Course Description

Instructor: Michael McDavid

No edible plant has had a greater impact on human history than sugar. From its first domestication in India 2500 years ago, sugar cane cultivation would spread across Asia to the Mediterranean then on to the New World after 1492. By the 18th century sugar had become the most valuable commodity on the planet and would help spawn the Atlantic slave trade, European imperialism, and even the Industrial Revolution. Today sugar production remains one of the world’s most important agricultural industries. In this two-session course we will trace the evolution of the “sugar trade”, paying particular attention to its development in the New World, both in the Caribbean and South America, and later in North America.