Page 72 - 2023-bfw-stacy-2e-proofs-SE

78 PERIOD 2 Colonial America amid Global Change: 1607–1754

The British West Indies and
South Atlantic Colonies
These sample pages are distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.

Hoping to mimic Spanish successes with tobacco in the Caribbean, English investors
turned their sights to Caribbean islands in the early seventeenth century. During the
1620s, the English developed permanent settlements on the islands of St. Christopher,
Copyright (c) 2024 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Barbados, and Nevis, which came to be known as the British West Indies.
Barbados, with its highly profitable tobacco plantations, quickly emerged as the most
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
attractive of the West Indies colonies. English migrants settled there in growing numbers,
bringing in white indentured servants, many of whom were Irish and Scottish, to raise
livestock in the early years, although cultivating tobacco and cotton soon took priority.
English tobacco plantations throughout the West Indies quickly became the economic
imperialism engine of English colonization and expansive imperialism. This economic expansion in
A policy of expanding the turn led to demands for new forms of labor to ensure profitable returns on investment.
border and increasing the Investors sent large numbers of the indentured servants across the Atlantic, and growing
global power of a nation, numbers of Africans were forced onto ships for sale in the Americas.
typically via military force.
In the 1630s, falling tobacco prices resulted in economic stagnation on Barba-
dos. By that time, however, a few forward-looking planters were already considering
another avenue to wealth: sugarcane. English and European consumers absorbed as
much sugar as the market could provide, but producing sugar was difficult, expensive,
and labor intensive. In addition, the sugar that was sent from North America needed
further refinement in Europe before being sold to consumers. The Dutch had built the
best refineries in Europe, but their small West Indies colonies could not supply sufficient
raw sugar. By 1640, they formed a partnership with English planters, offering them
the knowledge and financing to cultivate sugar on British-controlled Barbados, which
was then refined in the Netherlands. That decision reshaped the economic and political
landscape of North America and intensified competition for both land and labor. Thus,
as the English developed an economy based on sugar in the West Indies, they also devel-
oped a harsh system of slavery.

Sugar Manufacturing in the
West Indies This seventeenth-
century engraving depicts
the use of enslaved labor in
the production of sugar in
the West Indies. The Dutch,
English, and French used
enslaved labor to plant
sugarcane and then cut,
press, and boil it to produce
molasses. The molasses was
turned into rum and refined
sugar, both highly profitable
exports. The top right
corner of the image depicts
sugarcane.
What activities are
portrayed in this image? In
what ways were the sugar Sarin Images/Granger – Historical Picture Archive
and tobacco economies of
the Western Hemisphere
similar?

03_foan2e_48442_period2_052_143.indd 78 06/09/23 11:08 PM