Louisiana sugar: A geohistorical perspective

The planting of sugarcane in Louisiana's southern parishes has persisted with stunning continuity since its introduction in the late eighteenth century. This industry, however, is an economic and agricultural anomaly. It is a relic of the sixteenth-century expansion of European capitalism in which granulated sugar, then a novel product, stimulated the Atlantic slave trade and contributed to the incorporation of the sugar-producing colonies of the Americas into an emerging European-world economy. The Louisiana sugar industry was launched in 1795 with a historic granulation from a new variety of sugarcane recently introduced into the Caribbean. From this early success, the industry grew rapidly as immigrants from the Caribbean poured into Louisiana to escape the unrest associated with slave revolts and incipient emancipation. The burgeoning industry contributed to a westward migration of U.S. populations into the newly opened Louisiana Territory as entrepreneurs responded to news of the enormous wealth made by successful sugar planters. The sugar industry of Louisiana also stimulated the expansion of intra-regional slave trade as eastern slaveholders sold surplus slaves to the widening slave economy of the state, putting in place institutions and values that remain problematic today. Sugarcane now contributes the largest share of the state's gross farm income, having surpassed cotton in year 2000. Its cultivation in the latitudes of Louisiana, however, is disadvantaged compared to that in tropical climates, where full maturation of the canes is not abbreviated by a short growing season. The Louisiana industry persists in this marginal climate because of tariff protection, price supports, and the on-going research to select and release ever-stronger and productive varieties with dependent on early maturation. When viewed from the national and global perspectives, given the eventualities of the NAFTA and trade-dispute resolutions with Cuba, support for continued sugarcane cultivation in Louisiana is tenuous and the long-term future of the industry uncertain.