explanatory essay draft sugar changed the world

Home — Essay Samples — Economics — Sugar Trade — The Way How Sugar Changed The World

The Way How Sugar Changed The World

• Categories: Sugar Trade World History

About this sample

Words: 1257 |

Published: Mar 3, 2020

Words: 1257 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

The essay explores the book "Sugar Changed the World" by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos. The authors' purpose is to inform readers about the historical significance of sugar and its impact on both families and pivotal events. They begin by sharing their personal connections to sugar, emphasizing how it's intertwined with their family histories.

The essay highlights how sugar played a crucial role in history, from the ancient mention of sugar cane in China to its involvement in important historical events like the British Parliament imposing a sugar tax, which contributed to colonial unrest.

Furthermore, the essay touches upon the conflicting viewpoints presented in the book, with one perspective portraying the harsh realities of sugar production, including the brutal conditions of enslaved labor, while another viewpoint from a video depicts sugar farming as a heritage and a source of pride for some.

Table of contents

Prompt examples for "sugar changed the world" essay, "sugar changed the world" essay example.

• The Historical Impact of Sugar: Analyze the profound historical impact of sugar on global trade, economies, and societies, discussing its role in the development of the Atlantic slave trade and the rise of plantation economies.
• Sugar's Influence on Diet and Health: Discuss how the widespread consumption of sugar has influenced dietary habits and health outcomes, examining its contribution to issues like obesity and related health problems.
• Sugar's Cultural and Culinary Significance: Explore the cultural and culinary significance of sugar in different societies, examining how it has been used in traditional cuisines, celebrations, and rituals.
• Sugar's Connection to Colonialism and Slavery: Analyze the intertwined history of sugar production, colonialism, and the slave trade, considering how these elements shaped the course of history in various regions of the world.
• The Modern Sugar Industry: Examine the contemporary sugar industry, discussing its environmental impact, labor practices, and the challenges of addressing issues like sustainability and fair trade.

You may also be interested Free Plagiarism Checker with Unlimited Words

How Sugar Changed the World

Works cited.

• Aronson, M., & Budhos, M. (2010). Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science. Clarion Books.
• BBC. (2011, August 24). The Story of Sugar. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pd0f
• DuPuis, E. M. (2000). Not in my body: rBGH and the rise of organic milk. Agriculture and Human Values, 17(3), 285-295.
• Galloway, J. H. (2004). The sugar cane industry: An historical geography from its origins to 1914. Cambridge University Press.
• Gates, H. L. (2011). Black in Latin America (Vol. 37). NYU Press.
• Mintz, S. W. (1986). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. Penguin.
• National Geographic Society. (2001, April). The world in a bowl of sugar. National Geographic, 199(4), 2-27.
• The Economist. (2021, March 25). The world's most important commodity is getting more expensive. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/03/25/the-worlds-most-important-commodity-is-getting-more-expensive
• Toussaint-Samat, M. (2009). A history of food. John Wiley & Sons.
• Walvin, J. (2005). The sugar trade: Brazil, Portugal and the Netherlands, 1590-1630. Humanities Press.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Economics History

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 1126 words

1 pages / 495 words

1 pages / 485 words

1 pages / 480 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Sugar Trade

Introduction:In the annals of human history, few commodities have had such a profound impact on the world as sugar. From its humble origins in Southeast Asia to its global domination as a sweetener and preservative, sugar has [...]

The Australian sugar industry is one of the most vital industries to Australian agriculture as it is the second largest raw sugar exporter in the world behind Brazil. Almost all of the Australian sugar (95%) is produced in [...]

The little bowl of sugar on our table is often something we take for granted. The history of sugar is one of violence, greed, and oppression. Through the triangular trade between Africa, Europe, and the Americas starting in the [...]

The real estate market will be negatively affected by GST as it will have an 8% increase in the cost of new house which will lead to a 12% decrease in the demand. It is believed that there will hardly be any reduction in the [...]

Term of self-properties for foamed concrete such as: Low density and high strength Typical densities of foam concrete are between ranges 350 to 1600 kg/m3 and the compressive strengths of 28 day are 0.2 to 18.0 [...]

There are two major branches of Civil Engineering, Contracting and Consultant engineering. Engineers who specialize in construction will often work as project managers. They are responsible for the time management of the project [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

The Website of Author Marina Budhos

• We Are All We Have Resources
• We Are All We Have Abridged Curriculum Guide, 9-12
• We Are All We Have Curriculum Guide (Full), 9-12
• We Are All We Have Curriculum Guide, 5-8
• The Long Ride
• Watched in the World
• Author’s Note
• Watched Resources
• Tell Us We’re Home
• Ask Me No Questions
• The Professor of Light
• House of Waiting
• Eyes of the World
• Teacher’s Guide for Sugar Changed the World
• The Music & Dance of Sugar Work
• Sugar Changed the World Web-Links
• News & Reviews
• Short Works
• Teacher Guides
• Writing Coach & Editor
• Crossing Over Blog
• Talk To Me: For Young Readers
• Readers Theater
• Legacy Work

Teacher’s Guide for Sugar Changed the World

Sugar changed the world:  a story of spice, magic, slavery, freedom, and science, introduction.

Sugar has touched people over distances and time for centuries.  Not surprisingly, sugar is a natural motivator for students’ interests at all levels of school and all levels of skill across most of the curriculum.  This study guide is designed to enhance students’ mastery of key content and skills in geography, civics, U.S. and World History, economics, music, language arts, science and other disciplines (K-12) through examination of the impact of sugar on people, ideas, and trade.  It is intended to be used in conjunction with  Sugar Changed the World:  A Story of Spice, Magic, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Sibert Award-winning author Marc Aronson, along with other materials.  Each lesson is designed with multiple objectives in mind, to make the most efficient use of teachers’ time.

The guide consists of a preparatory activity and five lesson plans drawn from topics investigated in  Sugar Changed the World:  A Story of Spice, Magic, Slavery, Freedom, and Science :

Preparatory Activity:  The Geography of Sugar

Lesson 1:  The Science of Sugar

• Lesson 2:  Sugar Through Language, the Arts, and the Senses

Lesson 3:  The History of Sugar

Lesson 4:  the economics of sugar, lesson 5:  the civics of sugar.

Within each lesson plan you will find all or most of the following information:

• Synopsis of lesson
• Lessons (including procedures, materials and hyperlinks or additional resource suggestions)

Although the study guide is designed so to provide an integrated course of studies across the curriculum, it is not expected that students will complete all the listed activities.  Teachers may assign selected activities to their classes, allow students to choose an activity for themselves, or set up independent learning centers with the material needed for suggested activities.  Also, teachers may wish to give students the opportunity to earn extra credit by completing some activities as independent work.  Recognizing the time and accountability constraints facing classroom teachers, we encourage you to select and adapt the activities that best meet your students’ needs and abilities.

