Sugar, Molasses and Rum Manufacture

The long-term success of Danish St. Croix’s sugar economy depended not only on the island’s fertile land but also on the planters’ ability to adapt to changing trade conditions.By skillfully shifting between molasses and rum production based on international tariffs, St. Croix remained a key supplier in the Atlantic economy throughout the 18th century. 1. […]

I was recently asked how many enslaved workers were needed to operate a sugar plantation. The answer isn’t simple — much like asking, “How long is a piece of string?” By the peak of St. Croix’s sugar industry, the original 150-acre Danish plantations had often been subdivided or merged, making estate sizes highly variable. In