Sugar & US Slavery

I carved a little time out this week and last to work on a chapter of mine. It comes from the middle of the book where I talk about the making of the “Second Slavery” and narrate the creation of a sugar complex in Louisiana. Nothing all that new or innovative about what I was writing. But I did find it strange that I could not find new books on the US Sugar Industry and racial capitalism. Given that Slavery and Capitalism has been such an active area of scholarship, I had expected to find something. Rockman discusses it some in Plantation Goods. But it isn’t a major focus.

Luckily I have some classics to draw on. Returning to Follett reveals that maybe there aren’t new works for a reason—some books are so good and just get it right.