Sugar Changed the World: Part Four

Quamina, the alleged leader of the uprising, was hanged in chains in front of the entrance to one of Gladstone’s plantations.

And for traditional Hindus, leaving India and traveling on the ocean — it was called “crossing the black water,” the kali pana — was forbidden. Anyone who made that fateful passage became impure, polluted.

Every Indian who accepted the paltry wages specified in the indenture contract lowered the price an African could charge for his labor.

The planters lumped their workers into two distinct but equally nasty stereotypes: Former slaves were described as lazy, whereas Indians were called meek, docile children.

The planters lumped their workers into two distinct but equally nasty stereotypes: Former slaves were described as lazy, whereas Indians were called meek, docile children.

The Indian, one overseer claimed, "possesses the low, cringing and abject habit common to his nationality.”

This was galling, since some had even questioned whether Bechu, who wrote in such polished English, really was an Indian.

On the other hand, world sugar prices were plummeting.

Owners no longer had the economic clout of being a mainstay of the economy.

Serfs were in a position very similar to slaves’ — they could not choose where to live, they could not choose their work, and the person who owned their land and labor was free to punish and abuse them as he saw fit.

Cane grows in Brazil today, but not always for sugar. Instead, cane is often used to create ethanol, much as corn farmers in America now convert their harvest into fuel.

Doctors warn that young people are gaining too much weight from eating sugary snacks; parents learn that kids who drink too many sweet sodas can cycle between manic sugar “highs” and grinding sugar “crashes.”

When slaves rebelled, they often took gruesome revenge on their masters, only to face even more horrific reprisals when the owners and overseers regained control.

Gandhi bound the crowd together to follow a new path, which he called Satyagraha — which means “truth with force,” or “firmness.” It is also called “love-force.” While the goal of violence is to defeat and vanquish the enemy, the goal of Satyagraha is to convince or convert the opponent.

The protesters had issued an ultimatum, demanding that the government repeal the Black Act.