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Jessica Handley
Bennett
Humanities II-4th per.
26 January 2016
Sugars Explosive Role in Emerging Social Equality in the Early Colonial Americas
The introduction of sugar in the Americas undoubtedly changed the face of the
global economy forever. It was the product that introduced an insane amount of slavery,
commerce, and cultural diversity to the colonial newcomers from Europe. Though sugar
stereotypically created inequality in the New World, a new argument has surfaced that
this innovation actually induced an outburst of social equality amongst the colonies.
Sugar created a new area of commerce for the commoners and women, and induced a
multitude of cross-cultural marriages where slaves and natives became a part of European
culture.
The innovation of sugar certainly contributed to the ultimate equality of men and
women in the Americas, and created a commerce that commoners could actively
participate in. The Bridgetown tax records indicate that Anglican men controlled most
properties, but they also show that women became substantial property owners.
Moreover, in 1700, a house owner named Black Sarah, almost certainly a freedwoman,
paid a tax on 25 lbs of sugar for her house (Smith, Watson 74). With the introduction of
sugar into colonial society, women were given opportunities like never before, such as
owning property, and paying taxes as normal civilians in colonial society. It can not be
ignored that their place in this society was justified through this ownership, as it
displayed that they could take part wholly in their local commerce. In a Barbados colony,

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the colonists embraced sugarcane and transformed their sleepy Chesapeake-like society
into a powerful economic machine that would stand unrivaled against any other New
World colony during the seventeenth century (Smith, Watson 64). The fact that these
colonists worked so hard, despite their non-elite living conditions, speaks truth into the
idea that sugar transformed their colony into such a large economic powerhouse. The
economic opportunities, such as occupations involved in trade and artisan-work, were
ultimately introduced by the simple innovation of sugar. These commoners that traveled
from Western Europe soon became equal in the eyes of their homeland as they used sugar
to higher their social statuses. Its simply undeniable that sugar would ultimately create
an equal society amongst these colonists in the coming years of American creation, as it
would introduce new forms of mercantile commerce, and property ownership to non-elite
society.
With the hard work put in by women and commoners in the early modern era,
which was influenced by growing sugar production, cross-cultural marriages became
prominent amongst natives and the colonists. Interracial romances suggest sugar,
tobacco, and other colonial crops revolutionized European taste (Nocentelli 137). It is
clear that, despite the fact that interracial marriages were not widely accepted due to the
social norms in the early modern era, they became more prominent with the introduction
of sugar into American colonial society. Interracial marriages allowed the creation of
more economic opportunities in trade between natives and colonists, and created a higher
level of social acceptance amongst the colonial territories. Further, with a shortage of
European women, male colonists sought out the daughters of local rulers as marriage
partners (Kicza 237). The clear fact that the colonists, rather than native peoples seeking

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for advantageous marriages, in actuality sought out romances with native daughters,
brings to light an idea that the introduction of sugar to these native peoples made them
more appealing to the male colonists. This innovation introduced to the European
colonists an idea that leveled the playing field in American society. The natives were
actually becoming economic assets, rather than social outcasts.
In an era of social reformation, it could come as a surprise that equality rooted itself in
early modern American society. The introduction of sugar into this society introduced a
social equality between European colonists and American natives that had never been
encountered before. These two social classes became united through commerce, in which
women were given more economic opportunities, and marital relationship opportunities,
and in which colonists actually sought out noble natives in order to inject themselves into
American society. It can not be argued against that sugar surely introduced an immense
level of social inequality through slavery, but sugar also brought to American society an
idea that economic relationships did not have to depend on birthplace. It should be
realized by all people that sugar actually furthered social equality in the early modern era,
rather than eliminating it altogether.