Boiling House
One the three corners of the Atlantic trade routes was sugar production. Initially done by indentured workers, soon there was a shift to the importation of Black African slaves to work the large sugar plantations. Slaves were divided into different types of workers from laborers to household servants (though the latter were often very few in number) and skilled workers, many of whom worked within the boiling house. The boiling house was an integral part of the sugar plantation. This print, from Antigua in 1823, shows the interior of a boiling house where the crushed sugar cane stalks were boiled in order to extract syrup.