This study guide was written by Jean M. West, an education consultant in Port Orange, Florida.

Synopsis of Idea :  Have students trace the journey of sugar outward from New Guinea on a map or globe.  Then, have students trace with contrasting colored yarns or markers the journey of people who labored growing sugar, estimate the distances involved, and evaluate the impact of sugar on the movement of people worldwide.

Materials needed :

• World map or globe (inexpensive inflatable or flea-market globe)
• Yarns or markers of several colors
• Stickers or pushpins

Procedures :

• The Journey of Sugar   
• Read aloud the passage from the book, “Hawaii is where the two journeys of sugar cane join:  hundreds of years earlier, the first inhabitants of Hawaii brought those cane stalks with them from their homes in the Pacific.  As we have seen, the plant had been taken from New Guinea and brought to India, then on to Persia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, the Azores, then via Columbus on to the New World.”
• Direct students to mark the progress of sugar around the globe by locating and marking each of the locations in the paragraph with a sticker or pushpin on a world map or globe.  Next, connect the locations with a marker line or yarn.  Finally number the locations from the first (New Guinea, to the last, Hawaii.)
• Ask students to calculate the distances from New Guinea to India, India to Persia (modern Iran), Iran to the Mediterranean, the Mediterranean to the Azores, and the Azores to Hispaniola in the Caribbean.  What is the total distance sugar traveled to get to the New World?
• Discuss as a class why people would go to such lengths (or at least distances) to transplant sugar from its source to other locations.
• The Demographics of Sugar
• Read aloud the passage from the book, “Every day, we live in the world sugar created – where the descendants of Africans live in the Caribbean, in Brazil, in the United States and Canada; where the grandchildren of indentured Indians share those Caribbean islands—and American cities; where the children of China, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea make up the population of Hawaii….”
• Direct students to locate Africa on a world map or globe and to place a sticker or pushpin on it.  Next, have students place markers on the Caribbean, Brazil, the United States, and Canada.  Finally, have students connect the markers to Africa with marker lines or yarn.  Ask students to calculate the distances from Africa to each of the four destinations and then add all four distances.
• As students to locate India on a world map or globe and to place a sticker or pushpin on it.  Next, have students place markers on an island of the Caribbean, such as Cuba, and an American city, such as Los Angeles or New York.  Finally, direct students to connect the markers to India with marker lines or yarn.  Ask students to calculate the distances from India to the two points selected as destinations and then add the two distances.
• Finally, direct students to locate the Hawaiian Islands and place a sticker or pushpin on it.  Next place markers on China, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea.  Connect the marker to Hawaii with lines or yarn.  Ask students to calculate the distances from Hawaii to the four destinations and then add all four distances.
• Add the three subtotals for a final total of distances.  Ask students to evaluate the impact of sugar on the migration of people worldwide.
• Google LitTrips
• Visit the Sugar Changed the World website at http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/  to access the Google Lit Trip for the book.  There students can look at maps from the book as transparencies and compare them with current Google Earth views of the same locations.
• Students may access imbedded author’s notes with fun facts, many of which did not make it into the book.

Additional resources

BBC History has an interactive map on the Abolition of British Slavery at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/map/index.shtml  which places many of the events of this book into geographic context, providing visual interplay between events in the Caribbean and in Great Britain.

Synopsis of Idea :  The sucrose molecule is formed of two rings, glucose and fructose.  The union and separation of the components seems a neat little metaphor for sugar changing the world.  Students will learn about sucrose and how saturation works (it’s the basis of candy-making) and then look at an ingredient and nutritional composition of a candy and relate it to how the body metabolizes sugar, relating it to issues including obesity, cavities, and diabetes.

• Chemistry of sugar 
• Direct students to look up the molecular formula of sucrose C 12 H 22 O
• Next, after examining a graphic representation of the molecule direct the students to make a model of sucrose.  They may use students in the class, tennis balls, and baseballs (borrowed from PE) to create their model.  If the school owns molecular model building kits, they may make a model, or make one on their own.
• Ask students to examine the crystalline form of sugar (which is not a perfect cube but an oblong crystal with slanting ends.)
• Direct students to conduct an experiment to determine the quantity of sugar needed to reach the point of saturation in a) refrigerated water, b) room temperature, water and c) hot water.  Students should measure and add sugar until it will no longer dissolve, recording the quantity under each of the three conditions.  Ask them to identify under which temperature condition the most sugar is absorbed.
• Explain that super-saturation (when a saturated heated mix cools it is super-saturated) is the basis of candy—crystalline (like lollipops) or non-crystalline (like fudge).
• Biology of sugar
• Direct students to use a baseball card as a template for a Candy Card.  Each student should select a specific candy to research, for example: Hershey Kiss, Kit Kat, Snickers, Goodbar, Butterfinger, Life Savers, Jolly Rancher, Baby Ruth, Skittles, M&Ms, or Tootsie Roll Pops.  Information on the card should include:
• the year it was invented
• the person or company that invented it
• a picture of it and its wrapper
• the ingredient list
• nutritional information
• Direct students to read how the body metabolizes sugar and then discuss the process in class.
• Ask students how the ingredient and nutritional information on their card relates to current guidelines on healthful caloric and sugar intake.  How much of the candy is it healthful to eat?
• Discuss how excess consumption relates to obesity, cavities, and diabetes.

Additional resources :

The San Francisco Exploratorium, a science museum, dedicates part of their website to the Science of Cooking.  The Science of Candy includes photographs of sugar crystals and discusses the chemistry of sugar during candy-making at  http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/sugar.html .

Try Engineering has an entire lesson plan dedicated to growing sugar crystals at  http://www.trynano.org/pdf/sugarnano.pdf

To locate information about manufactured candies, check commercial websites such as Nestles (Kit Kat and Butterfinger) at  http://www.nestle.com/Brands/ChocolateConfectionery/ChocolateConfectioneryListing.htm or Wikipedia (fairly reliable information on the candy), and the product panels for calorie and nutrition information at the grocery store.

For current guidelines on calories, sugar, fat, sodium and other dietary concerns, check the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services site at  http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/  or the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s  www.nutrition.gov  website.

Dr. Robert S. Horn, has created a Sugars4Kids website with a well-illustrated explanation of how humans metabolize sugars (and why we can’t get nutrition from grass) at  http://www.medbio.info/Horn/Sugars4Kids/how_are_sugars_digested.htm .

Lesson 2:  Sugar through Language, the Arts, and the Senses

Synopsis of Idea :  Through language arts, music, physical education and culinary arts classes, students can explore through taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight the aesthetics of sugar.

