In Sidney Mintz’s \u201cSweetness and Power,\u201d the author highlights the important impacts sugar had on societies, especially the British Empire. The reading suggests that sugar \u201cbecame one of the most desired of all edible commodities in the [British] Empire\u201d and \u201cthat the availability, and also the circumstances of availability, of sucrose\u201d was \u201cdetermined by forces outside the reach of the English masses themselves.\u201d (166). Around 1650, sugar became such an important part to England’s power. With more of it being imported, it meant that economic and political forces would support \u201cthe seizure of colonies where cane could be grown and raw sugar manufactured\u201d (167). Britain imported sugar so much that the price fell and yet the consumption continued to rise. Sugar was used in various ways for people of different backgrounds. It changed diets and made people grow conscious \u201cin family budgets, and in the economic, social, and political life of the nation\u201d (167).<\/p>\n
\u201cChapter Six\u201d of The Atlantic World focuses on the slave trade in the Americas during 1580 to 1780. The idea for salve labor was not something new. In the sixteenth century, Portuguese planters took African people to Brazil for labor. Slavery soon became racial. Portuguese immigrants could survive the tasks handed to them; however, it was humiliating to them to work alongside slaves, making this situation \u201ca recurring pattern in the Atlantic world for as long as slavery lasted\u201d (189). Slaves appeared on cane fields in about 1540, making them \u201cnearly three quarters of the labor force of Brazil’s sugar mills\u201d (189). The Dutch had a major hand in the growth of sugar and slavery in the Caribbean despite the area being under French and English possession. One the slave ships, men dominated the labor flows. However, many children were found on slave ships than European migrant ships because adolescents and young adults were \u201cnot at all likely to die over a period of one or two months under normal circumstances\u201d (190). Male slaves were used to complete work on ships.<\/p>\n
Both readings relate to one another. In Sidney Mintz’s reading, it focused on Britain’s economic, social, and political dependency on sugar. In The Atlantic World, it showed the history of how different countries went out and sought out the means to support their people. It showed the theme of commodification of enslaved people. In Shreshita Aiyar’s post<\/a>, it brought up how the sugar boom influenced different parts of the Atlantic World. It showed the desperation of finding land to provide goods for their countries. This week’s readings only highlighted those needs.<\/p>\n