HUMA 024 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Starch, Consignee, Bagasse
Document Summary
This is the end products of sugar cultivation and processing. it into sugar molasses and rum: molasses, muscavado, sugar, rum. Holing was the term used for planting sugar cane. Slaves had to prepare cane fields with hundreds of holes (about 3 feet square and one foot deep). Ratoons (new shoot from preceding plant) were planted, one to each hole. Meanwhile, canes that had been planted the previous year would have to be weeded. Field slaves started working shortly after roll call at dawn. Any extra grass or shrub had to be burnt. The enslaved used machetes to dig cane holes. The cane tops were then placed at the bottom of each hole and covered with dirt. Cane plants take about fifteen months to mature while ratoons take a shorter time- approximately one year or twelve months. The slaves worked until about eight or nine o"clock when they pause for breakfast which had been prepared by the elderly female slaves.
