Sugar Production, Sugar Mills, Sugar Plantations

A series of period images show the cutting of the sugar cane, various types of sugar mills on the plantations  (powered by oxen and others by water wheel).  Then the syrup was boiled down in cauldrons then into cones.

The site, Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, HERE has many terrific images of sugar mills and plantations. The link no longer works. Here is another Virginia Collection of images HERE. Click on each image for a larger version.

HARVESTING THE CANE - LOUISIANA 1873

JUICE BEING EXTRACTED FROM THE CANE IN THE VERTICAL MILLS FLOWS DOWN THE PIPE TO THE BOILING CAULDRONS.  FRENCH WEST INDIES 1667 

THE CANE IS PRESSED IN THE VERTICAL ROLLERS POWERED BY A WATER WHEEL.  THE CAULDRONS WHICH BOIL DOWN THE JUICE ARE ON THE RIGHT.  BRAZIL 1682

SUGAR MILL POWERED BY WATER WHEEL, SURINAM, 1839

first picture, above

THE DIDEROT SKETCH SHOWS THE SYRUP ENTERING THE BOILING ROOM AT THE LEFT, THEN INTO THE BOILING CAULDRONS, 1762

THE CONES, WHERE THE SUGAR SYRUP IS PLACED TO DRAIN INTO CONTAINERS BELOW THE CONES, 1762

For more images on sugar mills powered by windmill, slave labor, waterwheels and farm animals click HERE 

Click HERE for 7 pictures from the book Art de Rafiner le Sucre by Henri-Louis Duhamel Du Monceau. Paris: 1764



©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
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