Deep South sugar?

[TheNordicBrit]

Hey guys,

I was wondering, why wasn't sugar grown in the Deep South of the 13 colonies? Why was it an overwhelmingly Caribbean crop? I've read that Georgia did grow some sugar, but clearly the islands of the Caribbean were the dominant ones in the industry. Was it just that the climate in those islands was more appropriate for the crop than the American mainland?

 

[Escape Zeppelin]

Sugarcane is a tropical plant and except for some areas, most of the South is merely temperate. You could probably get it to grow in lots of places in the South but not particularly well and not well enough to be a financial success. It will take more work and give you less sugar than growing it in Jamaica, making it not cost effective.

If you want colonial sugar production, an earlier introduction of the sugar beet would be a good start.

 

[Captain Jack]

Sugar was grown very extensively in the parts of the Deep South with a suitable climate for it. However, sugar only really grows well in Louisiana and the neighboring Gulf Coasts of Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. I believe it can be grown in Florida, but wasn't on a large scale because the territory and state was quite sparsley populated. But sugar was grown as intensively as possible in those areas of the American South where it could be, since it was the most profitable form of plantation slavery and showed the greatest return on investment - even more than cotton at the time, though it was limited by the relatively small amount of suitable land.