Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Sugar Barons:
Before the tea party was the sugar hell.
Quick synopsis:
The story of how a sugar empire was built in the Caribbean in the years after 1650.
Fact for Non-History People:
Processing sugar could kill you in many ways including by exploding stills.
Fun Fact for History Nerds:
A third of all Europeans died in the first two years of arriving in the Caribbean.
My Take on The Sugar Barons:
I love history books which give me a whole new perspective and a ton of details I never heard before.
There is plenty of history on the colonies, and the slave trade, and of pirates. This book is the first I’ve read which focused on the sugar trade and how it dominated the Caribbean for hundreds of years. Parker explains how it all came to be, how devastating it was on multiple levels, and how a deadly arrangement could carry on for so long. It is so easy to forget that sugar used to be a major commodity.
I read this book a few years ago and it is one of the few books which has stuck with me in a major way. Parker was truly masterful in creating a vision of the hell that was the Caribbean at this time and making the reader truly feel the horror many of the slaves must have felt. There is so much to learn in this book and I highly recommend it.
Verdict:
A great book that you don’t see coming. Buy it here!
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