The Sugar Barons
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Book Description
Power, money and corruption in the British Empire: the English families for whom the sugar trade brought wealth beyond their wildest dreams
Product Description
The familiar image of the West Indies as paradise islands conceals a turbulent past. For 200 years after 1650 they were the most fought over colonies in the world, as Europeans made and lost immense fortunes growing and trading in sugar - a commodity so lucrative that it was known as white gold.
Young men, beset by death and disease, an ocean away from the moral anchors of life in Britain created immense dynastic wealth but produced a society poisoned by war, sickness, cruelty and corruption.
The Sugar Barons explores the lives and experiences of those whose fortunes rose and fell with the West Indian empire. From the ambitious and brilliant entrepreneurs, to the grandees wielding power across the Atlantic, to the inheritors often consumed by decadence, disgrace and madness, this is a compelling story of how a few small islands and a handful of families decisively shaped the British Empire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "must read" for those interested in British and Caribbean history,
By
This review is from: The Sugar Barons (Hardcover)
Make no mistake this book could have been a dry old tome, or equally it could have put over as the sort of dynastic saga once popularised by James Michener. Instead it treads a fine line between them and is both scholarly and exciting, horrific and enlightening. It is very, very readable. It doesn't shirk the issues either. Firmly placing slavery in the context of how the sugar trade relied on the practice, the social mores of the time and how families such as the Drax, Codrington and especially the Beckfords made and frittered fortunes made on the efforts fellow humans, the author does not look back with either rose tinted glasses but with well reasonedr condemnation. In the book you will meet pirates, natives, courtesans, and toffs who inhabited a world of great privilege alongside one of great squalor and had many amazing adventures along the way. If you are interested in one of the major factors on the "success" of the British Empire and want a right rollicking yet very human story to read then this is the book for you.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An epic tale expertly told,
By
This review is from: The Sugar Barons (Hardcover)
The subtitle for Matthew Parker's Sugar Barons is Family, Corruption, Empire and War, which provides a fair summary of this incredibly readable account of the West Indies sugar trade.For Parker, the sugar trade - and the families who made their fortunes from it - provide the starting point for a no-holds barred account of colonialism in the region across the 17th and 18th centuries. In particular, Parker unpacks the British role in the establishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, much of which - to this reader at least - came as a shameful revelation. Parker details the barbaric trade right through from the horrendous sea passage from West Africa to the brutality of forced labour on the plantations, where vile punishments and abuse were routinely - and often randomly - meted out by the plantation managers. In the account of the families - the Draxes, Beckfords and Codringtons - and individuals (notably the extraordinary diary of life on the plantations provided by Thomas Thistlewood) Parker explores, without ever excusing, some of the conditions in which an economy and society could come to be built on such inhuman cruelty: high rates of disease and mortality, which made life cheap and bred amorality, decadence and alcoholism; the vast profits to be had from the sugar trade for the few, often propped up by protectionism; the constant fear amongst the heavily out-numbered white minority of revolt by the slaves; and the realisation that immense wealth could not buy the plantation owners the respectability and acceptance they craved back in England, where they were mocked for their tasteless ostentation - and their West Indian vowels. Throughout the book there are fascinating sub-plots and details - the breadth and depth of the author's research is astonishing - but Parker is too talented a writer ever to let the pace flag. Sugar Barons is a gripping read from start to finish and is very highly recommended.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read,
By
This review is from: The Sugar Barons (Hardcover)
Shocking, fascinating and unputdownableI really enjoyed Matthew Parker's book on the building of the Panama Canal, Hell's Gorge, so had high expectations of his new one. In fact, it is even better. At the heart of the book are a handful of family sagas - we trace families across three of four generations, as they progress from entrepreneurs and adventurers, to sugar grandees, to decadent or hapless inheritors. Along the way, there are gripping battles, pirates, smugglers and privateers, and, of course, the horrors of slavery, calmly related, but all the more powerful for that. The author is particularly good at recreating the heat and drunkenly violent atmosphere of the sugar islands, and showing how even those who came out from England with the best intentions were corrupted by the West Indian slave society they found themselves in. The book rattles along at a great pace, but is at the same time is nuanced and highly intelligent, as well as fabulously well-researched. Thoroughly recommended, even if you are not a regular reader of history.
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