Many African slaves were forced to work on sugar plantations in the Americas. The raw sugar, once it had been harvested, was considered a raw material.
Yes, that is correct. African slaves were indeed forced to work on sugar plantations in various parts of the Americas during the era of transatlantic slavery. Sugar plantations were highly profitable enterprises that required extensive manual labor for cultivating, harvesting, and processing sugar cane. Slaves were brought from Africa to the Americas and subjected to brutal conditions and backbreaking work on these plantations.
Once the sugar cane was harvested, it went through multiple stages of processing to extract the raw sugar. The initial step involved cutting the stalks and stripping the leaves, after which the cane was crushed in mills to extract the juice. This juice was then boiled and purified to remove impurities, resulting in the formation of sugar crystals. These crystals were then separated from the liquid, forming raw, unrefined sugar.
This raw sugar was a valuable commodity and served as a crucial raw material for further refinement and processing. It was usually exported to Europe, where it underwent refining processes to produce more refined white sugar for consumption. The refining involved bleaching and purifying the raw sugar through filtration and chemical treatments, resulting in a more desirable and commercially viable product.