The Sugar Revolution

In the seventeenth century both in the English and

to a lesser extent in the French islands, a change
occurred in the basic cash crop. This change was
so rapid and far-reaching that ‘revolutionary’ is a
fitting word to describe it. It ranks in importance
with emancipation, for the sugar revolution
changed the Lesser Antilles completely. It was not
just that sugar replaced tobacco as the chief crop:
the population changed from white to black; the
size of landholdings changed; and eventually the
West Indies became ‘the cockpit of Europe’. The list
of changes the sugar revolution brought is almost
inexhaustible.
Slaves at work in the sugar fields The sugar revolution is most clearly demonstrat-
ed in the history of Barbados where it occurred in
roughly one decade, 1640 to 1650. It was not quite
so rapid in the other islands. For example, Jamaica
changed to sugar slowly and less completely at a
much later date. However, in each island ‘revolution’
can be used to denote the startling economic, social
and political changes that occurred.

Causes of the sugar revolution

Fall in West Indian tobacco prices
The forces which brought about the change from
tobacco to sugar all came together about 1640.
Tobacco, the crop on which the economy of the
Lesser Antilles was founded, started to decline as a
result of competition from Virginia tobacco. In 1613
John Rolfe had introduced tobacco to Virginia, the
earliest of the North American colonies. A variety
imported from Trinidad proved very satisfactory.
It is ironic that a variety from the West Indies should
be the source of the decline of the West Indian
tobacco crop! By 1627 Virginia was able to ship nearly
500 000 lbs (226 800 kg) of tobacco to England in
one year. In 1628 the total for St Kitts and Barbados
was only 100 000 lbs (45 360 kg). Virginia not only

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 had the advantage of size, enabling individual plots though it had been known in the Mediterranean
to be of about 50 acres (20 ha) compared with about lands. Sugar had to be grown in a tropical or sub-
10 acres (4 ha) in the West Indies, but also of quality. tropical climate and the West Indian islands were
As the demand for tobacco in England increased, favourably situated for its growth. A transatlantic
Virginia was able to meet it easily, but the demand voyage made the West Indies accessible to the
for West Indian tobacco fell because expansion of European market. This journey was much easier
output was not so rapid and the quality was inferior. than that which brought coffee, tea and spices to the
Competition also came from the Dutch trading European market.
tobacco at Araya in Venezuela, and later at Curaçao. Chance also played a part. The Dutch and the
Consequently the price of West Indian tobacco fell Portuguese were fighting for Brazil between 1624 and
and many small farmers went out of production. 1654, and when the Dutch were winning, at least in
Sugar came along at the right time to take the place Northern Brazil, they shipped Portuguese prisoners
of tobacco. of war north to the islands to be sold as slaves. In
Another market force at work was the rising 1643 a Dutch ship brought fifty Portuguese slaves
demand for sugar in Europe. After the colonisation to Barbados. They were freed because the enslaving
of India and the Far East, coffee and tea were of Christians was not tolerated, but Barbados
becoming increasingly popular in Europe and hence had fifty labourers experienced in the growing of
the demand for sugar as a sweetener for these drinks. sugar available. Then, when the Portuguese started
People in Northern Europe had managed without winning back Northern Brazil from the Dutch, the
sugar before the colonisation of tropical lands, Dutch came to the islands of the eastern Caribbean
as refugees, bringing with them their expertise in
sugar production.

Part played by the Dutch in the sugar

revolution
The Dutch contribution was so great that we can
say they made the change possible. About 1640
the Dutch were easily the greatest traders in the
Caribbean Region, almost having a monopoly of the
carrying trade. The Dutch traders and captains were
looking for ways by which to increase their trade
and they saw that encouraging the planting of sugar
was a great opportunity.
Sugar needed capital which the small planters of
the eastern Caribbean did not have, but the Dutch
came to the rescue by supplying credit. A Dutch
merchant would put up the capital on the security
of the crop. In this way many planters started. The
Dutch took over the export and sale of the crop in
return for providing the initial capital.
Not only highly specialised labour, but also the
ordinary manual labour was provided by the Dutch
as the slave trade was in their hands. The Dutch
brought slaves from West Africa to the West Indies
at the rate of about 3000 per year. It has been said
that the Dutch made the West Indies black. At least
they started off the process which led to a decline

