… wondrous reeds grow that the inhabitants call, honey cane, because of the sweetness of the juice.. Hugo Falcandus (Sicily 1170)

Sugar cane originated in Southeast Asia, migrated to Persia and then moved with the Arab conquests to the eastern Mediterranean and Italy. From the beginning, the production in the Mediterranean was associated with slave labor.

Giovanni della Palma, an Italian, constructed a sugar mill in the Portuguese city of Algarve in 1404. In the late 1400’s, sugar production expanded from Portugal to the Cape Verde Islands (located off the west coast of Africa). So too did the use of black slaves, which the Portuguese had been importing to Portugal from Africa since 1441.

Pope Alexander VI's Papal bull of 1494 established the Toresillas Line with the result that present day Brazil came under the control of Portugal. In the 1540s, the Portuguese started sugar plantations in Brazil. They used the same methods of production that they were familiar with on the Cape Verde Islands, namely, large fields of sugar cane, roller presses, and slave labor. The Spanish established similar plantations in the Caribbean.

When the plantations were first established in the Americas, the labor came from raids on the native population for slaves to work the sugar cane fields. This policy immediately caused attacks from the natives on the Europeans. By 1550, 80 to 85% of the native population had died of disease. Small pox, measles, and influenza were the big killers. This massive decrease in the native population led to the to importation of slaves from Africa.

When the importation of African slaves stopped in the 1800’s, only 10% of the slaves had come to the United States. Most went to the Caribbean and Brazil to work on the sugar plantations.

Columbus sailed west in search of India and the source of spices. He was hoping to become rich and famous by importing pepper, cinnamon, and exotic spices. He lived and married on Madeira and worked for a Genoese firm in the sugar trade. He brought sugar cane seedlings to the Caribbean on his second voyage of 1493.