The Bitter Cauldron
Boiling Down Sugar: The Iron Heart of Barbados' Sugar Industry Barbados Sugar Economy: A Bitter Success. The introduction of the "plantation system" revolutionized the island's economy. Big estates owned by wealthy planters controlled the landscape, with oppressed Africans providing the labour required to sustain the requiring procedure of planting, harvesting, and processing sugarcane. This system generated enormous wealth for the nest and strengthened its location as a key player in the Atlantic trade. But African slaves toiled in perilous conditions, and many died in the infamous Boiling room, as you will see next: Boiling Sugar: A Lealthal Job Sugar production in the 17th and 18th centuries was a perilous process. After gathering and squashing the sugarcane, its juice was boiled in huge cast iron kettles until it took shape as sugar. These pots, typically set up in a series called a"" train"" were heated by blazing fires t...