The Sugar

Revolution

Charelle Webster & Khalehla Baker

 What is the Sugar Revolution?
The Sugar Revolution is the transformation of the
society and economy marked by an abrupt shift in
monoculture, plantain agriculture and dense population
of enslaved Africans that occurred in the English and
French West Indies in the middle 17th century.
Reasons for the Sugar Revolution
● A sharpe decline in European tobbaco prices in the
1630’s and competition from Virginia.
● The failure of other crops such as cotton and indigo.
● The high demand of sugar in Europe for teas, cakes and
sweets.
● The Dutch, the pioneers of technology and trade of the
Atlantic, changed their sugar-producing focus from
Brazil to the Caribbean.
 Social Consequences
● The introduction of African slaves changed the islands
population structure with more Blacks than whites.
● The emergence of the different groups of social
classes.
● A development of strong racial prejudice: Whites were
found at the top of the social class while the Blacks
were at the bottom.
 Social stucture and Slavery.
Wealthy
Whites

Poor Whites

Mixed Race

Whites Freed Afrians Blacks

Enslaved Africans
 Economic Consequences
● The emergence of large sugar plantations and
almost complete dependence on the sugar industry.
● A change from agricultural diversification to
monoculture.
● Food crops apart from sugar were ignored, which
caused an increase in food importation.
● Alot of capital was invested into the production and
exportation of sugar.
Racism Today
Racial prejudice was common amongst slave and
slavemaster in the time of the Sugar Revolution. Whites
back then and now saw/see the blacks as inferior to
themselves. It causes injustice and inequality and
continues to blossom in the minds of today’s generation.
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