a white woman would; however, there were privileges linked to race that these favored slaves were denied. And, of course, there were children born of these unions of violence and exploitation. Some masters acknowledged their children; most did not. One of Stuart's ancestors, Robert Cooper Ashby, had several relationships with slave women and fathered numerous children. Several he acknowledged and provided for. Stuart is descended from one of these slave women.
Stuart explains the history of Barbados and sugar, tracing the rise and fall of the industry. She tells of the slave rebellions and the brutal retaliation. But most importantly, she analysis how the early sugar industry impacts us today. The racial lines drawn during this time exist even today, as racism became institutionalized. The attitudes about race our own forefathers developed during this time reside in us today. We see a binary of black and white because that's the line of thinking that developed on the plantations. You could not treat another human being as brutally as these slaves were treated unless you believed they were somehow different and inferior to you. This attitude persists.
Stuart also discusses our relationship with sugar and its role in our food. The rise of obesity and diabetes can be directly linked to our consumption of sugar. Our attitudes about it were born on those plantations long ago.
Stuart's book is thorough, interesting, and thought-provoking. I highly, highly recommend it.
April 2, 2016
Barbados is a place most of us know little about except what we glean from cruise ship brochures and VISA advertisements: white beaches, rum drinks with wee umbrellas, lovely accents, smiling faces. The history of the Caribbean barely gets a mention in textbooks, and we never hear about it on the news unless there's a hurricane. We certainly don't think of its bloody, violent, complicated history while spooning pristine sugar crystals into our morning coffee.
I first heard of Sugar in the Blood on NPR's "Fresh Air." The author, Andrea Stuart, comes across as personable, modest, warm. While the interview was interesting, I almost did not pick up the book because I thought it was primarily a family history with the island as background. Not so. Sugar in the Blood is a history of a region and culture using the framework of the author's family. There is a big difference.
This is not a sentimental book (at least not until the last chapter, and I think the author gets to do that given the circumstances). It is a well-researched and even-handed exploration of the social, cultural, economic, and political forces that shaped 500+ years of Barbados history, starting with the migration of her 8th great-grandfather from England to the tiny island. Stuart makes the very smart move of not making the story about this one man, but uses him to paint the broader picture of the migration and settlement experience. She's very clear on what is documented and what she has had to theorize based on the (amazingly extensive) bibliography provided at the end of the book. Stuart's family line contained both slave and slave-holder, and she does a very good job of presenting both sides of that equation without beatifying or demonizing either.
Stuart obviously loves her homeland; she is just as obviously disturbed by some of the things she's uncovered about its past. Despite this, she does an admirable job of staying out of the story, a hard thing to do given she's framing this history around her ancestors.
A few months ago, and quite by coincidence, I read Isabel Allende's Island beneath the Sea, a fictional account of a sugar plantation in Saint Domingue just before liberation. Although Stuart focuses specifically on Barbados, some of the same events are covered in both books. For someone interested in knowing more about this region and it's turbulent history, I'd suggest following the Stuart book with Allende's novel.
I first heard of Sugar in the Blood on NPR's "Fresh Air." The author, Andrea Stuart, comes across as personable, modest, warm. While the interview was interesting, I almost did not pick up the book because I thought it was primarily a family history with the island as background. Not so. Sugar in the Blood is a history of a region and culture using the framework of the author's family. There is a big difference.
This is not a sentimental book (at least not until the last chapter, and I think the author gets to do that given the circumstances). It is a well-researched and even-handed exploration of the social, cultural, economic, and political forces that shaped 500+ years of Barbados history, starting with the migration of her 8th great-grandfather from England to the tiny island. Stuart makes the very smart move of not making the story about this one man, but uses him to paint the broader picture of the migration and settlement experience. She's very clear on what is documented and what she has had to theorize based on the (amazingly extensive) bibliography provided at the end of the book. Stuart's family line contained both slave and slave-holder, and she does a very good job of presenting both sides of that equation without beatifying or demonizing either.
Stuart obviously loves her homeland; she is just as obviously disturbed by some of the things she's uncovered about its past. Despite this, she does an admirable job of staying out of the story, a hard thing to do given she's framing this history around her ancestors.
A few months ago, and quite by coincidence, I read Isabel Allende's Island beneath the Sea, a fictional account of a sugar plantation in Saint Domingue just before liberation. Although Stuart focuses specifically on Barbados, some of the same events are covered in both books. For someone interested in knowing more about this region and it's turbulent history, I'd suggest following the Stuart book with Allende's novel.
