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The start of the United States of America used a principal economic formula to generate prosperity for its residents. It was an economic model used by the Dutch and British empires of slave labor for expanding agricultural enterprises. Ultimately, sugar production provided one of the original means and motivations for European expansion, colonization and control of the new world (USA).
The first European settlers to the Americas imported cane sugar from the West Indies. However, after the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, plantation owners began growing sugar cane. This crop was labor intensive and large numbers of slaves from Africa were purchased to do this work.
The crushed cane was used for fuel, molasses and as a base for rum. The industry grew rapidly and by 1830, New Orleans had the largest sugar refinery in the world with an annual capacity of 6,000 tons.
There are two central reasons why this seems relative to modern socioeconomic development for urban populations of the 21st century. The first centers on the lack of remuneration from slave trade to the subsequent generations, particularly from the mega-sugar corporations. At a minimum, foundations from these wealthy giants should seek opportunities to foster goodwill for community improvements.
Francis Fredric, is the author of Fifty Years of Slavery. He writes, “…the first thing the Negroes did was to clear the land of bush, and then to sow blue grass seed for the cattle to feed upon. They then fenced in the woods for what is called woodland pasture.
The neighboring planters came and showed my master how to manage his new estate. They told the slaves how to tap the sugar-tree to let the liquid out, and to boil it down to get the sugar from it.”
These writings are indicative of how well intrenched the production and harvesting of processed sugar was to the new civilized nation. Sugar is a staple to our commercial way of life. Although, rarely is the sugar industry viewed as an adversary like tobacco or alcohol.
To me, the sugar growth is a dismal commentary on a civilized way of life. I only appreciate the cotton fiber as the industry has given much toward a positive concern of living. But just as our nation realized the poor effects of tobacco, we should look to see the harm that sugar is doing to our health and our historical dismissed of racial prejudice.
HAWAII
One has to wonder about the world view however, since the invasion of Pearl Harbor in 1941, created a major disruption in the mega-wealth empire of sugar production. The Hawaiian plantation system created the mass immigration initiated in 1876 by the needs of the sugar and pineapple industries.
Over 400,000 field workers from China, Japan, the Portuguese Azores, Korea, Spain, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were brought to toil in these plantations. They did not strike against the five mega-coporations until 1946, right after WWII.
The Hawaiian Islands was a highly concentrated mecca of industrial wealth. Sugar and pineapple plantations were wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries of five parent companies—American Factors (Amfac), C. Brewer, Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke, and the smallest, with only four plantations, Theo H. Davies & Co.The immense wealth produced by sugar and pineapple workers went to line the pockets of the descendants of four families—Alexander, Baldwin, Castle, and Cooke—direct descendants of the missionaries who came to Hawaii from 1830-1837.
Willam Alexander and Dwight Baldwin were missionaries. Amos Cooke was a teacher and Samuel Castle handled the finances and purchasing for the mission companies.
In the second generation, the families began to intermarry: Samuel Alexander married Martha Cooke, brother William married Abigail Baldwin, and sister Emily married Henry Baldwin. Other family members married into prominent families—Wilder, Lydgate, Thurston, Damon, Tenney, Rice, Atherton, Atwater.
In the third generation, Joseph Cooke married Maud Baldwin. Other family alliances through marriage included: Spalding, Judd, Richards, Waterhouse. In the fourth generation, Asa Fred Balwin married Virginia Castle and Mary Cooke married Harold Dillingham.By the second generation, the family fortune included Castle & Cooke, Castle Estate, Alexander & Baldwin, Honolulu Gas Company, Oahu Railroad, Honolulu Rapid Transit, Lewers & Cooke, Bank of Hawaii, and C. Brewer.
By the third generation, the families controlled the four major sugar holding companies, which controlled 27 of Hawaii’s 33 sugar plantations and 88% of an annual sugar crop worth $100 million.Besides sugar, the families’ business extended into almost every economic activity of the islands. In addition to the companies listed above, business also included Kahului Railway, Waterhouse Trust, C&H Cockett Refinery, Hawaiian Development Company, Kaneohe Ranch, Hawaiian Western Steel, Molokai Ranch, Hawaiian Trust, Hawaiian Electric, CM Cooke Ltd., Wall & Dougherty, Mutual Telephone, Young Brothers, Atherton Estates, Home Insurance, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Kahului Development, Maui Pine, Baldwin Ltd., Matson Navigation, McCabe, Bishop Trust, Ulupalakua Ranch, Haleakala Ranch, and Haiku Fruit & Packing.
Many of the 49 children and grandchildren held large blocks of stock, sat on the board of directors of these companies, or served in the Hawaii legislature.
While plantation families lived in simple aging wooden shacks, the missionary descendants began to build fabulous mansions in Nuuanu that would match the mansions of high society in New York or Chicago. The mansions were filled with imported crystal chandeliers, Italian marble, and works of art. The building spree created a mini-construction boom in Honolulu.
While plantation children labored in the fields, the children of the missionaries sent their children to Harvard, Yale and finishing schools in England. The class of owners and the class of workers lived in two different worlds.In the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Report of 1939, James Shoemaker detailed the management structure of Hawaii’s economy: “There has been a considerable degree of intermarriage among the more influential families of the Territory, possibly because of the relative isolation of Hawaii.
Interfamily relationships, as well as intrafamily holdings, are thus an additional significant feature in the integration of industry. “But it should be noted that, because of the intercorporate relations mentioned above, the centralization of control is not confined to the sugar industry alone, but extends into practically every aspect of the economic life of Hawaii.
"Over half the pineapple industry is island-owned, and it is closely connected through interlocking directors, and intrafamily holdings, with the sugar industry. The same may be said of the public utilities, the Matson and Inter-Island steamship companies, the large hotels, and a great variety of minor corporate enterprise.” Thus, the Territory of Hawaii possesses a strongly centralized industrial structure...not only in the economic, but even the social and political aspects of island life."
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Dean Jones is a marketing strategist with Southland Partnership Corporation and such articles stem from too many enterprises taking advantage of our food and water supply. |