Preparatory Activity

• Copy the following four sets of words onto index cards, keeping each set separate.
• Explain to students that etymology is the history of language and that they are going to figure out the history of the word “sugar” and the related words “candy”, “molasses,” and “syrup.”
• Divide the class into four teams.  Provide each team with a “target card,” the final word for the set (i.e. “sugar,” “candy,” “molasses” and “syrup.”)  Provide each team with a packet with cards showing the words that are the building blocks to the target sugar-related word. You may wish to announce that the base words are: Shakara, Kanda, Mel, and Sharab.  Direct the students to try to put the remaining cards in order, giving them a two-minute time limit.  The correct order is:
• Shakara, Shaker, Sukkar, Succarum, Zucchero, Sucre, Sugre, Sugar
• Kanda, Qand, Qandi, Candi, Candy
• Mel, Mellaceum, Melaço, Melasses, Molasses
• Sharab, Sirupus, Siroppo, Sirop, Sirupe, Syrup
• Which group had the highest degree of accuracy?  Does the progression make sense?
• Ask students to brainstorm a list of sugar related expressions from “candy striper” to “sugar daddy.”
• Sugar Literature
• Ask students to read and analyze Virgil’s Georgics IV, his poem about bees.  It is long, so it might be useful to divide the lines among the students, read it aloud, and “translate” the poem into modern language.
• Create a reading list of at least ten stories and or books that feature sweets (such as Hansel and Gretel or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ).
• Identify and analyze how sweets are used as a plot device in a story (for example, Chocolate Frogs and the role their collectable cards play in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone .)
• Create a list of at least ten sugar similes and/or metaphors, for example, “sweet as sugar” and “land of milk and honey.”
• Jane Austen explores wealth and human values in her writings, but especially in Mansfield Park .  The Bertram’s way of life is based on income from their West Indian estate in Antigua—a sugar plantation whose operations were based on slave labor.  Fanny Price’s inquiries to Sir Thomas Bertram about the slave trade are met with “dead silence.”  Knowing the economic basis of the  Mansfield Park  life-style, ask students to read the book and decide whether Jane Austen is critical of British colonialists profiting from slave labor or whether she ignores the issue.
• Sugar Music
• Ask students to research, listen and then play/perform historical sugar songs mentioned in the book and available on the supporting website, Sugar Changed the World, in the Music and Dance of Sugar Work segment at http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/ .   :
• Konbit (collective group work song)
• Palo Mayombe and Yoruba songs from Cuba
• Bomba (also see Asi Bailaba Puerto Rico:  Al Son de la Bomba y la  Plena by Chivirico Davila)
• Holehole Bushi
• Jahaji Music (Ship brothers) at YouTube: “Surabhi Sharma’s Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLuBnmxfuoM
• Introduction to Musical Genres

Use “sugar” as a theme to introduce different musical genres.  Selections ranging from classical to jazz to country and pop music might include:

• Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Tchaikovsky
• Stevie Wonder’s Sugar
• A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine go Down from Mary Poppins
• Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones
• Sugar by Billie Holliday
• Sugar, Sugar by the Archies
• Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch by the Four Tops
• Sugar Town by Nancy Sinatra
• Big Rock Candy Mountain by Tex Ritter
• Sugar Daddy by the Jackson Five
• Jazz and Sugar

Ask students to create a playlist, history of jazz presentation (slide show or video), or program for jazz band of “Sugar”-themed songs.  Possible titles might include:

• When I Take my Sugar to Tea (Nat King Cole)
• I’m Gonna Salt Away Some Sugar (Fats Waller)
• Sugar Hill Shuffle (Count Basie)
• Sugar Buzz (Russell Malone)
• Sugar Foot Strut (Louis Armstrong)
• Sugar Ray (Miles Davis)
• Brazilian Sugar (George Duke)
• Brown Sugar (Cook’s Dreamland Band)
• When my Sugar Walks Down the Street (Ella Fitzgerald)
• My Sugar is so Refined (The Hi-Los)
• Sugar Mamma (John Lee Hooker)
• Sugar Lips (Al Hirt)
• Sugar Blues (Preservation Hall Jazz Band)
• Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plums by Duke Ellington)
• Sugar Cane (Les Nubians)
• Sugar Kane (Scott Joplin)
• Sugar Foot Stomp (Fletcher Henderson).
• Sugar Rhythm :

Give students the notation for a Hawaiian sugar rhythm (dotted quarter note, eighth note, quarter note, quarter note), have them clap it, and then chant it with drum.  A complete lesson on Hole Hole Bushi is available at  http://www.hawaii.edu/hga/Lessons/maui98/hole.htm )

• Create a playlist of songs by “Sugar” musicians such as Sugar Ray, Sugarland, Sugar Beats, Sugar Inc., Sugar Mountain and the Sugarhill Gang.
• The Liberian Coin and the Wedgwood Medallion of Am I Not A Man?
• Compare and contrast a painting of boiling sugar with a photograph of it.
• Study the Clark series of eight prints unified by the theme of sugar.  Why does he make the choices he makes for each of the eight prints?  How does he make each picture distinctive?  How does he unify the series?
• Discuss who the artists are that made images of slaves working with sugar.
• How does that effect what is depicted?
• How do you think a slave might depict the same scene?
• How does the viewpoint of the artist change the impact on the viewer?
• To what degree should art be documentary rather than expressive?
• Sugar Physical Education

If the school is able and wishes to create a community garden, classes may dig garden plots spray-painted on the ground that are five feet square, such as the ones sugar plantation workers had to dig.

• Divide class into three teams.  Provide each team with a shovel.  Instruct them to excavate to a depth of 5 inches in the entire square.
• The first team to finish wins and selects the first crop to be planted.
• Have students and adult volunteers add topsoil and other amendments to excavated patches to begin gardening.
• Have students watch some of the dances on the website, http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/ .
• Direct students to learn traditional dance steps or to create choreography for a sugar dance, either the bomba or maculele, and then perform it.
• Sugar Culinary Arts
• Explain to students that they will be conducting a taste test of orange, buckwheat, clover, and a local honey.
• Ask them to create a “judges” sheet to compare elements of the flavor of each.
• Conduct the tasting and then discuss how the different honeys were distinct.
• Holidays and Sugar

Explain to students that they will be creating a sugar holiday buffet.  This may be done either virtually (with photographs) or using recipes to create the actual delicacies. Holidays with sweet items might include:

• Valentines (sugar hearts)
• Easter (chocolate eggs)
• Christmas (candy cane)
• Halloween (candy corn)
• Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins)
• Passover charoset (Sephardic version: chopped nuts, dates, grated apples, cinnamon, sweet wine, honey)
• Dia de los Muertos (sugar skulls)
• Los Posadas (piñata with candy)
• Chinese New Year (moon cake)
• Diwali (karanji)
• Durga Puja (mishti doi)
• Gantan Japanese New Year (osechi ryori kurikinton: mashed sweet potatoes and sweet chestnut
• Id El Fitr (sekanjabin: sweet mint drink)
• Seker Bayrami (Turkish Delight/Loukoum)
• Madagascar Rice Harvest (koba: steamed rice, banana, honey and peanuts)

This activity requires adult supervision because it will involve a stove and hot liquids.  

