【简译】殖民地时期的甘蔗种植园生活

Raising sugar cane could be a very profitable business, but producing refined sugar was a highly labour-intensive process. For this reason, European colonial settlers in Africa and the Americas used slaves on their plantations, almost all of whom came from Africa. If they survived the horrific conditions of transportation, slaves could expect a hard life indeed working on plantations in the Atlantic islands, Caribbean, North America, and Brazil.

          种植甘蔗可能是一个非常有利可图的生意，但生产精制糖是一个高度劳动密集的过程。因此，非洲和美洲的欧洲殖民者在他们的种植园里大量使用奴隶，这些奴隶几乎都来自非洲。如果他们在可怕的运输条件下幸存下来，奴隶们可以“期待”在大西洋岛屿、加勒比海、北美和巴西的种植园里工作的艰苦生活。

The plantation system was first developed by the Portuguese on their Atlantic Island colonies and then transferred to Brazil, beginning with Pernambuco and Sâo Vicente in the 1530s. With most of the workforce consisting of unpaid labour, sugar plantations made fortunes for those owners who could operate on a large enough scale, but it was not an easy life for smaller plantation owners in territories rife with tropical diseases, indigenous populations keen to regain their territories, and the vagaries of pre-modern agriculture. Nevertheless, the plantation system was so successful that it was soon adopted throughout the colonial Americas and for many other crops such as tobacco and cotton.

          种植园首先由葡萄牙人在其大西洋岛屿殖民地发展起来，然后转移到巴西，从1530年的伯南布哥和圣维森特开始。由于大部分劳动力都是无偿劳动，糖业种植园为那些有足够规模的业主带来了财富，但对于那些规模较小的种植园业主来说，在充斥着热带疾病、热衷于收复领土的原住民以及变化无常的前现代农业的地区，这不是一种轻松的生活。然而，种植园是如此成功，以至于它很快被整个美洲殖民地和许多其他作物——如烟草和棉花种植所采用。

马德拉和种植园系统

In the 15th century, it was the Portuguese who first adapted a plantation system for growing sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) on a large scale. The idea was first tested following the Portuguese colonization of Madeira in 1420. Madeira, a group of unpopulated volcanic islands in the North Atlantic, had rich soil and a beneficial climate for growing sugar cane all year round. The Portuguese Crown parcelled out land or ‘captaincies’ (donatarias) to noble settlers, much like they did in the feudal system of Europe. These nobles in turn distributed parts of their estate called semarias to their followers on the condition that the land was cleared and used to grow first wheat and then, from the 1440s, sugar cane, a portion of the crop being given back to the overlord. The project was financed by Genoese bankers while technical know-how came from Sicilian advisors. It was from Sicily that the various varieties of sugar cane were brought to Madeira.

          在15世纪，葡萄牙人首次运用了大规模种植甘蔗（Saccharum officinarum）的种植园系统。这个想法在1420年葡萄牙人在马德拉岛殖民后得到了首次验证。马德拉是北大西洋上一群无人居住的火山岛，拥有丰富的土壤和有利于全年种植甘蔗的气候。葡萄牙王室将土地或 "captaincies"（donatarias）分给贵族定居者，就像他们在欧洲的封建制度中所做的那样。这些贵族反过来又将其庄园的一部分分配给他们的追随者，条件是土地被开垦并首先用于种植小麦；从1440年代开始种植甘蔗，一部分作物上贡给王室。该项目由热那亚银行家提供资金，而技术知识则来自西西里岛的技术顾问。各种甘蔗品种正是从西西里岛被带到马德拉的。

Sugar from Madeira was exported to Portugal, to merchants in Flanders, to Italy, England, France, Greece, and even Constantinople. By the end of the 15th century, the plantation owners knew they were on to a good thing, but their number one problem was labour. Consequently, slaves were imported from West Africa, particularly the Kingdom of Kongo and Ndongo (Angola). The scale of human traffic was relatively small, but the model was now in place that would be copied and refined elsewhere following the Portuguese colonization of the Azores in 1439, the Cape Verde Islands (1462), and São Tomé and Principe (1486).

