Beyond Barbados: Sweet Success | Carolina Stories - Episode 2

Sweet Success

Dutch Sephardic Jewish colonists moved from Brazil to Barbados to escape the religious persecution of the Spanish Inquisition. These Sephardic Jews brought with them the knowledge to produce a highly sought after commodity in Europe: Sugarcane. The production of sugarcane became wildly successful in Barbados, and transformed the economic and cultural landscape forever. As business grew in Barbados, so did the demand for enslaved field workers. Poor white indentured servants, and African slaves primarily worked these plantations, but gradually shifted to African slaves, since the white indentured servants died from yellow fever and the heat. Sugarcane was a profitable crop, but took grueling, arduous work to cultivate it. 

Standards

• 6.3.CE Explain the impact of increased global exchanges on the development of the Atlantic World.
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the growing interconnectedness between Europe, Africa, and the Americas which led to increased global exchanges throughout the Atlantic World. The indicator also encourages inquiry into the development of human labor systems, cultural interactions, and the growth of economic markets.
• 8.1.CE Analyze the factors that contributed to the development of South Carolina’s economic system and the subsequent impacts on different populations within the colony.
• This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the geographic and human factors that contributed to the development of South Carolina’s economic system. This indicator was also written to encourage inquiry into South Carolina’s distinct social and economic system as influenced by British Barbados.
• 8.1.E Utilize a variety of primary and secondary sources to examine multiple perspectives and influences of the economic, political, and social effects of South Carolina’s settlement and colonization on the development of various forms of government across the colonies.
• 8.1.P Summarize major events in the development of South Carolina which impacted the economic, political, and social structure of the colony.
• This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the development of South Carolina as a result of mercantilist policies, which ranged from the Navigation Acts to trade with Native Americans to the use of enslaved people as labor. This indicator was designed to promote inquiry into agricultural development, using the rice-growing knowledge of the enslaved West Africans.
• HG.1.2.PR Explain the cultural, economic, environmental, and political conditions and connections that contribute to human migration patterns.

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