Materials :

• Candy thermometer
• Lemon Juice
• Students will work with candy thermometer, water, sugar to learn about the stages of candy making.  Heat sugar and water to the various stages on a candy thermometer and examine how the candied sugar appears at each stage.
• Have students add acid (lemon juice), glucose or fructose to invert (separate) the sucrose so it will not recrystallize.
• Challenge students to make a dessert or candy requiring sugar to be heated, for example, make crème caramel, rock candy
• Watch an episode of a cooking show such as Food Network’s Ace of Cakes  or  Food Network Challenge’s Extreme Candy Carnival  or  Last Cake Standing  for contemporary ideas or go to the website Gode Cookery for medieval recipes at  http://www.godecookery.com/godeboke/godeboke.htm  .  Alternately, either of Madeleine Pelner Cosman’s books on medieval cooking such as  Fabulous Feasts:  Medieval Cookery and Ceremony  or  Medieval Holidays and Festivals:  A Calendar of  Celebrations  are excellent sources for medieval recipes.  Claude Huyghens book  Fêtes Gourmandes au Moyen Ages,   is beautiful to look at, although the text is in French.
• Challenge students to use the contemporary or historical techniques they have discovered to make frosting decorations, candy “stained glass,” marzipan sculpture, or a similar sugar creation.

Additional Resources :

For a history of food and connections to recipes over the ages, enjoy the Food Timeline at  http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html

Synopsis of Idea :  Because sugar itself is not a topic specifically covered in history, it is necessary to tie activities into content and skills already taught.  Students will use sugar as a vehicle to learn skills in graphing, chronology, research, and historiography, as well historical content related to the slave trade, Sugar Act, Louisiana Purchase, and immigration.

• Graphing Sugar Consumption over Time
• Direct students graph sugar consumption over 100 year intervals:  (4 lbs. 1700, 18 lbs. 1800, 90 lbs. 1900, 140 lbs. 2000).
• Then, to illustrate the weight behind the numbers, work with a scale (perhaps with the assistance of the school clinic) having students pile textbooks and/or backpacks to the appropriate weight.
• Chronology 
• Either bring in containers of honey (prehistory), granulated cane sugar (between 100-1200), corn syrup (Karo, 1902), and aspartame (Equal/Nutrasweet, 1965) or sucralose (Splenda, 1976), or print out pictures of them.
• Challenge students to arrange them in chronological order.
• Discuss how close the class came to getting the order correct.  What surprises were there, if any?
• Sugar Changed the World Timeline

Make four copies of timeline in the back of  Sugar Changed the World .  Divide the class into four groups.

• Direct each group to divide the timeline along the divisional ages in the text, i.e. the Age of Honey, Age of Sugar, Age of Freedom, Age of Science.
• Next, have the group turn the timeline into a fan book (strips that have a hole punched in the bottom that can be held by a brad or ring and fanned out.)
• Finally, divide the timeline into segments and give each segment to a group to create a scrapbook page featuring that segment of the timeline and illustrations or small objects or words that emphasize important elements of that time period
• Have the groups display their page individually or coordinate to assemble all the pages into a conventional or folding scrapbook
• Kit Kat Seriation

Sometimes, dating artifacts may be done through seriation.  Using Kit Kat candy wrappers (photographed at an exhibit in the Yorkshire Museum, York, England) students will try to place the artifacts in the exhibition case in order.

The key to wrapper dates is:

• 2 (late 1940s)
• 4 (1935-1937)
• 7 (post 1945)
• 8 (post 1945)
• 9 (February 2007)
• 10 (post 1945)
• 11, 12, 13 and 14 (February 2007)

Alternately, the teacher might bring in other old containers, such as a series of old Coke or Pepsi glass bottles, cans, and plastic containers (or photographs of the same) for students to arrange chronologically.

• Textbook Analysis
• Ask students to examine how their textbook covers these topics, the pages number(s) on which they are discussed, and to count the number of lines about them; and then compare how the same three topics are covered in  Sugar Changed the World .
• What names, dates, explanations, questions, does Sugar Changed the World  add?  How does it change their understanding of these three events?  What research questions that are unanswered does it raise?
• Immigration—The Indian Diaspora
• When the students study immigration, explain that the United States now has the second largest population of Overseas Indians or Persons of Indian Origin.  (Wikipedia’s Indian American page has a useful Census 2000 map of the population’s distribution throughout the U.S.)
• Overseas Indian Population:  Have students make a graph of the number of overseas Indians on each continent.  (Wikipedia’s Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin page has statistics by country.)
• Direct students look up the words “taboo,” “caste,” and “defilement” and discuss what they mean.  Explain that crossing the Kala Pani  (Black Water) was a taboo because:
• a) Hindus regarded the ocean as the resting place of the gods who did not wish to be disturbed; sea monsters such as houglis existed to protest their rest and people who traveled on the oceans were acting disrespectfully to the gods.
• b) Traveling on the ocean meant that Hindus could not rely on the sun and moon when performing daily poojas (rituals) such as the three times a day  sandyavandan .
• c) Travelers might have to touch people who were in the “untouchable” caste or eat food prepared by non-Hindus ( mlecchas ) leading to defilement.
• d) Hindus regarded India as the Holy Land, Punyabhoomi , because the Ganges River is the source of the reincarnation cycle; leaving India cut off the cycle which was a grave crime.
• e) Persons who were defiled or had committed grave crimes were cut off from their families, society, and property.  Only if they paid for the expensive feasts and went through harsh purification ceremonies ( prayaschita poojas ) could they be reinstated.  It was not just the indentured sugar immigrants who went through this—Gandhi had to go through purification ceremonies when he traveled to England to study law.
• Discuss in class whether some Hindu beliefs made the already difficult immigrant experience more stressful.
• On YouTube there is a three-minute video tribute to Jahajis called “170 th Anniversary of Indo-Caribbeans Coolies: How Britain Reinvented Slavery”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alcewP1Lqk&feature=fvsr  and also a ten-minute clip from a BBC documentary called “Coolies: How Britain Reinvented Slavery”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwZNJbTs7BQ&feature=related  .  Students may wish to watch these for enrichment or follow-up.
• History through Biography and Autobiography
• Very little of the history of sugar and slavery is in the words of the people who experienced it.  That which survives may have language or descriptions of violence.   Teachers must use their best judgment about school policy and their students’ maturity in deciding whether or how to use ex-slave narratives.  To read or hear narratives of ex-slaves collected by the Federal Writers’ Project between 1936 and 1938, go to the Library of Congress American Memory website’s “Born in Slavery” section at  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html .  The entirety of Ellen Betts’ interview is available online.
• Documenting the American South is a University of North Carolina website that has online numerous printed North American slave narratives including that of Ouladah Equiano at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/ .
• In the interests of time and recognizing the difficulties of using some of the ex-slave narratives, teachers may use an extract from Betts’ and Ouladah Equiano’s narratives.  Ask students to compare and contrast the differences in time and location, for the two individuals, as well as their upbringing and access to education.
• Discuss the impact of editors on their narratives.
• Direct students to conduct biographical research for further information on the following individuals mentioned in Sugar Changed the World :  Zumbi, Pierre Lemerre the Younger, William Beckford, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Charles Deslondes, Quamina, John Smith (British Guiana missionary), Bechu, Norbert Rillieux.  They may present their information in the form of a traditional paper or oral report, or in a more creative manner, such as an “obituary” written for a newspaper or produced as a video or computer slide-show.

