Britain’s sweet-tooth: sugar and slavery
If you’d prefer to listen to the audio version of this article, listen to Charlotte and Abbie here:
The Sugarloaf Pub as it stands today on Cannon Street
The pub’s sign depicts three sugar loaves – the result of the final sugar refining stage. Its name hints that this area around the Thames was once home to one of the first industrial activities in England: the sugar refining industry. The board outside mentions this, but makes no connection to the significance of sugar plantations in the growth of the industry.
The Sugarloaf Pub sign
The board outside of the Pub today (click on the image to see it in more detail)
The semi-refined sugar that arrived on the banks of the Thames came from the colonies of the New World. The engraving below shows a plantation in Barbados, the very first sugar producing colony. The scene appears rather peaceful, but the work gang on the right hints at a darker reality: enslaved Africans arriving in Barbados had a life expectancy of a mere 7-8 years. Enslaved labour was essential for keeping costs down and profits high, not just for plantation owners but for investors and consumers in Britain.
Engraving of a Plantation Scene and Slave Houses, Barbados – engraver unknown, found in A Voyage in the West Indies (London, 1820) by John Waller, a British naval surgeon living in Barbados from 1807-8.
This image is from the Slavery Images database
Mercantilist polices subsidised the import of semi-refined sugar and ensured that the cash crop arrived in Britain for the final stages of the refinement process. With this tacit support from the English crown, the industry grew: by 1750 there were roughly 80 sugarhouses in London, and many others scattered across the country. Metropole and colony, though separated by thousands of miles, provided commercial stimulus for each other. This domestic industry relied on the transatlantic slave trade, but both hung on Britain’s growing penchant for sugar.
Sugar has contributed more to England’s pleasure, glory, and grandeur than any other commodity we deal in or produce, wool not excepted.
By 1800, in conjunction with tea and coffee, sugar was ubiquitous; it morphed from a luxury for the few to a necessity for a “respectable” Briton. Britons consumed more sugar than anyone else in the world and with this the social milieu of London changed as coffee houses (like Lloyd’s and the Jamaica Wine House) appeared across the capital. The economic and cultural legacies of sugar and the slave trade have contributed to the construction of Britishness – I may not be mistaken in thinking you often offer to ‘put the kettle on’ and ask if someone wants sugar in their tea.
An example of a sugarloaf
The story of this one material object that the Sugarloaf Pub points to reflects how reliant and integrated the metropole’s economy was with the colonies and, with it, enslaved labour. Maybe this might encourage you to consider the full lifecycle of the device you’re reading this on, or maybe the Pret coffee you had this morning.
To finish up this tour, click on the button below to find some concluding remarks and provoking questions to consider.
If you’re at a loss for ideas this weekend, why not head to the Museum of London Docklands to explore their exhibition on London, Sugar & Slavery.