![]() ![]() The campaign harnessed political propaganda and hinged its argument on first-hand, eyewitness accounts. As a country, our participation in the slave trade was widespread, a fact that must not be neglected just because the enslaved people owned by these British proprietors were thousands of miles away on plantations in the Caribbean.Īlthough the campaign for the Abolition of Slavery began in 1787, slavery persisted in the British colonies until its final abolition in 1838. These individuals ranged from those at the heart of government to middle-class tradesmen in the Orkney Islands. A recent BBC documentary revealed there were over 46,000 slave owners in the UK. This history of sugar should never be forgotten, but addressed and engaged with. The fundamental image of 16th–19th-century sugar is not one of luxury, but of the horrors of slavery – the transatlantic triangle that saw enslaved people treated as objects, and goods prized above people, was the direct outcome of the desire for affordable sugar. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, Sidney W Mintz (1986) 'Not only compliments,' writes one commentator, 'but even sly rebukes to heretics and politicians were conveyed in these sugared emblems.' But over time, the creative impulses of the confectioners were pressed into essentially political symbolic service, and the subtleties took on greater significance. Initially, the displays were important simply because they were both pretty and edible. As usage became more widely spread, the forms and techniques of sugar work also became more important: In the early modern period the use of sugar in Britain grew exponentially as its role as a status symbol in the feasts and rituals of the wealthy made it a powerful commodity. Sugar was not just a food, it was an artistic medium of tremendous flexibility. Here the splendour of the dessert course was intensified by the costly nature of sugar, both in the intensive labour required for its intricate execution and the expense of the raw material itself. ![]() The ceremony of the void evolved into the elaborate banquets of the Elizabethan age. This 'ceremony of the void' gave dessert a detached quality, setting it apart from other modes of feasting and allowing for a certain creative licence and flamboyance in its presentation. The foundations of dessert as we know it were laid in the medieval 'void', when fruit, jelly and other sweetmeats were often eaten standing up and away from the dining hall, allowing the room to be cleared for after-dinner activities. In these 5 objects I hope to highlight some of the stories of sugar – past, present and future. Sugar was a driving force and a catalyst to the slave trade, but also became an icon of change and a symbol of progress. The association with slavery can taint these collections, but rather than banish them to the recesses of the archive, I think it is time to bring the conversation into the light and stop (for want of a better term) sugar coating this particular area of history. Nearly every museum and gallery has connections to numerous plantation and slave holders. It’s no secret that Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection founded the British Museum, was a slave owner whose sugar plantations in Jamaica contributed substantially to his ability to amass such a vast collection. Sugar and status, possessions and power are intimately linked. ![]() However, the fun and frivolity of these foodstuffs is underpinned by the darker history of sugar. As someone with an unabashed sweet tooth, it seems fitting that my specialisms are in sugar, jelly and ice cream.
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