Synopsis of Idea :  Sugar lends itself to exploration of a number of basic economic topics including: supply, demand, price, labor, raw materials, division of labor and specialization, industrialization, competition, boycott and social responsibility.  These activities use simulation and examination of popular products to help students learn about the economics of sugar.

• Preparatory Activity:  How is it Sweetened?
• Provide a copy of the ingredient panel of Twinkies, Oreos, Hershey’s Chocolate Bar, Honey Smacks Cereal and Coca-Cola (original).
• Ask students to determine what ingredients are used to sweeten each product.
• Identify what sweetener is most commonly used.  Ask students to hypothesize why that is the case
• Division of Labor, Specialization, and Industrialization
• Divide the class into four teams.  Provide the teams with three minutes, timed, to complete the task described below.
• Team 1:  Provide the team with one pair of scissors, a single sheet of pre-drawn figures as a sample and sheets of blank paper.  Each person on the team must copy the figures, color, and cut out a cow, apple, ear of corn, and sugar.
• Team 2:  Provide the team with one set of crayons to share and sheets with pre-drawn cows, apples, ears of corn, and sugar.  Each person will be given scissors.  They will then color and cut out the cow, pig, apple, and ear of corn.  (Mechanization)
• Team 3:  Provide the team with sheets of the pre-drawn cow, apple, ear of corn, and sugar.  Give two people scissors to cut out the images and each person coloring with a set of crayons.  Have one person do apples only, one cows only, one corn only and one sugar only.   (Division of Labor)
• Team 4:  Provide the team with pre-colored, sugar only sheets and scissors for each to cut out the sugar.  (Specialization)

At the end of time, count up the total number of sugar pictures produced by each group, along with apple, cow, and corn pictures.

• Discuss the impact of mechanization, division of labor, and specialization on the totals each group produced.  What advantages did Team 4 have?  Which group got to be most creative?  Which group had the least interesting task or got the sorest hands?
• Share with students the following passage and ask students how it relates to the activity:  “A plantation was not a new technology, but rather, a new way of organizing planting, growing, cutting, and refining a crop.  On a regular farm there may be cows, pigs, and chickens; fields of grain, orchards filled with fruit—many different kinds of foods to eat or sell.  By contrast, the plantation had only one purpose:  to create a single product that could be grown, ground, boiled, dried, and sold to distant markets.  Indeed since you cannot live on sugar, the crop grown on plantations could not even feed the people who harvested it.”
• Economic Principles Simulation

Materials:  Requires money, sugar, honey, corn syrup, and candy markers (or the teacher may use Monopoly money, sugar packets, individual honey servings, dried corn, and M&Ms)

• Either the teacher or a designated Banker may handle the money and record transactions.  The teacher should also designate a Factory Worker to swap out the units of sweets for the appropriate unit of candy.  Explain that the purpose of the simulation for the Sweets Manufacturers and Candy Makers is to make the most money in each round and, ultimately, in the simulation.  For Consumers, it is to have the most Candy, with the greatest amount of Money left.
• Provide 30 units of sugar to the Sugar Manufacturers, 20 units of Honey to the Honey Manufacturers, and 20 units of Corn Syrup to the Corn Syrup Manufacturers.  Provide $100 in $5 to the Candy Makers and the Consumers.  Inform the Factory Worker and Candy Makers that the sweetener to candy conversions are:
• 1 unit of sugar=1 unit of candy
• 2 units of honey=1 unit of candy
• 1 unit of corn syrup=2 units of candy
• Begin the game:

Round One—Supply, Demand and Price:

