Book Summary: Something So Sugar Changed The World

Something so Sweet Became so Evil When was the last time that one remembers they consumed sugar? Just at about every sitting that someone eats at, the food contains some type of sugar. Most of the time no one sits and thinks about how the food was made and how the ingredients were refined. From sugar to yeast to spices and diys every ingredient was once invented. Sugar Changed The World explains the meaning of slavery through the times sugar was invented. “Welcome to Hell” (Aronson 31). This really sets the tone and mood of the story; how were the slaves really treated? Through the times of lengthy voyages to the United States. The horrific conditions within the mill houses and plantations. And how the lives of slaves never left the plantations,

With the spread of sugarcane there was slaves that were needed to help refine it into the fine white crystals people know of today. So, africans were transported to these these places, such as the Caribbean's, Brazil and the Americans, to help refine it. These voyages from Africa were not all that pleasant. Many people were compacted into small ships. This lead to diseases which then cause many to die on the voyage to the Caribbean’s. “To understand slavery that brought Africans to the New World, you must begin with the death rate…”(Aronson 61). Soon President Lincoln addressed the Emancipation Proclamation so it would halt all slave trade to the U.S. but most slave owners disobeyed this law. Nearly 500,000 slaves were shipped after the emancipation and roughly nine million slaves were transported all together during the sugar erra (Aronson

Most people do not think of slaves due to the fact that slavery is not occurring in their lifetime. However, in the past slavery was a huge problem around the world. When slaves were brought to plantations they were immediately put to work. The Overseer kept an eye on everyone while they refined the sugar. “An axe was often propped up near the rollers so if a slave closed her eyes for a second while pushing the cane, her arm could be hacked off before she was pulled through the merciless grinders” (Aronson 40). Many of these conditions lead to either a shorter lifespan or even death right at the scene. Many slaves did not even live to see their children old enough to work in the fields and mills. (Aronson). While each and everyday the slaves portrayed customs from their home town; they also wished for slavery to be illegal so they could get on with their lives. Slavery eventually became illegal in most places. However, it did take a long time for this to happen. Very few even lived long enough to have and see their children grow up on the sugar plantation (Aronson 39). The slaves worked each and every day in horrible conditions with little to eat and seldomly no sleep. This weakened the slaves causing them to pass at such early ages. The slaves labored without end with nothing in return, except to live on for another day of work. The slave owners had no problem with this occurring due to the fact they had many