Sugar cane cultivation best takes place in tropical and subtropical climates; consequently, sugar plantations in the United States that utilized slave labor were located predominantly along the Gulf coast, particularly in the southern half of Louisiana.

The first sugarcane plantations were introduced in the Dominican Republic by the Spanish colonizers in the beginning of the 16th century. Currently, agriculture is one of the most important sectors of the national economy, as sugarcane is the principal agricultural product of the country.

Santo Domingo, the first founded city in the New World and a stronghold for the Spanish Conquistadores’ prodigious sugar industry, has yet to refurbish these mills. The four visited by the architecture students during the three-day trip were Boca de Nigua, Palave, Diego Caballero and Engombe.

Historically, sugar has been a mainstay of the Dominican economy; it was the nation’s largest employer and the main source of export earnings. In the late 1980s, the DR was the world’s fourth largest producer of sugarcane. In 1982, the DR had the largest share of the U.S. allocated-TRQ at 17.6 percent.

Production According to the Dominican Sugar Institute (INAZUCAR, which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture) and Post research, total sugar production was 542,122 MT during MY 2016/17, comprised of 364,678 MT raw and 177,444 MT refined sugar.

Destruction of the environment, reduced access to land for local communities, forced evictions and precarious working conditions in sugarcane plantations are unfortunately a reality in many regions of this Caribbean State.

27 February 1844

Haiti – Sugar cane production quantity In 2019, sugar cane production for Haiti was 1.69 million tonnes. Before sugar cane production of Haiti started to increase to reach a level of 1.69 million tonnes in 2019, it went through a trough reaching a low of 595,000 tonnes in 2002.

The harvested cane was taken to the sugar mill where it was crushed and boiled to extract a brown, sticky juice. Operating the machinery was very dangerous – slaves could be maimed or even killed. The sugar boiling houses were unbearably hot and difficult to work in during the summer.

The work process of the cane cutter can cause stress, symptoms of burn out, exhaustion, physical and psychological symptoms after the harvest period. Musculoskeletal diseases followed by respiratory diseases at the end of the harvest were more prevalent.

On a typical plantation, slaves worked ten or more hours a day, “from day clean to first dark,” six days a week, with only the Sabbath off. At planting or harvesting time, planters required slaves to stay in the fields 15 or 16 hours a day.

Slaves on small farms often slept in the kitchen or an outbuilding, and sometimes in small cabins near the farmer’s house. On larger plantations where there were many slaves, they usually lived in small cabins in a slave quarter, far from the master’s house but under the watchful eye of an overseer.

Only a small minority of enslaved people received anything resembling decent treatment; one contemporary estimate was 10%, not without noting that the ones well treated desired freedom just as much as those poorly treated. Good treatment could vanish upon the death of an owner.

During their limited leisure hours, particularly on Sundays and holidays, slaves engaged in singing and dancing. Though slaves used a variety of musical instruments, they also engaged in the practice of “patting juba” or the clapping of hands in a highly complex and rhythmic fashion.

Many slaves became free through manumission, the voluntary emancipation of a slave by a slaveowner. Manumission was sometimes offered because slaves had outlived their usefulness or were held in special favor by their masters. The offspring of interracial relations were often set free.