19th-century sugar kettle, made in England, used in Louisiana
In Spanish, the colonial sugar mill was called the ingenio, which meant “the engine.” The mill was a necessary component of the sugar plantation. Harvested cane had to be milled quickly to keep it from rotting. The mill operated 16–18 hours a day. Enslaved black people grew the cane, harvested the cane, crushed the cane, and boiled the juice. The mill consisted of a series of open kettles that were made in Europe, exported to the colonies, and used by slaves to reduce cane juice into syrup and raw crystals.
The ingenio operated through systematic torture. The regularity of punishment kept the sugar mill in near-constant production. “The slaves received the whip with more certainty and regularity than they received their food. It was the incentive to work and the guardian of discipline.”¹ Sugar was made this way for 400 years.
¹ C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Touissaint l'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, 2nd rev. ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 12.
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Cameron Rowland
American, born 1988 9 works onlineEach of Cameron Rowland’s exhibitions includes a pamphlet containing an essay and captions written by the artist.
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Arthur Jafa—Less Is Morbid
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