          马德拉的糖出口给葡萄牙、佛兰德斯的商人、意大利、英国、法国、希腊，甚至君士坦丁堡。到15世纪末，种植园主知道他们正处于一个好时机，但他们的首要问题是劳动力短缺。因此，他们从西非，特别是刚果王国和恩东戈（安哥拉）进口奴隶。贩卖人口的规模相对较小，但已经形成一定规模，在葡萄牙于1439年对亚速尔群岛、佛得角群岛（1462年）以及圣多美和普林西比（1486年）进行殖民之后，这种模式将在其他地方得到复制和完善。

São Tomé and Principe were really the first European colonies to develop large-scale sugar plantations employing a sizeable workforce of African slaves. The system was then applied on an even larger scale to the new colony of Portuguese Brazil from the 1530s. Within a few decades, Brazil had become the world’s largest producer of sugar. The same system was adopted by other colonial powers, notably in the Caribbean. As the historian M. Newitt notes：

          Here [São Tomé and Principe] the plantation system, dependent on slave labour, was developed and a monoculture established, which made it necessary for the settlers to import everything they needed, including food. Sâo Tomé took on all the characteristics later assumed by the islands of the Lesser Antilles; it was a Caribbean island on the wrong side of the Atlantic. (61)

          圣多美和普林西比确实是第一个发展大规模糖业种植园的欧洲殖民地，那里雇用了大量的非洲奴隶劳动力。从15世纪30年代开始，该系统被更大规模地应用于新的殖民地葡萄牙-巴西。在几十年内，巴西已成为世界上最大的糖生产国。其他殖民国家也采用了同样的制度，特别是在加勒比地区。正如历史学家M. Newitt所指出的：

          在这里[圣多美和普林西比]，依赖奴隶劳动的种植园系统得到了发展，并建立了单一的农业，这使得定居者必须进口他们所需要的一切，包括食物。圣多美具有后来小安的列斯群岛的所有特征；它是一个位于大西洋一侧的加勒比岛国。(61)

生产过程

skilled and unskilled work. Fields had to be cleared and burned with the remaining ash then used as a fertilizer. Sometimes land had to be terraced, although not usually in Brazil. Irrigation networks had to be built and kept clear. A great number of planters and harvesters were required to plant, weed, and cut the cane which was ready for harvest five or six months after planting in the most fertile areas. As cane was planted each month in one part of a plantation, the harvesting was an ongoing process for much of the year, with the more intense periods requiring slaves to work night and day. Carts had to be loaded and oxen tended to take the cane to the processing plant. The sugar then had to be packed and transported to ports for shipping.

          熟练和不熟练的工作。田地被清理和焚烧，剩余的灰烬用作肥料。有时，种植土地必须是梯田，尽管在巴西通常不是这样。灌溉网络必须建立并保持畅通。需要大量的种植者和收割者来种植、除草和砍伐甘蔗，在最肥沃的地区，种植后五六个月就可以收割。由于每个月在种植园的一个地方种植甘蔗，一年中的大部分时间都在进行收割，更紧张的时期需要奴隶们夜以继日地工作。手推车装车，牛要把甘蔗送到加工厂。然后，糖被包装并运送到港口进行运输。

All of the above tasks could be done by unskilled labour and were done mostly by slaves and a minority of paid labourers. The real problem was the process of producing sugar. As the historian A. R. Disney notes, "sugar production was one of the most complex and technologically-sophisticated agricultural industries of early modern times" (236).

          上述所有的工作都可以由非熟练劳动力完成，而且主要由奴隶和少数有偿劳动者完成。真正的问题是生产糖的过程。正如历史学家A.R.迪斯尼所指出的，"糖的生产是现代早期最复杂、技术最先进的农业产业之一"（236）。

Machinery had to be built, operated, and maintained to crush and process the cane. On early plantations, hand-presses were used to crush the cane, but these were soon replaced by animal-powered presses and then windmills or, more often, watermills; hence plantations were usually located near a stream or river. To save transportation costs, plantations were located as near as possible to a port or major water route. Those plantation owners who could not afford their own mill plant used those of the larger concerns and paid a percentage of the resulting crop for the privilege. A mill plant needed anywhere from 60 to 200 workers to operate it. In addition, the refineries needed a great deal of timber as fuel for their furnaces, and providing it was another laborious task for the plantation’s slaves. Those with the skills to operate and maintain the machinery in sugar mills were much in demand, especially their chief supervisor, the sugar master, who enjoyed a high salary. Over time, as the populations of colonies evolved, mixed-race European-locals, freed slaves, and sometimes even slaves were employed in these technical positions.