March 16, 2013
I just finished reading Andrea Stuart's Sugar In The Blood, an extremely well written work of non-fiction that attempts to tell the story of her family, interwoven with the harsh realities of colonialism and slavery in Barbados. This book is evocative of the truly magnificent work, The Warmth of Other Suns, which documents the great migration of African Americans from the South in the last century. While Stuart doesn't quite match Isabel Wilkerson's brilliance, the book is nevertheless extremely well written and well worth the read. Stuart is hampered by the fact that very scanty historical records exist about the slave side of her family and there is a lot of poignancy in the constant conflict between her pride in the pioneering achievements of the white, slave owning side of her ancestry and her horror at its relentless brutality towards its slaves. Stuart, like Wilkerson manages to tell a very compelling and touching human story with the broad swathe of history as the backdrop. Perhaps the book would have been even richer if she had spent a little more time fleshing out the stories of her grandparents and their parents, generations whose lives surely must have been much better documented than those of her early ancestors during the times of colonialism and slavery. The evolution of the colored class, born out of the persistent sexual exploitation of black female slaves by their white masters, its faltering attempts to carve out a place for itself in the social order and its eventual success, is one of the most compelling aspects of her story, which seems to get short shrift. In a powerful anecdote, which immediately evokes similar thoughts expressed by Malcolm X, decades ago, Stuart captures the hopeless condition of even free blacks, whose ambitions are cruelly capped by the exclusively menial jobs that are available to them. Overall, I can enthusiastically recommend this book to all of my friends who like to read!!
September 14, 2016
An extremely well-written and fascinating book which covers the history of sugar while concentrating on a family epic in Barbados. The family which began with a white British settler evolved to a multiracial entity of which Stuart is the latest generation. Barbados as the center of the sugar trade became home to the wealthiest citizens of the British empire; planters whose luxurious lifestyles operated on the backs of mistreated and deprived slaves. The saga of slavery in the West Indies is truly deplorable. Today, we take sugar as a commodity for granted, but it once was as priceless as pearls and fortunes derived from it founded the Tate Gallery and many other famed institutions. Stuart has written a remarkable and unforgettable history.
September 17, 2013
Most people are aware of the fact that the history they were taught in school is woefully inadequate. It falls short of depicting what actually happened, and ends up almost being anesthetized in a way that is less offensive to the fewest number of people.
Often too, at least in the U.S., history is segmented and we tend to gravitate towards the stories that are familiar to our own heritage. Rarely are we given a book that explores how different histories emerged concurrently. Andrea Stuart's book does just that.
A lot of folks compare it to Alex Haley's Roots, which is apt. They both put personal stories on the abomination of slavery. Stuart's book though also relies on years of research to fill in the gaps of slavery throughout the Caribbean. In reading her book, you'll soon realize that the Barbadian plantation system wasn't just an island phenomenon. It informed the same systems in mainland America. It also provided the money that built some of the empires that we have been taught to admire the most.
I was struck also by what Stuart wasn't able to find through her years of careful research. Did her slave owning relatives love some of the her slave relatives? What was their daily life like? What must they have thought at the end of the day? Unfortunately, for many families, generations of narratives are speculative at best...and if that doesn't make you feel a sense of sadness, it should. It's not one person's history, it is all of our histories.
Often too, at least in the U.S., history is segmented and we tend to gravitate towards the stories that are familiar to our own heritage. Rarely are we given a book that explores how different histories emerged concurrently. Andrea Stuart's book does just that.
A lot of folks compare it to Alex Haley's Roots, which is apt. They both put personal stories on the abomination of slavery. Stuart's book though also relies on years of research to fill in the gaps of slavery throughout the Caribbean. In reading her book, you'll soon realize that the Barbadian plantation system wasn't just an island phenomenon. It informed the same systems in mainland America. It also provided the money that built some of the empires that we have been taught to admire the most.
I was struck also by what Stuart wasn't able to find through her years of careful research. Did her slave owning relatives love some of the her slave relatives? What was their daily life like? What must they have thought at the end of the day? Unfortunately, for many families, generations of narratives are speculative at best...and if that doesn't make you feel a sense of sadness, it should. It's not one person's history, it is all of our histories.
August 19, 2013
This is the best book that I've read so far in 2013. I originally was reluctant to read the book because it is presented as a "family history," and I tend not to enjoy those types of books, but I am so glad I put those reservations aside. Written by a noted author whose family is from Barbados, "Sugar in the Blood" uses the history of one branch of the family to explore how "sugar, slavery, and settlement made and shaped the life experiences of our ancestors, and our world today." A very distant relative of the author's was one of the earliest English settlers to move to Barbados in the 1600s, and over time, his descendants-white, black, and mixed race--emerged as one of the more influential families on the island due to their involvement in the sugar trade. This book uses personal and family history in a careful way to illuminate the complex racial and economic forces at work in Barbados and other British colonies in North America, paying special attention, of course, to slavery. I found the parts of the book that covered the history of Barbados and the lives of the author's relatives alive in the 17th-19th centuries to be almost impossible to put down, though the later sections of the book that dealt with issues closer to the present day felt rushed to me. (The epilogue also was a bit flat, in my opinion.) Quibbles aside, this simply is a wonderful book.
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