The history of rum cannot be separated from the world-wide travels of sugarcane and the production of sugar. Therefore, this post is separated into two sections; the history of sugarcane and sugar and the history of rum.
THE HISTORY OF SUGARCANE and SUGAR
Sugarcane is a perennial grass naturally growing in tropical southeast Asia, from Burma to central China to the Pacific: finally to India which was the home of the first organized sugar production from the cane. Ancient Indian literature mentions "Gur" and "Sarkara", ancient Sanskrit names for the juice from sugarcane boiled down to make a sweet, syrupy liquid. These were the precursors to today's sugar. The first sugar factories in India date back to 1610. From India, sugarcane and the knowledge of how to make sugar was brought to the Middle East by Muslim traders where Muslin chemist's made major advances in its manufacturing process. Because of that, sugar was incorporated into Arab cuisine. Christian Crusaders to the Holy Land brought back to Europe the "Sweet Salt" of the Arabs where it became very popular with the rulers and the very wealthy. These encouraged European traders who were interested in making a profit to bring sugarcane and the process for making it into sugar back to Europe. In the 12th century, sugar replaced honey as a sweetener in Europe. During the 15th century of European exploration of the New World, the Spanish introduced sugarcane to the Canary Islands and Christopher Columbus brought sugarcane seedlings to Hispaniola on his second voyage in 1493. Sugarcane grew very well in these tropical environment's and by the mid-16th century the Portuguese brought sugarcane to Brazil and the British, Dutch, and French introduced it to their possessions of Barbados and Haiti. During this time the demand for sugar in Europe was becoming very great. However, growing, harvesting, and processing sugarcane into sugar was hard backbreaking work, and, soon, the European settlers in these sugar-producing areas did not have enough slave manpower to meet these demands. While local slaves were used initially, when more hands were needed, the Portuguese were the first to import slaves from Africa. It was thought that slaves from Africa would be less likely to escape and blend in with the local culture, thus, ensuring a more stable workforce. This opened the door to the importation of African slaves to the Caribbean plantations of owners from other European countries. The plantation economies of Brazil and the Caribbean together received 80% of the approximate 10 million slaves from Africa brought to the Western hemisphere. It was this set of historical circumstances that brought about the development of the alcoholic beverage that we know as rum.
THE HISTORY of RUM
In a 1552 report from the governor of Bahia, Brazil, it was noted that the local slaves were more amenable to work if allowed to drink "cachaco" a spirit they made by allowing the unprocessed sugarcane juice to ferment. Because so much cane was available and the production so easy, this drink became popular in the slave population. ("Cachaca", as it is known today is the alcoholic component of the national drink of Brazil; Caipirinha) While this is not rum as we know it (made from molasses, not sugarcane juice) it is its predecessor. The change occurred when a Dutch immigrant, Pietr Blower, moved from Brazil to the island of Barbados. In Brazil, he had encouraged the local sugar producers to get more out of the sugarcane harvest by fermenting a left-over product from the making of sugar (molasses) and making an alcoholic drink out of it. Blower brought this idea with him to Barbados and by 1651 it caught on and this drink made from molasses became a common drink on that and other Caribbean islands. However, it was a drink only for the slaves and lower classes. It wasn't until the late 1700s that rum started to be sipped by gentlemen of the upper classes. How the spirit became known as rum is contentious - some say it comes from the word, "rumbullion (tumult or uproar - a condition one got to when one drank a lot of it), others suggest it comes from an Olde English word (rum) for excellent. Further claims are for "scrum" (to fight), rumbustious (noisy; undisciplined), sacchrum (Latin for "sugarcane"), and several more. From whatever the name was derived, the ample supply of sugarcane and the ease of production allowed rum to become a universal drink regardless of class, enjoyed by the rich, the poor, and even the lawless - it was the drink of the pirates, as well.
