AHC: Majority White Caribbean Sugar Island Post-Sugar Introduction

[frustrated progressive]

Can economics that massively favor enslaved labor on early-modern sugar isles be countered to somehow have a white/ light mixed-race majority on at least one?
(No, I'm not racist, to answer the inevitable question.)

 

[Benevolent]

Can economics that massively favor enslaved labor on early-modern sugar isles be countered to somehow have a white/ light mixed-race majority on at least one?
(No, I'm not racist, to answer the inevitable question.)

Nah, even on Monserrat the Irish indentured servants gained their freedom and became overseerers to actual enslaved people.

The only white majority island in the whole of the Caribbean I believe is St. Bart and that was because it was so dry sugar couldn't grow.

There are those couple islands up further north full of conks but they weren't plantation workers and even then most left for Mainland US when they got the chance.

Redlegs in St Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent, etc.... the descendants of indentureds were notorious in their hatred for labour they perceived as unfit for their whiteness. I mean they were even incestuous until not so long ago because they didn't want to be tainted with black blood.

It's not racist to ask this sort of question I just think its fanciful as a CSA that isn't based on white supremacy.

Caribbean plantation labor and African people lay hand in hand. Europeans had no concept of subtropical agriculture and would die from disease and labour quickly if worked like Africans.

 

[Avrorrange]

Development of Sugar Beet is advanced two centuries earlier.I had a discussion here before and someone pointed out that it might be possible for sugar beets to be developed somewhere in the 17th century instead of the 19th.

 

[Benevolent]

Development of Sugar Beet is advanced two centuries earlier.I had a discussion here before and someone pointed out that it might be possible for sugar beets to be developed somewhere in the 17th century instead of the 19th.

Mostly unsuitable during the main growing season and inferior to Sugarcane especially at its time of development. It's uneconomical and still you're ignoring the fact that European labour was not free flowing, effective, resistant or permanent to the Caribbean.

 

[frustrated progressive]

Mostly unsuitable during the main growing season and inferior to Sugarcane especially at its time of development. It's uneconomical and still you're ignoring the fact that European labour was not free flowing, effective, resistant or permanent to the Caribbean.

I believe he's talking about in general, not just in the Caribbean.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

White Europeans working in cane fields will die faster than African Blacks. (Less tolerance for tropical diseases, more susceptibility to sun, etc.) Since cane production used up even black Africans (they had to continually import new slaves), you'd have an even worse problem with whites. Basically, you'd have to transport millions of (e.g. Irish) slaves.

 

[edvardas]

could maple sugar culture be developed before slavery was introduced in the Carribean? There us a thread about the Norse discovering maple sugar. If they could turn it into a rum, it would be economical to transport. While the labor is intensive for a time, it only lasts for a month or so, and the tappers could go back to farming or trapping.

 

[Alt History Buff]

could maple sugar culture be developed before slavery was introduced in the Carribean? There us a thread about the Norse discovering maple sugar. If they could turn it into a rum, it would be economical to transport. While the labor is intensive for a time, it only lasts for a month or so, and the tappers could go back to farming or trapping.

I think today the retail cost of maple sugar is 10x that of cane sugar. There may be a reason for that (lower production volumes) but I'm not convinced there could ever be a real competitive price.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

You develop another lucrative economy that doesn't require importation of slave labor?

Spanish Hispaniola economy was dominated by tobacco and ranching and subsequently had most immigrants coming in from Europe or other colonies, but the decision to go to ranching and tobacco was made to counter Cuba being Spain's sugar hub.

 

[Alt History Buff]

could maple sugar culture be developed before slavery was introduced in the Carribean? There us a thread about the Norse discovering maple sugar. If they could turn it into a rum, it would be economical to transport. While the labor is intensive for a time, it only lasts for a month or so, and the tappers could go back to farming or trapping.

I think today the retail cost of maple sugar is 10x that of cane sugar. There may be a reason for that (lower production volumes) but I'm not convinced there could ever be a real competitive price.