          建造、操作和维护机器来压榨和加工甘蔗。在早期的种植园里，人们用手力压榨甘蔗，但很快就被以动物为动力的压榨机所取代，然后是风车或更常见的水车；因此种植园通常位于溪流或河流附近。为了节省运输成本，种植园尽可能地靠近港口或主要水路。那些买不起磨坊的种植园主会使用大公司的磨坊，并为这一特权支付一定比例的收获。一个工厂需要60到200名工人来操作。此外，精炼厂需要大量的木材作为炉子的燃料，而提供这些木材是种植园奴隶的另一项艰巨任务。那些具有操作和维护糖厂机器的技能的人很受欢迎，特别是他们的首席监督员，即糖厂厂长，他享有高薪。随着时间的推移，殖民地人口的发展，欧洲当地的混血儿、被解放的奴隶，有时甚至是奴隶都被雇用在这些技术岗位上。

The cut cane was placed on rollers which fed it into a crushing machine. The juice from the crushed cane was then boiled in huge vats or cauldrons. The liquid was then poured into large moulds and left to set to create conical sugar 'loaves', each 'loaf' weighing 15-20 lbs (6.8 to 9 kg). The refined sugar then had to be dried thoroughly if it was to be as white and pure as the top merchants demanded. This necessity was sometimes a problem in tropical climates. Sugar of lesser quality with a brownish colour tended to be consumed locally or was only used to make preserves and crystallised fruit. The cane leftovers from the whole process were usually given to feed pigs on the plantation.

          切断的甘蔗被放置在滚轴上，滚轴将其送入粉碎机中。压碎的甘蔗的汁液然后在大桶或大锅中煮沸。然后将液体倒入大模具中，待其凝固，形成圆锥形的糖 "饼"，每个 "饼 "重15-20磅（6.8-9公斤）。然后，精制糖必须等彻底干燥，才能达到顶级商人所要求的白色和纯净。在热带气候条件下，这种必要性有时是个问题。质量较差、呈褐色的糖往往在当地消费，或只用于制作蜜饯和水果结晶。整个过程中剩下的甘蔗通常被用来喂养种植园里的猪。

种植园的奴隶生活

Slaves could be acquired locally but in places like Portuguese Brazil, enslaving the Amerindians was prohibited from 1570. Most plantation slaves were shipped from Africa, in the case of those destined for Portuguese colonies, to a holding depot like the Cape Verde Islands. Here they were given a number of basic lessons in Portuguese and Christianity, both of which made them more valuable if they survived the voyage to the Americas. These lessons also eased traders’ consciences that they were somehow benefitting the slaves and giving them the opportunity of what they considered eternal salvation.

          奴隶可以在当地获得，但在葡萄牙巴西等地，从1570年起禁止奴役美洲印第安人。大多数种植园的奴隶都是从非洲运来的，如果是运往葡萄牙殖民地的奴隶，则被运到佛得角群岛这样的收容所。在这里，他们接受了一些葡萄牙语和基督教的基本课程，如果他们在前往美洲的航程中幸存下来，这两方面都会使他们更有价值。这些课程也缓解了商人的良心，他们在某种程度上有利于奴隶，让他们有机会获得他们认为的“永恒的救赎”。

Brazil was by far the largest importer of slaves in the Americas throughout the 17th century. When Brazilian sugar production was at its peak from 1600 to 1625, 150,000 African slaves were brought across the Atlantic. One in five slaves never survived the horrendous conditions of transportation onboard cramped, filthy ships. The voyage to Rio was one of the longest and took 60 days. Once at the plantation, their treatment depended on the plantation owner who had paid to have them transported or bought the slaves at auction locally. It was not uncommon to give new arrivals a whipping just to show them, if they had not already realised, that their owners had no more sympathy for their situation than the cattle they owned. Slaves were thereafter supervised by paid labour, usually armed with whips. A watchtower was a feature of many plantations to ensure work schedules and rates were kept and to guard against external attacks.

