Sugar In The Blood Summary

Get on Board! The book Sugar in the Blood by Andrea Stuart, describes the genealogical research about the Ashby Family. Her research on the Ashby family begins with the journey of George Ashby, who sailed from England to Barbados. In Barbados, he would struggle to make a living. George Ashby like many other immigrants did not know how to work the land. This book overall is effective on establishing how hard it was to begin a life in Barbados, how plantations developed, and how the slaves were treated.
This book describes how hard the journey to Barbados was. Andrea Stuart’s ancestor, George Ashby, traveled on a ship from England to Barbados. She describes the journey as a hard one because it a long time to get to Barbados. Part of Andrea’s argument is that many of the immigrants on the journey to Barbados did not know what they were getting into. For example, the cramped spaces on the ship increased the chances of someone catching a …show more content…
Stuart explains that sugar refinement developed around 500 B.C. in India. It was not a new in Europe and many Europeans had a sweet tooth for Sugar. More importantly, the reason sugar became important in England was because the Caribbean began to produce it since tobacco failed. Tobacco was the first crop to Barbados going. However, many Europeans preferred tobacco from America. Stuart further mentions that her ancestor George Ashby got involved in sugar production, since it was the new ‘gold’ that made people a lot of money. Although, the process of refining sugar took a lot of work. The work became too difficult as more than one person needed to do the work. It seems that the indentured servant system was not working. Slavery then would become the answer to this problem. Slaves could be bought for a cheap price. They served for life and not seven years. This would be such a huge advantage for plantation owners as they now would have more money coming in to their