• One sugar manufacturer will be drawn by lot.  That person will auction off a single unit of sugar to one lucky Candy Maker.  The Banker will disperse the funds and record the price to that account.
• The Candy Maker will give the unit of sugar to the Factory Worker and receive a unit of candy.  The Candy Maker will auction off the single unit of candy to one lucky Consumer.  The Banker will record the transfer of funds between the accounts.
• Two other sugar manufacturers will be drawn by lot.  They will auction off one packet each to the Candy Makers.
• After going to the Factory Worker, the two winning Candy Makers will auction off the candy to the Consumers.
• Sugar manufacturers will put up 9 packets of sugar for a three-minute silent auction.  (Each packet will have a sheet of paper and the Candy Makers will write how much they are willing to pay for the sugar, increasing the bids if they wish on as many packets as they wish.)  Record the winning bids.
• After getting the candy from the Factory Worker, the Candy Makers will put up the candy for a three-minute silent auction to the Consumers.
• Direct students to graph the quantity of sugar packets offered in each of the three auctions.  Have them graph the quantity of candy offered in each of the three auctions.  These are Supply Charts.
• Direct students to graph for each of the three auctions the twelve prices paid for the sugar.  Then have them graph the prices paid for the candy.  These are Demand Charts.
• Discuss the relationship between the supply and demand, how the price goes down as the quantity available increases.
• Round Two—Raw Material and Price
• Sweets Manufacturers will put up 5 units each in a three-minute silent auction to Candy Manufacturers.
• After getting candy from the Factory Worker, the Candy Makers will put up the candy for a three minute silent auction.  This time there will be a reserve price, the price the candy maker paid for the raw material  (Note, honey requires doubling up while corn syrup is half!) If the Consumer does not offer to pay more than the reserve price, there is no sale.  Record winning bids.
• Discuss how the price of the raw materials impacted the candy makers’ sales.  Which raw material was the most successful?  Which was the least?
• Round Three—Labor and Price
• Randomly assign labor to Sugar Manufacturers by having them draw slips of folded paper marked with the words “Slave” “Indentured Servant” “Wage Worker.”  Sugar manufactured by slave labor has no reserve price.  Sugar manufactured by Indentured Servants has a reserve of $5.  Sugar manufactured by Wage Workers has a reserve of $10.
• Honey has no reserve price and Corn Syrup has a $5 reserve.  Conduct a silent auction of all remaining units by the Sweets Manufacturers.  Record winning bids.
• After getting candy from the Factory Worker, the Candy Makers will put up the candy for a three minute silent auction.  This time there will be a reserve price, the price the candy maker paid for the raw material plus labor, if applicable.  (Note, honey requires doubling up while corn syrup is half!) If the Consumer does not offer to pay more than the reserve price, there is no sale.  Record winning bids.
• Discuss the impact of labor prices on the candy makers’ sales.  What sold the fastest to Consumers?  Ask consumers if they purchased candy on any other basis besides price.
• The Banker should inform the class which sweet manufacturer made the most money, which candy maker made the most money, and which consumer had the combination of most candy plus money.
• How does it relate to the statement, “Sugar was a bridge—like the sneakers and thee-shirts and rugs that, today, we know are made by sweat-shop labor.  If you wanted the product, abolitionists forced you to think about how it was made.”
• How can consumers today educate themselves about products and use the power of the purse string to influence manufacturers and merchants (think about grape boycotts)?
• How can ethical manufacturers help educate consumers (think about dolphin-free tuna labeling)?
• How can shareholders get multinational/global companies to adopt a no-slavery policy?

Synopsis of Idea :  Civic action is one legacy of sugar.  Students will explore three avenues used historically to shape public opinion to oppose slavery and end mistreatment of indentured servants.

• The Legislative Process:  Hearings, Bills, Laws 
• Have students compare and contrast the organization of the U.S. Congress and Parliament of Great Britain.  Explain that the legislative process is quite similar.
• Show a clip from a Congressional hearing.  The teacher may wish to record a hearing from C-Span or use a YouTube clip.  For a fictional but fun approach, consider showing the hearing to outlaw animal testing from “Legally Blonde:  Red, White and Blue” or showing “I’m Just a Bill from Capitol Hill,” from Schoolhouse Rock .
• Discuss how the hearing process can advance or delay the progress of a bill.
• Ask students to examine images in the book such as the Anti-slavery bag, and also from:
• The Abolition Project Website at http://abolition.e2bn.org/index.php  features items such as:  Title page of children’s poem The Negro Boys Tale by Amelia Opie, Quaker Petition  http://abolition.e2bn.org/source_34.html , Audio recreation of Wilberforce speech  http://gallery.e2bn.org/audio75760-abolition.html  ,  Audio Recreation of Thomas Clarkson Essay  http://gallery.e2bn.org/audio75467-abolition.html
• Colonial Williamsburg website’s Am I Not a Man/Sister objects at http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume2/february04/iotm.cfm ,
• PortCities website at http://www.portcities.org.uk/  including Model of Liverpool Slave Ship The Brookes  http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/showImageDetails.php?sit_id=1&img_id=654 ,  Satirical Handbill of Slave Article Auction  http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/showImageDetails.php?sit_id=1&img_id=716 ,  Uncle Tom and Little Eva Figurine  http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/showImageDetails.php?sit_id=1&img_id=577 , Pamphlet  http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=conMediaFile.1457 ,
• Cowper’s Negro’s Complaint was put to music and was a staple at abolitionist meetings in England and, later, as recalled by Frederick Douglass, in the U.S.  Emilie George includes “Negroes Complaint” on her album, The Stars and Lily: French-American Influences and Interaction in Colonial Times in Song .  The 1:41 minute song may be downloaded from Amazon or iTunes, or students can review a 30 second clip for free.
• What is the item?
• Is it primarily visual, verbal, or fairly well balanced?
• Who created this item?
• Who is the intended audience for this item?
• How is it intended to turn opinion against slavery?
• Rate its effectiveness.
• Just as the plight of slaves inspired some abolitionists to boycott slave-produced goods, such as sugar and cotton, modern consumers are faced with choices about purchasing goods made in sweatshops, by child laborers, or produced at below-subsistence prices.
• For an introduction to fair trade and produce ranging from pink carrots to chocolate, visit Oxfam’s Cool Planet website, http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/kidsweb/food.htm .
• A complete activity book for children in grade K-2 about fair trade chocolate is available at  https://files.nyu.edu/fm812/public/documents/ChocolateBookK2.pdf .
• Ideas about school-wide activities showcasing fair trade products are available at http://www.fairtradeschools.org/activities/ .
• The National Maritime Museum of Great Britain has an online exhibit, Freedom and the Transatlantic Slave Trade with a section on Abolition.  There is an interactive feature which allows students to create their own exhibition, selecting artifacts, some of which may be viewed in 3-D with Shockwave. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/freedom/
• For older students, consider showing scenes or the entirety of Amazing Grace , the 2006 movie which recounts how William Wilberforce, William Pitt and British abolitionists succeeded in ending the British slave trade.  Please preview since there is some graphic language and scenes involving laudanum withdrawal.
• Satyagraha, Mass Civil Disobedience:  Gandhi
• Ask students to read the segments, “The Lawyer” and “Satyagraha,” from  Sugar Changed the World .
• Discuss the translation of “Satyagraha,” its definition, its methods, and objectives.
• Ask students to trace elements of the theory from Thoreau to Martin Luther King, Jr.:
• Henry David Thoreau opted not to pay a tax because of his opposition to the Mexican War and was jailed.  His 1849 essay, “Civil Disobedience,” came from that experience and influenced Gandhi.  How is his civil disobedience different from that of Gandhi?  How is it similar?
• Howard Thurman led the Negro Delegation of Friendship to South Asia in 1936 and met Gandhi.  He said that Gandhi had explained that Hinduism’s religious principles offered Indians a basis for non-violent resistance and challenged him to find the elements of Christianity which offered African-Americans the opportunity to overcome racism peacefully.  He brought the idea of Satyagraha back to the U.S., and met Gandhi’s challenge, writing the influential Jesus and the Disinherited , arguing that the power to resist oppression had to come from within.  Discuss why Gandhi believed that use of non-violence by African-Americans would have a greater impact on spreading the idea worldwide than its use by Indians.
• Martin Luther King and James Farmer read Thurman’s works and were influenced by them.  Examine the Selma Voting Drive, which culminated in the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965.  How does it embody the principles of non-violence?
• The authors summarize the principles of Satyagraha, “Any person can pledge to live up to his highest standards.  Then, the effort to make good on that vow is what defines us as human beings.  We are the sum of our own soul strength, not of the judgments imposed on us by others.”
• Ask students to write a pledge to themselves.
• A month later, ask students to write an assessment of how much effort they have made to make good on the vow.
• On the day before the end of classes, ask them to write another assessment.
• On the last day, ask students to discuss whether making a pledge and periodically assessing themselves has provided them with some direction and self-esteem.  How is it different setting goals from within, as opposed to having them set by someone else?  How is it different when nothing is collected or graded…it’s just you weighing your own progress?

