- Sep 2013
- 913
- Chattanooga, TN
When I was researching overseers of the Old South for my thread "Overseers of the Old South", I read information about sugar plantations that made me realize I have no idea how sugar plantations operated. I decided to create this thread about sugar plantations because this issue is totally distinct from the topic of overseers. The source that I am going to quote on this thread mentions overseers, but this thread is about how sugar plantations operated, not overseers.
I don't really know how sugar plantations on the Old South operated. An excerpt in William Kauffman Scarborough's book The Overseer: Plantation Management in the Old South got me thinking about this. Scarborough wrote: "In order to ascertain the relative level of overseer wages, it is necessary to compare the salaries received by overseers with those paid to other white plantation operatives. Because more white laborers were employed on sugar plantations than on any other type of agricultural unit, that region has been selected for the comparison. Aside from the overseer, the most important white employees utilized on sugar plantations were the sugar maker and the engineer. These posts were filled only during the grinding season, which normally lasted four to five months, and each required an individual of considerable skill and experience. Sugar makers were commonly paid according to the number of hogsheads of sugar produced. During the 1840s and 1850s Louisiana sugar makers received from 75 cents to $1.25 per hogshead up to a maximum salary of $400-$500. An engineer who doubled as sugar boiler and machinist could earn as much as $125-150 per month during the rolling season" (35-36).
According to my source, there was a season that lasted from four to five months on sugar plantations of the Old South called the grinding season. The sugar makers and the engineers as sugar makers and engineers only during the grinding season.
Then there was another season on sugar plantations called the rolling season. Sugar boilers and machinists worked during the grinding season.
I know that in the process of making sugar, the first thing that had to be done was for the sugar cane to be cut off the sugar tree. After sugar cane was cut off the sugar trees , what was the next step? After sugar cane was cut off the sugar trees, was the grinding season next? Or did the rolling season come before the grinding season?
What are "hogsheads of sugar?" Was hogsheads of sugar a measurement of sugar in which one hogshead of sugar would be the amount of sugar that could fit in the skull of a hog?
Please explain the process used on sugar plantations of the Old South from the cutting of the sugar to whatever form of sugar left the plantation to be sold.
On my overseers thread, historum member Nemowork wrote the following: "There might well be a white technician supervising the boiling or the shredding and milling but lifting several tons of loose cane stalks into a shredder is heavy work guess who's going to be running the risk of getting a hand stuck in the shredder wheels losing an arm?"
To me, this implies that the slaves would load the shredder with the loose cane stalks. However, I know that plantation owners placed a high value on their slaves' safety because the slaves were their biggest investment. I can imagine sugar planters hiring white workers to load the loose cane stalks into a shredder so the planter was not risking his own slaves' safety.
Who would normally load the loose cane stalks into a shredder, running the risk of getting a hand stuck in the shredder and losing an arm?
I don't really know how sugar plantations on the Old South operated. An excerpt in William Kauffman Scarborough's book The Overseer: Plantation Management in the Old South got me thinking about this. Scarborough wrote: "In order to ascertain the relative level of overseer wages, it is necessary to compare the salaries received by overseers with those paid to other white plantation operatives. Because more white laborers were employed on sugar plantations than on any other type of agricultural unit, that region has been selected for the comparison. Aside from the overseer, the most important white employees utilized on sugar plantations were the sugar maker and the engineer. These posts were filled only during the grinding season, which normally lasted four to five months, and each required an individual of considerable skill and experience. Sugar makers were commonly paid according to the number of hogsheads of sugar produced. During the 1840s and 1850s Louisiana sugar makers received from 75 cents to $1.25 per hogshead up to a maximum salary of $400-$500. An engineer who doubled as sugar boiler and machinist could earn as much as $125-150 per month during the rolling season" (35-36).
According to my source, there was a season that lasted from four to five months on sugar plantations of the Old South called the grinding season. The sugar makers and the engineers as sugar makers and engineers only during the grinding season.
Then there was another season on sugar plantations called the rolling season. Sugar boilers and machinists worked during the grinding season.
I know that in the process of making sugar, the first thing that had to be done was for the sugar cane to be cut off the sugar tree. After sugar cane was cut off the sugar trees , what was the next step? After sugar cane was cut off the sugar trees, was the grinding season next? Or did the rolling season come before the grinding season?
What are "hogsheads of sugar?" Was hogsheads of sugar a measurement of sugar in which one hogshead of sugar would be the amount of sugar that could fit in the skull of a hog?
Please explain the process used on sugar plantations of the Old South from the cutting of the sugar to whatever form of sugar left the plantation to be sold.
On my overseers thread, historum member Nemowork wrote the following: "There might well be a white technician supervising the boiling or the shredding and milling but lifting several tons of loose cane stalks into a shredder is heavy work guess who's going to be running the risk of getting a hand stuck in the shredder wheels losing an arm?"
To me, this implies that the slaves would load the shredder with the loose cane stalks. However, I know that plantation owners placed a high value on their slaves' safety because the slaves were their biggest investment. I can imagine sugar planters hiring white workers to load the loose cane stalks into a shredder so the planter was not risking his own slaves' safety.
Who would normally load the loose cane stalks into a shredder, running the risk of getting a hand stuck in the shredder and losing an arm?