          整个17世纪，巴西是迄今为止美洲最大的奴隶进口国。从1600年到1625年，当巴西的糖生产处于高峰期时，15万非洲奴隶被带过大西洋。在狭窄、肮脏的船上，五分之一的奴隶在可怕的运输条件下失去生命。到里约的航行是最长的航行之一，需要60天。一旦到了种植园，他们的待遇取决于支付了运输费用或在当地拍卖中购买奴隶的种植园主。对新来的奴隶进行鞭打是很常见的，如果他们还没有意识到，他们的主人对他们的处境并不比他们拥有的牛更同情。此后，奴隶们受到有偿劳动者的监督，他们通常配备了鞭子。瞭望台是许多种植园的一个特点，以确保奴隶们的工作时间表和费率得到遵守，并防止外部攻击。

Slaves had to learn the local pidgin such as creole Portuguese in Brazil. They typically lived in family units in rudimentary villages on the plantations where their freedom of movement was severely restricted. In many colonies, there were professional slave-catchers who hunted down those slaves who had managed to escape their plantation.

          奴隶们必须学习当地的皮钦语，如巴西的克里奥尔葡萄牙语。他们通常以家庭为单位生活在种植园的简陋村庄里，他们的行动自由受到严格的限制。在许多殖民地，有专业的捕奴员负责追捕那些设法逃离种植园的奴隶。

Slaves lived in simple mud huts or wooden shacks with little more than matting for beds and only rudimentary furniture. Some owners permitted marriages between slaves - formal or informal - while others actively separated couples. A problem for all male slaves was the fact that there were far more of them than females brought from Africa. On Portuguese plantations, perhaps one in three slaves were women, but the Dutch and English plantation owners preferred a male-only workforce when possible.

          奴隶们住在简单的泥屋或木棚里，除了用垫子做床，只有简陋的家具。一些奴隶主允许奴隶之间的婚姻--正式或非正式的--而其他奴隶主则积极地将夫妻分开。对所有男性奴隶来说，他们的数量远远多于从非洲带来的女性。在葡萄牙的种植园里，也许每三个奴隶中就有一个是女性，但荷兰和英国的种植园主在可能的情况下更倾向于只雇用男性劳动力。

Slaves were permitted at weekends to grow food for their own sustenance on small plots of land. Food raised by slaves included manioc, sweet potatoes, maize, and beans, with pigs kept to provide occasional meat. The diet was unvaried and meant to be as cheap for the owner as possible. The lack of nutrition, hard working conditions, and regular beatings and whippings meant that the life expectancy of slaves was very low, and the annual mortality rate on plantations was at least 5%.

          奴隶们在周末被允许在小块土地上种植食物以维持自己的生计。奴隶们种植的食物包括木薯、红薯、玉米和豆子，并饲养猪来偶尔提供肉类。饮食没有变化，目的是为了尽可能地减少主人的成本。营养不足，工作条件艰苦，经常被殴打和鞭打，这意味着奴隶的预期寿命非常低，种植园的年死亡率至少为5%。

种植园主的生活

Plantation owners obviously had a much better life than the slaves who worked for them, and if successful in their estate management, they could live lives far superior to anything they could have expected back in Europe. With household slaves and personal attendants, the wealthiest white Europeans could afford a life of ease surrounded by the best things money could buy such as a large villa, the finest clothing, exotic furniture of the best materials, and imported artworks by Flemish masters. With profits at only around 10-15% for sugar plantation owners, most, however, would have lived more modest lives and only the owners of very large or multiple estates lived a life of luxury. This latter group included those who lived in towns and not on their plantations, nobles who never even visited the colony, and religious institutions. It is also true that, just as with farming today, most of the profits in the sugar industry went to the shippers and merchants, not the producers. Finally, states-imposed taxes on sugar. In short, ownership of a plantation was not necessarily a golden ticket to success.