Marina’s Books are available on:

Upcoming events:

Most recent articles & interviews.

"Hitting the Road: How to find Courage to Find New Writing Paths" (Writer's Digest)

Writing We Are All We Have was a humbling experience--learning to let go of the novel I thought I was meant to write, and discovering the novel that did get written.

"From Village to Global Village"

I published this years ago in the global city review, but i like to come back to it, as it marks the moment when i was discovering my own credo of writing, of material, while struggling to write my first novel.  .

"Q & A & Profile of Marina Budhos,  author of The Long Ride ," Kirkus Reviews.

"Robert Capa & Gerda Taro: Partners in Love and Photography," Interview with Marc Aronson in Guernica .

Follow Marina on Facebook

© 2024 Crossing Over

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

speech marks homework year 6

Sugar Changed the World Final Essay Module

Description

Questions & answers, emily avery.

• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think

• 100 Scope Notes
• A Fuse #8 Production
• Good Comics for Kids
• Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
• Pearl's & Ruby's
• Politics in Practice
• Teen Librarian Toolbox

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

November 14, 2010 by Mary Ann Cappiello

Sugar Changed the World

November 14, 2010 by Mary Ann Cappiello   1 comments

CLICK IMAGES TO SEE LARGER VERSION (WHEN AVAILABLE)

Filed under:

• Primary Source Connections. Have students do a “picture walk” through the book and identify the primary source images throughout. What questions do they have about these sources? Have them explore some of the primary sources further at the author’s website at http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/ What new information have they learned? What new insights have students gained about sugar production and the global economy?
• Colonization and Commodities Map . After reading Sugar , break students up into two groups. Have one group read the nonfiction picture book The Cod’s Tale and the other Salt , both by Mark Kurlansky. Jigsaw the groups together into new groups in which they can compare and contrast the information in the picture books to Sugar . Have each group build a map that demonstrates the connection between cod, salt, and sugar in the colonization and growth of North and South America. This map should present a helpful visual that allows students to see in a very concrete way the interconnectedness of the three texts and, more importantly, these three commodities in colonial history.
• Community Exchange. Have your class take several routes to sharing what they’ve learned about what happened to 96% of the enslaved Africans during the 17 th -19 th centuries. Some students can create a “Sugar and Slavery” webpage to inform other members of the school community. Another group can plan a performance of some of the songs and dances from http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/ and make a recording to have available as a podcast on the webpage. Still another group could create a short play that can be performed for students in younger grades within your school district. This too can be recorded and included on the webpage.
• Listening Literacy Station . Via the website created by the authors ( http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/ ), have students explore, in small groups, the songs and music that grew out of the sugar plantation culture in South America and the Caribbean islands. What do the songs have in common with one another? How do these songs relate to music that we listen to today? How do they compare with the spirituals that came out of the enslaved African experience in America’s south? For lyrics and audio recordings of a sampling of songs from the African-American slave experience, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/singers/sfeature/songs.html . This Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) site includes a Teacher’s Guide.
• Sugar as a Mentor Text . Have students conduct their own research, either in small groups or individually, on another food. Use the “How We Researched and Wrote this Book” essay in the back matter as a guide to how students should conduct their research, moving from secondary sources to more specific primary sources and personal stories. Next, they will write nonfiction mini-books that parallel the structure used by Aronson and Budhos. Students will include a personal introduction to their connection to the food, a three-part chronology that mixes expository and narrative styles and includes samples of primary sources, and conclude with what they consider appropriate back matter.
• Representations of Sugar: S eries vs. Individual Title. After reading Sugar , have students break up into small groups and examine another nonfiction book about sugar written as part of a series (see below: Sugar by Gary Chapman, The Biography of Sugar by Rachel Eagan, and Sugar by Sheryl Peterson). How does each book articulate the role of sugar in the trans-Atlantic slave trade? How does each book address the human cost of sugar? It’s role in the global economy historically and today? What’s included and excluded from each text? What differences in writing styles can students note? Why might the series books present the information through structures and styles that differ from Sugar ? What role does the author’s presence play in Sugar?
• Sugar Study. Have students brainstorm the sources of sugar in their daily diet, sharing with one another to create a complete portrait. Next, compare and contrast the information on sugar presented on The Sugar Association’s webpage ( http://www.sugar.org/ ) and compare that to the information contained in this May 2010 article from USA Today: ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-03-02-sugarwars02_ST_N.htm ). To what extent is sugar unhealthy? What do students think they should do about their eating habits? How can students become better informed about who is behind the information they read?
• Sugar Action Plan. Break students into three groups. Have one group research current sugar cane farming and production in the United States, another research sugar-related human rights globally (see Amnesty International’s recent postings on sugar-related human rights issues around the world in the URL below in Further Explorations as a starting point). Have another group try to locate the sources of sugar used in some of the class’s favorite snacks and beverages through online and print research and emails. Jigsaw the different groups back together and have each group create a “Sugar Action” plan that provides background information to educate the school community, and a few steps that students can take to help make sugar a more “fairly traded” commodity.

ADVERTISEMENT

• A nonfiction series survey book on sugar.
• This historical novel, set in 1913, reveals thirteen-year-old Hazel Mull-Dare’s discovery of the source of her family’s wealth when she is sent from London to live on her grandparents’ Caribbean sugar cane plantation, formerly run by slaves.
• This nonfiction chapter book discusses the history of cotton in America from colonial times through the Great Depression, and compares and contrasts the particular role of cotton in the industrial economy of the north, the agricultural economy of the south in the 19 th century, and the interdependence of the two. Like Sugar , this book articulates the human toll of cotton production, from the fields to the factory, and the hard work of enslaved and free Africans, poor whites, and European immigrants.
• This nonfiction picture book adaptation of Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World introduces the role of cod fish in the Atlantic-based economies of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America’s northern colonies. This book reframes colonization in North America through the lens of the global marketplace, examines food culture in North America from colonial times to the present, articulates the role of cod fishing in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and confronts the challenges of today’s fisheries.
• This nonfiction picture book adaptation of Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History examines the role of salt in global economies from antiquity to the present, and the ways in which salt galvanized food production, shaped food cultures, and influenced politics.
• In this historical novel, Riasha, a Senegalese teen, taken into slavery, attempts to take control of her life during the slave revolts on the island of St. John in 1733.
• This young adult adaptation of The Omnivore’s Dilemma provides a snapshot of food industry and culture in the United States, and it isn’t pretty.
• This young adult adaptation of Fast Food Nation describes the role of sugar, fats, chemicals, and other problematic elements of fast food and junk food in the United States.
• This re-telling of the Brothers Grimm’s Rapunzel story is set in the Caribbean and involves a stolen piece of sugar cane.

