The Rum Historian title
A TALE OF RUM
4. BARBADOS
The English settled Barbados in 1627. In the beginning, they grew tobacco and cotton, but with little success (at least, this is what historians maintained in the past, now some think otherwise). Then, in the 1640s they turned to sugar. The first years were difficult, but after a while, they became hugely successful: around 1650 Barbados was already a major producer and great riches started to be amassed (the first Sugar Barons). By the end of the century, the island vied with Brazil for the role of largest sugar exporter in the world; alone, Barbados produced more wealth than all the other English colonies in America put together.
In the 1600s, basic sugarcane techniques were common to all the sugar-producing regions and the English settlers of Barbados learned sugarcane cultivation and sugar making at Pernambuco, in Dutch Brazil, and indeed their technical terms are crude English renderings of Portuguese words: ingenio, barbycue, bagasse, Muscovado. And there they also discovered rum.
As we know, in the Rum World there is a sort of Barbados Consensus, that is, the common, shared, widespread, conviction about the primacy of Barbados in the Origins of Rum. During my research, I have discovered that the French Caribbean settlers started rum production at the same time as the English. Nonetheless, the decisive role played by Barbados in the history of rum is indisputable, because it is from Barbados, and not from the French Caribbean, that rum spread throughout the world. At first, it entered North America and (by contraband) the Spanish Main; then, in the 1700s, it conquered the huge British domestic market and entered the markets of continental Europe. Not for nothing, rum was often called also Barbados water or Barbados liquor and today it is the English word, albeit of uncertain origin, RUM which indicates our distillate in almost all the languages in the world.
The fame of Barbados in the history of rum is based, I believe, on two fundamental reasons. One is the effective development of rum production and consumption in the British Empire, as we are going to see in the next article. The second reason has a name, Richard Ligon, by far the first and the most successful Rum Ambassador.
Between 1647 and 50, Richard Ligon, an English Gentleman ruined by the Civil War, sojourned in Barbados in search of fortune. He didn’t find it, returned to his homeland, and in 1657 he published “A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados” in which, and I think he was the first-ever, he accurately described the rum-making process, which he called kill-Devil. His book is completely different from all that had been written about rum before. In fact, the sources which we have used in the previous articles about New Spain, Brazil, and the French Caribbean have one characteristic in common: they deal only marginally with rum. The authors are local authorities, travelers, often missionaries, and their interests lie elsewhere. The authorities issue laws to ban the consumption of the new beverage, while the travelers and missionaries tell their readers about the wonders of the New World, describe the luscious nature, the strange animals and plants, the “savage” peoples they meet, and their costumes, the torrid climate, the hurricanes; they often dwell on the political conflicts among the settlers too, but they concern themselves very little with the economy and they only mention in passing that strange, unpleasant drink. It is not until Père Labat (1722) that we have a serious French description of rum.
Ligon’s book is completely different. On the very cover, under the title, we read “… Together with the Ingenio that makes the sugar, with the sugar the Plots of the several Houses, Rooms, and other places, that are used in the whole process of Sugar-making; viz. the Grinding-room, the Boiling-room, the Filling-room, the Curing-house, Still-house, and Furnaces; All cut in Copper.”
Ligon went back to his homeland without having made a fortune. A few years later, however innocent he was involved in a complicated history of fraud and ended up in debtors’ prison. While in prison, also in order to make some money, he wrote his book. In Barbados, he had worked as a sort of steward or private secretary to some wealthy friends and he had learned a lot about the running of plantations. His book too describes the nature, the climate, and so on, but his main interest is the economy, and he focuses on the sugar plantation, analyzing its working, production costs, business risks, and expected revenues. In short, as well as a travel book, it is also a practical handbook of business management, full of information and advice for people interested in traveling to, working, and investing in Barbados. For this reason, Ligon dedicates ample space also to a highly profitable product of the plantation such as rum and accurately describes how it is made and how much it is worth in economic terms. At the end of the book, he also listed and priced the many commodities, toils, etc. a colonist must bring along in his voyage to Barbados.
Finally, Ligon was a polymath with many skills and he was a businessman. Like every gentleman of his time, he had an extensive culture, ranging from classic literature to Maths, from Architecture to cooking. Unfortunately, being the younger son of a younger son, he had to work for a living. As far as we can understand today, he worked as a legal advisor, accountant, steward, private secretary, and such like for some of his wealthy friends and connections. Therefore, he had the culture and the mindset to understand what he saw and to describe it to his readers. His book enjoyed great and lasting success, it was translated into French and even now it is a classic of the history of the early English empire. Yet, as with so many classics, I am afraid that Ligon is more often quoted than actually read. So, I have decided to let him speak for himself, reporting (almost) everything he wrote about rum. The quotes are taken from a modern edition of the book, edited by K. Ordahal Kupperman and published by Hackett in 2011. Enjoy your reading!
“We are seldom dry or thirsty, unless we overheat our bodies with extraordinary labor, or drinking strong drinks, as for our English spirits, which we carry over, or French Brandy, or the drink of the Island, which is made of the skimmings of the Coppers, that boil the Sugar, which they call kill-Devil.”
Map of Barbados
Later on, he returns to the subject, and after listing six more types of alcoholic drinks, here is rum again:
“The seventh sort of drink is that we make of the skimming of sugar, which is infinitely strong, but not very pleasant in taste; it is common, and therefore the less esteemed; the value of it is half a crown a gallon, the people drink much of it, indeed too much; for it often lays them asleep on the ground, and that is accounted a very unwholesome lodging.
