Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713

by Richard S. Dunn

First published by UNC Press in 1972, "Sugar and Slaves" presents a vivid portrait of English life in the Caribbean more than three centuries ago. Using a host of contemporary primary sources, Richard Dunn traces the development of plantation slave society in the region. He examines sugar production techniques, the vicious character of the slave trade, the problems of adapting English ways to the tropics, and the appalling mortality rates for both blacks and whites that made these colonies the richest, but in human terms the least successful, in English America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Labor, Historical, American History

379 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 1972

Reviews

[Jiewei Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool info, sad I have to basically memorize 5 chapters for my final. Hopefully I don’t mishear the prompt this time

[Tress]

Intending to read it properly but using as a placeholder for another book which hasn't been added to goodreads yet.

[simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminds me of Mintz's Sweetness and Power, and tackles similar topics - the development of the sugar industry and African slavery in the West Indies. It's dry, but really interesting and informative and not wordy or brainy. It's some tables, some numbers, and some facts. I like books like this, and I like the school of thought that produced them.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The British colonized Caribbean Islands starting in the early 1600s. Sugar soon became a major crop requiring much labor which was furnished by slaves. This work is an informative history of the period and of the British slave trade.

[Boone Ayala · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely useful and readable introduction to the British West Indies in the 17th century. Dunn dedicates the first half of the book to a chronological account of the development of the three colonies (Barbados, Jamaica, and the Leeward Islands) with a particular eye to the development of the plantocracy. He argues that big planters controlled everything in the English Caribbean, and that the systems of government and imperial relations were largely dictated by these planters who took power via assemblies at the expense of royal governors. Dunn gives considerable treatment to the enslaved Africans, who he argues suffered more terrible physical abuse in these colonies (where their considerable numbers dwarfed those of the paranoid planters) than anywhere else in English America. That said, the book’s biggest flaw (which I have only recognized in retrospect, resulting in me removing one star) is that it appears to attribute the whole of the social origins of plantation society to the planter class, and this gives very little agency to Africans in negotiating the conditions of their society. Cf “The Reaper’s Garden” for a treatment that shows the role of the enslaved in a more complete way.

This book may not be useful to readers familiar with the 17th century British West Indies, but for those who are not it is an extremely useful introductory text which touches on many aspects of society in this vital colonial space.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his book, Sugar & Slaves, Richard Dunn describes the development of sugar planting and processing in the Caribbean from 1624 – 1713. Dunn seeks to answer three questions in his book: how did “English planters… …respond to the novelty of life in the tropics... …of large-scale sugar production and to the novelty of slave labor?” (xxiv) The ideal of the planters was to either transfer English living (the moral norms excepted) to the Indies or live in England off of the revenue received from their sugar plantations in the Islands. The planters created a society that was more lavish than anything that existed in England.
The book is clearly developed and well written. The book is organized thematically, geographically and chronologically. The book starts with an analysis of the Caribbean in the seventeenth century as a place that was different from England in almost every conceivable way and as a region that was “beyond the line” (45) of social norms and even international agreements. Dunn describes the development of sugar plantations in Barbados, the Leeward Islands and Jamaica in turn. He traces early efforts at growing Tobacco in Barbados, the transition to sugarcane, the development of sugar plantations in the Leewards, and the application of the Barbados’ model of sugar production based on slave labor in Jamaica. This method of development appears purely geographical at first glance, but the islands are also described in the chronological order in which English planters began production at each island.
The remaining six chapters of the book are organized thematically. Dunn writes about the art of sugar production in the seventeenth century (my favorite chapter) and the early adoption of slave labor as indentured servants became harder to attract to a harsh life in the English West Indies where land was increasingly owned by large landowners. The author continues by writing about attempts of the English planters to transfer their modes of dress, diet, and construction to the Caribbean climate resulting in voluntary discomfort, reduced health and the eventual adoption of slightly more appropriate dress and housing. Dunn argues that the diseases that brought early death to planters who lived in the tropics also encouraged more reckless, lavish living among a planter class that was already eager to show off their wealth. The planters lived, drank and were merry because they were likely to die tomorrow.
Through his obvious skills as a writer and historian Dunn brings a variety of sources together to create a very interesting and convincing book. These sources include planters’ journals, ledgers, estate records, genealogical records, account books and several period maps and images. A great example can be seen in the way that Dunn gives an extended description of the sugar making process. Along with a thorough description, he provides an image of the machines that were used to extract sugar from the cane (193). The inclusion of this and other images improve the reading experience by bringing the world of the English Caribbean to life.
The main pivotal moment in the book was an earthquake that destroyed the buccaneer’s haven of Port Royal in 1692. The pirates had been the political allies of small planters on Jamaica and helped to maintain a balance between small planters and large planters. After the city was destroyed, “no one could doubt that sugar was king” and big planters dominated the island through the eighteenth century.

Question: Dunn argues that slavery was adopted as a source of labor in the Caribbean due to the unavailability of indentured servants. Indentured servants did not have the incentive needed to attract them because all of the land in Barbados and the Leeward Islands was quickly owned by large planters. Thus, indentures could not hope to establish themselves after their service because the land simply was not available. English sugar plantations were quickly set up in Jamaica after the island was seized from Spain in 1655. Despite the availability of land in Jamaica, indentured servitude doesn’t even seem to have been considered as a labor option for Jamaica. Why is this case? If slavery was adopted due to the lack of land in Barbados and the Leewards why was indentured servitude not adopted in Jamaica where land was plentiful?

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dunn works with admittedly limited source material to tell the story of 17th-century sugar planters and slavery in the British West Indies. While his thesis statement is rather weak, the openended-ness of it worked given the relative paucity of sources.

Dunn suggests that his topic is important because the West Indies were a crucial part of the British Atlantic colonial world; their slave system became the model for other colonies; and no one has told the story of these particular people before him. He talks about the rise of sugar planting in several British caribbean colonies and then discusses what life and death were like in the colonies the 17th century. Seems like required reading on the history of slavery in the Atlantic world to me.

[Sam Newton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dunn looks at Jamacia, Barbados, and the Leewards at their beginnings and argues that while English society transplanted itself there, it was soon corrupted and ended up very different than its English (or even American) counterparts. This was a plantation society where corruption was rampant, first white slaves, then blacks were abused and profits were the end-all. These settlers suffered a lot: disease, weather, etc, but they refused to adapt their clothing or diet to the new environment. They were the first Englishmen to practice wide-scale slavery to help with sugar production and they did it quite harshly. This is a data-driven book and does not have much of a narrative structure: he's into maps, records, etc. He acknowledges that his sources are lacking because few planation owners kept actual accounts and many of these were destroyed in various tropical disasters. This is a quantitative historian's dream, but if you're looking for a good story, look elsewhere.

[Sohee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a monumental one in the historiography of the British colonies in the Caribbean. Dunn describes the development of the planter sugar class in the seventeenth century. While some specifics of his arguments have been contested by more recent historians, the main arguments of this book still hold today.

[Lutamira]

Rec by Games - he was her dissertation advisor.

[Daniel Barrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot express how mindblown I was after reading this. The evils of slavery in the americas did not start with tabaco but with sugar.