Filed under: Nonfiction Chapter Books

About Mary Ann Cappiello

Mary Ann is a professor of language and literacy at Lesley University. A former public school language arts and humanities teacher, she is a passionate advocate for and commentator on children’s books. Mary Ann is the co-author of Teaching with Text Sets (2013) and Teaching to Complexity (2015) and Text Sets in Action: Pathways Through Content Area Literacy (Stenhouse, 2021). She has been a guest on public radio and a consultant to public television. From 2015-2018, Mary Ann was a member of the National Council of Teachers of English's Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction (K-8) Committee, serving two years as chair.

Related Posts

Slj blog network, notes on august 2024.

by Travis Jonker

Batchelder Guest Post: Mildred L. Batchelder and the International Youth Library: Part II – “Endless” Correspondence

by Betsy Bird

Graphix to Publish Two Azuki Manga | News

by Brigid Alverson

September Suggestions: The Final Round

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Navigating the High School and Academic Library Policy Landscape Around Dual Enrollment Students

by John Chrastka

Take Five: 2024 Middle Grade Books by Minnesota Authors

by Amanda MacGregor

Lisa Fipps on the Stories Bouncing Around in Her Head

by Colby Sharp

Related Articles on SLJ

12 Coming-of-Age Stories and Compelling Nonfiction for Teens | We Are Kid Lit Collective

12 Books to Celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility

SLJ Debuts Fiction Series Made Simple December 2024

Sparking Curiosity | Spanish Series Nonfiction

10 Reference Titles for Research in Women's History, Sharks, AI & More

Reader interactions.

November 20, 2010 at 1:45 am

Again I am so impressed with what you have included in this blog and how well it is written. I remember a brief discussion of this text when you were doing your Longfellow family research. MSM

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Spice, Magic, Slavery, Freedom, and Science

When the award-winning husband-and-wife team of Marc Aronson and  Marina Budhos  discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives.

The trail ran like a bright band from religious ceremonies in India to Europe’s Middle Ages, then on to Columbus, who brought the first cane cuttings to the Americas. Sugar was the substance that drove the bloody slave trade and caused the loss of countless lives but it also planted the seeds of revolution that led to freedom in the American colonies, Haiti, and France. With songs, oral histories, maps, and over 80 archival illustrations, here is the story of how one product allows us to see the grand currents of world history in new ways. Time line, source notes, bibliography, index.

Book Reviews for Sugar Changed the World

“sugar did indeed change the world. it is such an important, necessary, and controversial part of our contemporary lives that we take it for granted. but in this extremely valuable book, marc and marina give us an extraordinary gift – a long, historical, look at the development of sugar and the monumental changes it brought to the globe. the writing is fluid and engaging; the stories of enslavement, brutality, freedom and self-determination are fascinating. younger audiences will be encouraged to view history and culture as adventure. those of us a bit older, in all parts of the world, will find that our past and our destinies are much more closely intertwined. this is a marvelous accomplishment.”, -dr. franklin odo, former dir. of the smithsonian institution asian pacific american program, “that a single food — sucrose, or sugar — could have played so great a part in such important changes in world history makes for a nearly incredible story. but the authors of this book make it believable and immediate. they provide a touching element to sugar’s story by bringing their own life stories into convincing alignment with their global account. this is good writing that will make good reading — for young, and even for old– readers”, -sidney w. mintz, author of sweetness and power: the the place of sugar in modern history and three ancient colonies: caribbean themes and variations, “this book, at once serious and engaging, traces the complex history of sugar over vast expanses of time and space, exploring ways in which this one commodity influenced the formation of empires, the enslavement and migrations of peoples, the development of ideas about liberty, and so much more.”, -deborah warner, a curator in the national museum of american history, smithsonian institution..

We’re fighting to restore access to 500,000+ books in court this week. Join us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Sugar changed the world : a story of magic, spice, slavery, freedom, and science

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

2,613 Views

37 Favorites

Better World Books

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by station61.cebu on July 24, 2020

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Kate Messner

SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

One of my teaching goals this year has been to promote nonfiction more actively to my classroom of 7th grade readers.  Last summer at ALA, I made it a point to have more nonfiction signed to my students for our classroom library, and I’ve been book-talking those titles more frequently as well. The latest book I’ll be recommending is just out this week from Clarion Books…

SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos is a fascinating and compelling work of narrative nonfiction that looks at the history of sugar, or rather, the history of the world as it was shaped by sugar. This work of narrative nonfiction starts out with two personal stories about the authors’ ancestors and the way sugar shaped their families’ journeys, but then the camera pulls back to reveal the truly remarkable impact the sweet stuff has had on the world, the spread of slavery, and the exchange of ideas about freedom that would ultimately put an end to it. Fascinating sidebars tell stories that don’t make it into history textbooks — like the one about Palmares, the 17th century Brazilian community of escaped sugar plantation slaves that flourished in the mountains beyond the fields of cane. Extensive back matter includes a timeline and an essay on the research & writing process that the authors used in creating this beautifully crafted book.

Posted in Uncategorized

Sugar Changed the World

70 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Pre-Reading Context

Thought & Response Prompts

Paired Texts & Other Resources

Essay Questions

This resource can be used as supplemental teacher material or as a primary basis for literature study to:

• draw students into a text with pre-reading questions and warm-up prompts, maintain engagement and promote analysis with free-writing or discussion, and assess knowledge and comprehension with quizzes.
• ensure deeper understanding and enjoyment of the literature with activities for all learning types.
• stretch students’ critical thinking and writing skills with differentiated essay topics.

Note to Teachers: To support lesson-planning, connections to the work’s primary themes are noted throughout this resource (The Complexity of History, History is Personal, and Positivity Out of Negativity).

Related Titles

By these authors

Ask Me No Questions

Featured Collections

African History

View Collection

Challenging Authority

Colonialism & Postcolonialism

Jewish American Literature

YA Nonfiction