Plantations of Antigua: the Sweet Success of Sugar (Volume 3): A Biography of the Historic Plantations Which Made Antigua a Major Source of the World's Early Sugar Supply

Sugar. It sits there dormant nestled in a small bowl or serving-size packet waiting to be spooned into a cup of coffee or tea; spread across some cereal; or dropped into a recipe for cake pie or other scrumptious treat in the making. It is so readily available so easy to use so irresistibly tasty. But few people stop to realize the enormous economic social political even military upheaval this simple-looking widely popular food enhancer has caused in many parts of the world. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries even into the nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth sugar cane was a preeminent crop upon which economies succeeded or failed societies grew and money flowed like . . . well sugar! A region particularly impacted by sugar was the volcanic islands of the Caribbean-virgin soil enriched by crushed coral and limestone and blessed by unlimited sunshine. The result was soil so rich for planting that the necklace of island colonies and small nation-states became a massive source of the worlds supply of sugar. Antiguas 108 square miles an island of undulating hills and indented coastline fell into this category.