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 in the white population and a meteoric rise in the Sugar could only be grown economically on
black. large estates. Therefore the landholdings increased
England could not have provided these essentials in size, and previous smallholdings were grouped
for the development of the sugar industry. In any together into large estates under the ownership of
case the English system was not one of supporting a rich planter, or a partnership of two planters, or
the West Indian colonies through a wealthy a planter whose credit-rating was good enough for
company or through the government. Colonies and the Dutch to supply him with machinery and slaves.
their plantations were individual enterprises which In Barbados the landholdings tended to be smaller
were expected to manage on their own. than those on the other islands. After the change
to sugar, the average holding was about 150 acres
Results of the change in land use (60 ha). A few were 500 acres (200 ha) which would
be a very prosperous holding in Barbados. Under
Land tenure 150 acres the owner would be struggling to make
Tobacco had been grown by small planters on a profit. This was because a sugar estate had to be
smallholdings of between 5 and 30 acres (2–12 ha). self-contained in those days; that is, it had to supply
One man could manage all the processes of manu- itself with all its needs, or nearly all. About half the
facturing tobacco by himself. Sometimes the plan- area was under sugar, a sixth would be pasture for
tation was worked by a white indentured servant, cattle to supply meat and milk, another sixth for
sometimes by the owner assisted by a white inden- arable land for potatoes, corn, bananas, cassava,
tured servant or a black slave. There were some 5000 vegetables and fruit, and the remainder would be
slaves in Barbados by 1645. under woodland for timber for the buildings and
In that same year there were probably about the firewood for the boiling house. Any other land
5000 smallholdings on the island, owned among a on the estate would be used for tobacco, cotton or
total white population of about 18 500. Only about other crops.
half the island’s 166 square miles (430 sq km) had On other islands the increase in size of landhold-
been cleared by this time, and the average size of a ings before and after the sugar revolution was
smallholding was probably less than 10 acres (4 ha). greater, but over the whole of the island the trend
This amount of land under tobacco was just about was not so complete; that is, not such a high per-
enough to maintain the owner and his family, but in centage of holdings changed in the way that those of
1645 the change was beginning to be felt. The price Barbados did, especially in the French islands, where
of tobacco was falling and 10 acres was no longer some smallholdings remained. Landholdings in
enough to ensure a reasonable livelihood. the Leeward Islands were comparable to Barbados,
The smallholders did not have enough capital to perhaps slightly larger. In Jamaica landholdings
buy land so that they could grow sugar. They often were considerably larger. In the seventeenth century
moved to other islands looking for a new start with the average estate in Jamaica was about 300 acres
a bigger holding and a better life. Some returned to (120 ha), but there were some very large estates of
England. The indentured servants could no longer over 5000 acres (2000 ha). In Barbados there was
be supported. Population pressure was giving rise not as much wasteland as in the other islands. The
to the situation where there were too many mouths soil was fertile and there were no mountains which
to feed in Barbados, and the black slave, being decreased the productive acreage of islands like St
essential on the sugar plantation, came before the Kitts and Montserrat However, the intense planting
white servant who could be sacrificed. Many of the that was practised in Barbados and Antigua brought
indentured servants ran away to become buccaneers, problems of soil exhaustion.
or hid themselves in other islands to avoid the law. In the seventeenth century the size of landhold-
Some were recruited into the army, for example ings in the French islands remained small and they
Cromwell’s army of 1655, or the navy. Thus land continued to produce tobacco. In the next century
became available for large sugar plantations in when the sugar revolution escalated, the process
Barbados and the other islands. of change to large sugar estates was completed.