”When used in moderation, on the other hand, it is a medicine for the slaves: “when they find any weakness or decay in their spirits and stomach, and then a dram or two of kill-devil revives and comforts them much.”
Then he gets to the core business of Barbados, sugar. “At the time we landed on this Island, which was at the beginning of September 1647, we were informed, partly by those Planters we found there, and partly by our own observations, that the great work of Sugar-making, was but newly practiced by the inhabitants there. Some of the most industrious men, having gotten plants from Pernambuco, a place in Brazil, and made trial of them at Barbados; and finding them to grow, they planted more and more, as they grew and multiplied on the place, till they had such a considerable number, as they were worth the while to set up a very small Ingenio, and so make trial what Sugar could be made upon that soil. But, the secrets of the work being not well understood, the sugar they made was very inconsiderable, and little worth, for two or three years. But they find their errors by their daily practice, began a little to mend; and, by new directions from Brazil, sometimes by strangers, and now and then by their own people, (who being covetous of the knowledge of the thing, which so much concerned them in their particulars and the general good of the whole Island) were content sometimes do make a voyage thither, to improve their knowledge in a thing they so much desired. … at our arrival there, we found them ignorant in three main points, that much conduced to the work; viz. The manner of Planting, the time of Gathering, and the right placing of their Coppers in their Furnaces; as also, the true way of covering their Rollers, with plates or Bars of Iron: All which being rightly done, advanced much in the performance of the main work. At the time of our arrival there, we found many sugar-works set up, and at work; but yet the Sugars they made, were but bare Muscovados, and few of them Merchantable commodities; so moist, and full of molasses, and so ill cured, as they were hardly worth the bringing home for England. But about the time I left the Island, which was in 1650, they were much bettered; … and had learned the knowledge of making them white, such as you call Lamp Sugars here in England; … the work of Sugar-making, which is now grown the soul of Trade in this Island.”
We find it strange today, but in the 1600s sugar was the most valuable commodity, so valuable that in few years the arrival of sugar radically transformed the economy (and the society) of the island and caused the price of land to soar.
“I will let you see, how much the land there hath been advanced in the profit, since the work of Sugar began, to the time of our landing there, which was not above five or six years: For, before the work began, this Plantation of Major Hillard’s, of five hundred acres, could have been purchased for four hundred pound sterling; and now the half this Plantation, with the half of the Stock upon it, was sold for seven thousand pound sterling.
”He also made a technical design of a “Platform of the Ingenio”, in scale, with an Index, where, among other things, we can find:
“S A little Gutter made in the wall, who also convey the skimmings of the three lesser Coppers down to the Still-house, there to be twice distilled; the first time it comes over the helm, it is but small, and is called Low-wines; but the second time, it comes off the strongest Spirit or Liquor that is potable.
X The Cistern that holds the skimmings, till it begins to sour, ‘till when it will not come over the helm.”
At that time scientific methods for determining the alcoholic strength of a distillate did not exist, but all the witnesses agree that rum is very strong, “the strongest Spirits that man can drink”. Probably through the second distillation 80%, ABV was reached and it does seem that it was not diluted with water before it was drunk, at least not always. Rum was so strong that it dangerously saturated with alcohol-enclosed spaces, with dramatic consequences. Here is the first recorded rum casualty: “
As for distilling the skimmings, which run down to the Still-house, from the three lesser Coppers, it is only this: After it is remained in the cisterns, with my plot shows you in the Still-house, till it is a little sour, (for till then, the Spirits will not rise in the Still) the first Spirit that comes off, is a small Liquor, which we call low wines, which Liquor we pit into the Still, and draw it off again; and of that comes to so strong a Spirit, like a candle being brought to a near distance, to the bung of a Hogshead or Butt, where it is kept, the Spirit will fly to it, and taking hold on it, bring the fire down to the vessel, and set all on fire, which immediately breaks the vessel, and becomes a flame, burning all about it that is combustible matter. We lost an excellent Negro by such an accident, who bringing a jar of this spirit, from the Still-house to the drink-room, in the night, not knowing the force of the liquor he carried, brought the candle somewhat nearer than he ought, that he might the better see how to put it into the funnel, which conveyed it into the butt. But the Spirit is stirred by that motion, flew out, and got hold of the flame of the candle, and so set all on fire, and burned the poor Negro to death…”
This unpleasant collateral damage must in no way affect the production of such a useful spirit:“
This drink, though it had the ill hap to kill one Negro, yet it as the virtue to cure many; for when they are ill, with taking cold, (which often they are) and very well they may, having nothing under them in the night but a board, upon which they lie, not anything to cover them: and though the days be hot, the nights are cold … the Apothecary of the Plantation, which we call Doctor, and he gives to everyone a dram cup of this Spirit, and that is a present cure. … so it is helpful to our Christian servants too …This drink is also a commodity of good value in the Plantation; for we send it down to the Bridge, and there put it off to those that retail it. Some they sell to the Ships, and are transported into foreign parts, and drunk by the way. Some they sell to such Planters, as have no Sugar-works of their own, yet drink excessively of it, for they buy it at easy rates.”
Marco Pierini
Marco Pierini
