A Sugar Mill

Sugar mills were so-called because they were designed to grind up sugar cane grown on island plantations. The eighteenth century saw a huge increase in the building of mills in the Carribean as cane sugar farming became a lucrative business. By the end of the 1700s, the West Indian sugar industry was supplying the whole of the western world with sugar, described by some as 'white gold'.

In this print, the focus is the exterior of a sugar cane mill. Men and women are depicted carrying the canes to the mill while two ovens, necessary for heating the raw cane, are seen along with the crushing drums. The emphasis here is on the machinery and labour involved in the process.

It was reported that when the sugar journeyed from the West Indies to Britain, deckhands and dockworkers would scrape the bottom of the barrels to taste the black, sticky sugar molasses. Meanwhile, the wealthy customers who could afford the sugar crystals equipped themselves with silver spoons, boxes, sieves and tongs.