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 The estates in Guadeloupe, Martinique and St up and returned to England. Gradually the white
Domingue were on average much larger than those population dwindled proportionally everywhere,
in the English islands. The number of landholdings and a new picture of West Indian society emerged.
was considerably less, and they were not planted so In its earliest form this, the sugar society, consisted
intensively with sugar. Therefore there was not the of a small white elite and a mass of black slaves.
problem of soil exhaustion. The change which took place in the make-up of
the population of each English island, between the
The price of land beginning of the sugar revolution and the middle
Under the impact of the sugar revolution the price of the eighteenth century, can best be seen from the
of land leapt up, in some parts of Barbados by a following table (all figures are approximate):
much as thirty times. For example, a parcel of land
of about 10 acres had been sold for £25 in 1630, Year White Black Total
which gives an average price of under £3 an acre. Barbados
In 1648, when the sugar revolution was almost com- 1645 18 000 5 500 23 500
plete in Barbados, land was over £30 an acre. Taking 1660 20 000 30 000 50 000
150 acres (60 ha) to be the minimum land required 1690 20 000 60 000 80 000
1712 12 500 52 500 65 000
for a sugar estate, the total capital for just the land
1748 15 000 68 000 83 000
would be well over £4000, obviously beyond the
reach of a smallholder. In 1648 a planter named Jamaica
Thomas Modyford bought a 500-acre estate as a 1658 4 500 1 500 6 000
going concern for £14 000 (he had a half-share in it 1675 8 500 9 500 18 000
at £7000) and we can guess at the value of the land 1698 7 500 40 000 47 500
being £10 000 or £20 an acre (£50 per ha). 1722 7 000 80 000 87 000
1746 10 000 112 500 122 500

Population changes St Kitts

The sugar revolution brought about a change in 1665 7 000 3 000 10 000
the size and composition of the population of 1678 2 000 2 000 4 000
1708 1 500 3 000 4 500
each island. In nearly every case the white section
1724 4 000 11 500 15 500
of the population declined, as smallholders and 1744 3 000 19 000 22 000
indentured servants working side by side on small
plots were replaced by a relatively small number of Nevis
wealthy landowners employing white servants in 1665 3 000 1 000 4 000
certain jobs on large plantations. At the same time, 1708 1 500 3 500 5 000
as the owners of these plantations imported more 1724 1 000 6 000 7 000
and more slaves to form the labour force, so the 1745 1 000 6 500 7 500
black population increased.
Antigua
The planter governments of the English islands
1665 1 000 500 1 500
tried not to let the black-to-white ratio exceed ten 1678 2 500 3 000 5 500
to one, but this became increasingly difficult to 1708 3 000 13 000 16 000
maintain as the years went by. The displaced white 1724 5 000 20 000 25 000
smallholders who lost their land in the sugar revo- 1744 3 500 28 000 31 500
lution refused to become wage labourers, working
alongside slaves on the sugar estates. Some migrat- Montserrat
ed to other islands, but the same revolution took 1672 1 000 500 1 500
place in these islands too. Some, like Henry 1708 1 500 3 500 5 000
1724 1 000 4 500 5 500
Morgan, who began life as an indentured servant
1744 1 000 6 000 7 000
in Barbados, became buccaneers, while many gave

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 Sugar in other parts of the Caribbean terms of the Treaty of Breda signed later the same
Region year. From then on sugar was just as important to
the Dutch in the Guianas as it was to the English and
The Guianas French in the West Indian islands.
Sugar had been grown in the Dutch colony which
had been established around the mouth of the
Essequibo River since the 1630s, but not in any great The French islands
quantity. The sugar revolution reached there and the The sugar revolution in Martinique and Guadeloupe
other Dutch colonies in 1656, the year in which all took place over a longer period of time than in the
the Guiana coast was thrown open to settlers. The English islands. It began in about 1670, but was
colony on the Pomeroon and Moruka rivers, which not completed for another century. The two factors
had been given the name of ‘Nova Zeelandia’, soon which account for this were the size of the islands,
outstripped all the others in sugar production. The and the continuation of the growing of large amounts
labour needed on the new plantations was provided of tobacco. The large size of the islands meant that
by the slaves who began to be imported in large not only was more land available for poor whites,
numbers from 1657 onwards. but it was cheaper in price. Even after sugar became
The output of ‘Nova Zeelandia’ was itself soon the main crop the white smallholders stayed on.
surpassed by that of the English colony of Surinam There was also difficulty in obtaining the supply of
to the east. Surinam was captured by the Dutch in slaves necessary to develop the plantation system
February in 1667, and retained by them under the more rapidly.

A French sugar mill, c. 1670

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