The Sugar Revolution: Journal Article by B. W. Higman

Transformation in the Caribbean Economy

B. W. Higman’s article “The Sugar Revolution” describes a major transformation in the English and French West Indies during the mid-17th century. This shift involved moving to sugar monoculture and plantation agriculture, which radically changed local economies and societies. The change featured large numbers of enslaved Africans working on plantations, resulting in great wealth for the colonizers. This transformation marks a significant historical discontinuity, often viewed as a cornerstone event in Caribbean and Atlantic history.

Historiographical Context and Debate

Higman’s concept of the sugar revolution builds on a well-established historical narrative about the rise of sugar plantations and slavery in Caribbean societies. Scholars generally agree that this represents an abrupt social and economic transformation. However, recent scholarship has challenged some of the broader claims about sugar’s revolutionary impact. For example, Russell R. Menard argues that the change in Barbados might be better described as a “sugar boom” rather than a revolution, emphasizing gradual development and varied labor practices rather than a sharp break caused purely by sugar cultivation. Higman’s work remains foundational but is part of ongoing debates about the exact nature and causes of change in Atlantic plantation economies.

Theoretical Framework and Economic Focus

Higman’s article emphasizes the economic drivers of the sugar revolution, including the shift to large-scale monoculture and the demographic expansion of enslaved populations. This framework links agricultural innovation and labor exploitation to the production of unprecedented wealth in the colonies. The article situates the sugar revolution within broader historical theories about economic modernization and colonial capitalism. Higman captures agricultural techniques responding to environmental challenges and the ways this agricultural shift supported the growth of Atlantic commerce and slavery, highlighting the intertwining of social and economic forces.

Key themes

• The shift to monoculture and plantation agriculture transformed Caribbean society.
• Dense populations of enslaved Africans underpinned the plantation economy.
• Sugar production brought great wealth but also deep social disruption.
• The sugar revolution marked a clear historical discontinuity in the Atlantic world.
• It prompted the spread of plantation systems beyond the Caribbean.

Motifs & problems

The article uses sugar as a symbol of economic transformation and social change—representing wealth and the cruelty of slavery simultaneously. The plantation complex recurs as a motif for institutional and technological integration of forced labor and monoculture. An interpretive crux lies in balancing sugar’s role as a commodity that spurred economic growth with its human cost, especially regarding enslaved Africans and shifting social orders in colonial settings. This tension questions how "revolutionary" the sugar changes truly were versus evolutionary market responses.

Study questions

• How did monoculture alter Caribbean economies and societies?
• In what ways did sugar production shape the Atlantic world’s social structures?
• What distinguishes the "sugar revolution" from other agricultural changes?
• How should historians weigh economic benefits against the human cost of slavery?
• What does the spread of the plantation complex reveal about global trade networks?
• How do different scholars challenge or support the sugar revolution thesis?
• What lasting impacts did the sugar revolution have beyond the Caribbean?
• How does sugar as a motif deepen our understanding of colonial history?

Critical approaches & debates

Historians mostly agree that the 17th-century “sugar revolution” in the Caribbean marked a sharp turn toward plantation agriculture, monoculture, and African slavery, creating huge wealth but also deep social and economic divides. However, some scholars, like Russell R. Menard, argue it was less a sudden “revolution” and more a gradual “sugar boom,” questioning whether sugar itself was the main cause of change or if other factors, like planter innovation and broader Atlantic trade, mattered more. These debates touch on economic, social, and environmental impacts, with postcolonial and Marxist readings especially focused on slavery’s role and the lasting inequalities the sugar economy produced.

Key passages

Higman’s article stresses how the shift to sugar cane “was marked by an abrupt shift to monoculture, plantation agriculture, and dense populations of enslaved Africans, producing great wealth”. This passage uses clear, direct language to show the dramatic change in Caribbean islands like Barbados, where big plantations replaced small farms and African slavery became the main labor force. Higman’s focus on “abrupt shift” underlines the idea of a true revolution, not just a slow change, setting up his argument about sugar’s unique power to transform societies and economies in a short time.

Bibliography

• Higman, B. W. “The Sugar Revolution.” Economic History Review, vol. 53, no. 2, 2000, pp. 213–236. The central study, analyzing the 17th-century Caribbean transformation.
• Menard, Russell R. Sweet Negotiations: Sugar, Slavery, and Plantation Agriculture in Early Barbados. University of Virginia Press, 2006. Challenges the “revolution” thesis, favoring “sugar boom.”
• Curtin, Philip D. The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex. Cambridge University Press, 1998. Places the Caribbean sugar revolution in wider Atlantic context.
• Williams, Eric. Capitalism and Slavery. University of North Carolina Press, 1944. Foundational Marxist analysis of sugar, slavery, and capitalism.