Cane sugar grows until the "zafra" 2,
when the cane is harvested by cutting it down using machetes,
loading it upon wagons, pulling the wagons by horses or oxen
(or men) to the mill.
Cane is crushed, usually between stone rollers, (two methods)
to turn the millstones: 3
Trapiche4 or Engenho
Boiling House
The raw sap contains too much water to crystalize. Thus water is
removed by boiling the sap in several "boiling cauldrons or kettles"
called "taiches", of decreasing sizes
(c. 5 or 6 kettles), each tended (by a "tacheiro",
with the "banqueiro" [overseer of tacheiros]),
as more and more water is removed, concentrating the sugar. The boiling
house is called the "casa das fornalhas".
During this process some of the suggary-sap is inadvertently burned
(making molasses), thus the sugar solution becomes dark colored. An
expert uses his thumb and index fingers to "pull" the sticky viscous
sugar solution apart as it crystalizes to determine when sufficient
water has been removed to allow crystalization. Ashes from the fires
are added to the sugar solution to aid clarification (activated charcoal).
Water is removed from sugar in pottery forms
The sugar containing molasses still has too much water (melado)
is poured into pottery forms of a conical shape. Clay is put at the top of
the cone, melado slowly percolated downwards, washing the cone contents
(washing away the dark colored molasses on the sugar crystal surfaces).
After awhile (days), the sugar pilóns are ready to be transported to
distribution centers to be sold, graded by color:
fino, redondo, baixo. Thus each plantation must also have a shop
("olaria") to create the pottery forms.
Excess watery sugar solution is diverted to make a crude rum called
by different names suh as "kill-devil",
"cachaça", "agardiente",
"tafia", etc. used as a form of payment to
the slaves to keep them happy (addicted to alcohol) during this time
of maximum, continuous labor.
Fire to boil the sap to remove the water requires fuel. The "taiches"
are of decreasing size as water evaporates. Wood is burned as fuel under
each "taiche", or a hollow flue made of brick
passes under each "tache" carrying heat from
a central fire to each "taiche" (this more
economical method is called a "Jamaica train").
As time passed, slaves became paid, though it was minimal pay. Paid with
what? Slavery is not based upon a money market (slaves mean workers that
are not paid). Worker-slaves were "paid" with rum or sugar.
Sugar was the most important crop for British absentee owners, but there were
other raw materials such as indigo, cotton, rice, tobacco, minerals
(gold,
silver, diamonds, emeralds, mercury, pearls, salt, etc.) The study of sugar
shows some of the details involved. Slaves were important too: no slaves, no profits,
and absentee masters needed slave women that would beget absentee chidren.
Thus Jane Asten's muted concerns with pluralism, absenteeism,
Syphilis 5, etc., or women (and men
as well as absentee children [with absentee mothers and absentee fathers])
incapable of more than silly chatter!.
Note that sugar is an exception: it must be purified where it is made. The raw
sugar cannot be transported as a raw material to England for purification.
1
Schwartz, Stuart; "Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society:
Bahia, 1550-1835", pp. 117-126
2
ibid., The "zafra" is the harvest season. The
sugar cane MUST be rapidly harvested or the crop can be lost. Thus if the
slaves refuse to harvest, the plantation master can be financially ruined.
Slave or no slave, the master is vulnerable and the slaves are quite
conscious of this. Thus slaves can "bargain" with plantation masters
(during a "strike"). p. 103
3
ibid., One, two, or three stones rollers may be used to press the
sugar sap from the cane. Sometimes after this initial pressing, there
still is enough residual sap that a "gangorra"
(screw press) can be used to extract more of the sap. p. 126
4
Accidents happen at the mill. A slave's arm may be caught between
the stone rollers of the mill. The slaves arm is then drawn into
the rollers, crushing the man to death, or at least crippling the
man. With luck, the cutlass near the trapiche is used to quickly
cut off the slave's arm.
5
A number of tropical diseases were found in the New World such as
Syphilis, Malaria, Yellow Fever, etc. and were common on slave
plantations in the Caribbean, Brazil, etc.
Freyre, Gilberto; "The Masters and the Slaves"
("Casa Grande y Senzala"), p. 404, Second Ed. (revised)
Stedman, J. G.; "Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against
the Revolted Negroes of Surinam", Eds. Richard and Sally Price
pp. 363-365
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