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Sugar — The Sweet RevolutionLesson 13 of 16

Key Terms: Sugar

Goal: After this lesson you can define the core vocabulary from Episode 4 across all four lenses. Subject: Vocabulary | Run time: about 5 minutes

Your word bank for the Sugar episode. Read it quick, out loud if you can. The full glossary lives in the course Resources.

Geography

Saccharum officinarum (SAK-ah-rum oh-fiss-ih-NAR-um). Sugar cane, a tall tropical grass needing year-round heat and no frost (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023).

Beta vulgaris (BAY-tah vul-GAR-iss). Sugar beet, a temperate root that needs a winter freeze (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023).

Frost line. The boundary where frost occurs, dividing cane country from beet country (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023).

Processing window. The time between harvest and spoilage. Cut cane must be milled within about 24 hours (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023).

Monocrop. Agriculture devoted to a single crop. Sugar turned whole islands into single-crop economies (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023).

Social Studies

Triangular trade. The three-leg Atlantic loop: goods to Africa, enslaved people to the Americas, and sugar back to Europe (Williams, 1994).

Middle Passage. The brutal Atlantic crossing that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas (Williams, 1994).

Maroon communities (mah-ROON). Independent settlements of people who escaped slavery, formed in mountains and forests (Mintz, 1985).

Apprenticeship system. A post-abolition period of forced unpaid labor that planters required before full freedom (Williams, 1994).

Indentured labor (in-DEN-churd). Contract workers, many brought from India, used to replace enslaved labor after abolition (Mintz, 1985).

Economics

Price elasticity of demand. How much consumption changes when price changes. Sugar's huge price drop brought a huge rise in use (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023).

Negative externality. A cost not in a product's price, such as the health costs of cheap sugar (American Diabetes Association, 2023).

Protectionism. Government policies that shield domestic producers, like the U.S. sugar program (Congressional Budget Office, 2023).

Downstream displacement. Job losses caused by protection, as food makers move overseas to avoid high sugar prices (Congressional Budget Office, 2023).

Full-cost accounting. Including all the hidden costs in a price. Sugar would cost far more if health costs were counted (American Diabetes Association, 2023).

English Language Arts

Muscovado (mus-koh-VAH-doh). From the Portuguese for unfinished, a colonial term for unrefined sugar (Mintz, 1985).

Molasses (muh-LASS-iz). From the Portuguese for honey-like, the thick byproduct left when sugar is refined (Mintz, 1985).

Hogshead (HOGZ-hed). A trade measure of about 1,000 to 1,200 pounds of sugar (Mintz, 1985).

Euphemism (YOO-fuh-miz-um). A mild or vague word used to mask something harsh, as planters did to hide forced labor (Beckford, 1790).

Strategic silence. Leaving something important unexamined in a text, so the reader must read for what is absent (Austen, 1814).

Sources

  • American Diabetes Association. (2023). Economic costs of diabetes in the U.S. in 2023. Diabetes Care, 46(2), 230-248.
  • Austen, J. (1814). Mansfield Park. Thomas Egerton.
  • Beckford, W. (1790). A descriptive account of the island of Jamaica. T. and J. Egerton.
  • Congressional Budget Office. (2023). The effects of the U.S. sugar program. https://www.cbo.gov
  • Mintz, S. W. (1985). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. Penguin Books.
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2023). Sugar and sweeteners yearbook tables. https://www.ers.usda.gov
  • Williams, E. (1994). Capitalism and slavery. University of North Carolina Press.
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