Colonizing Sweetness: The History of Sugar in America

Most of us don’t think twice when we stir a teaspoon or two of sugar into a hot beverage. Yet its early history is quite complex and fascinating. Highlighting Long Island’s close connections to the early history of the sugar industry, this program examines consumer demand for sugar in colonial America (and elsewhere) spurred the expansion of plantations and slavery in the Caribbean with profound human and ecological consequences.