          种植园主的生活显然比为他们工作的奴隶要好得多，如果他们的庄园管理成功，他们可以过上远超他们在欧洲所能期望的任何生活。有了家庭奴隶和私人服务员，最富有的欧洲白人可以负担得起轻松的生活，周围是金钱可以买到的最好的东西，如大别墅、最好的衣服、最好材料的异国家具和佛兰德大师的进口艺术品。然而，由于糖厂老板的利润只有10-15%左右，大多数人都会过着比较简朴的生活，只有那些非常大的或多个庄园的老板才会过上奢侈的生活。后一类人包括那些住在城镇而不是种植园里的人，那些甚至从未去过殖民地的贵族，以及宗教机构。事实也是如此，就像今天的农业一样，制糖业的大部分利润都流向了托运人和商人，而不是生产商。最后，各州对糖业征税。简而言之，拥有种植园并不一定是通往成功的黄金门票。

There were some serious problems, then, to be faced by plantation owners. There were the challenges of growing any kind of crops in tropical climates in the pre-modern era: soil exhaustion, storm damage, and losses to pests - insects that bored into the roots of sugarcane plants were particularly bothersome. A large capital outlay was required for machinery and labour many months before the first crop could be sold. Food crops had to be grown to feed the paid labour, technicians, and the owner’s family. Another constant worry was unfamiliar tropical diseases which often proved fatal with the colonists, and particularly new arrivals. All of these factors conspired to create a situation where plantations changed ownership with some frequency.

          当时，种植园主面临着一些严重的问题。在前现代时期的热带气候下，种植任何种类的作物都面临着挑战：土壤枯竭、风暴破坏和虫害损失——钻入甘蔗植物根部的昆虫尤其令人烦恼。在第一茬作物可以出售之前，需要大量的机械和劳动力的资本支出。必须种植粮食作物来养活有偿劳动者、技术人员和主人的家庭。另一个持续的担忧是陌生的热带疾病，这些疾病常常被证明对殖民者——特别是新来的殖民者是致命的。这些因素的影响，造成了种植园频繁更换所有权的局面。

Another major risk to the sugar planters was rebellions by the slaves. Although slaves had only tools as potential weapons, there was usually no centralised military presence to aid plantation owners who often had to rely on organising militia forces themselves. There were many instances of slave uprisings resulting in the deaths of the plantation owner, their family, and slaves who had remained loyal to their owner. Wars with other Europeans were another threat as the Spanish, Dutch, British, French, and others jostled for control of the New World colonies and to expand their trade interests in the Old one.

          糖业种植园主的另一个主要风险是奴隶叛乱。虽然奴隶们只有工具作为潜在的武器，但通常没有集中的军事力量来帮助种植园主维护秩序，他们往往不得不依靠自己组织民兵部队。有很多奴隶起义的例子，导致种植园主、他们的家人和对主人忠诚的奴隶死亡。与其他欧洲人的战争是另一个威胁，因为西班牙、荷兰、英国、法国和其他国家争相控制新世界殖民地，并扩大他们在旧世界的贸易利益。

Then there were the indigenous people who might have been subdued by initial military campaigns but, nevertheless, remained in many places a significant threat to European settlements. At the same time, local populations had to be wary of regular slave-hunting expeditions in such places as Brazil before the practice was prohibited. The clash of cultures, warfare, missionary work, European-born diseases, and wanton destruction of ecosystems, ultimately caused the disintegration of many of these indigenous societies. Sugar and the people who reaped its profits, like many industries before and since, caused massive disruption and destruction, changing forever both the people and places where plantations were established, managed, and all too often abandoned.

          然后是原住民，他们可能已经被最初的军事行动所征服，但在许多地方仍然是对欧洲定居点的一个重大威胁。同时，在巴西等地，在禁止猎奴的做法之前，当地居民不得不对定期猎奴的探险队保持警惕。文化的冲突、战争、传教士的工作、来自欧洲的疾病以及对生态系统的肆意破坏，最终导致了许多这些原住民社会的解体。像之前和之后的许多行业一样，糖和获取其利润的人造成了大规模的破坏和毁灭，永远地改变了建立和管理种植园的人和地方，而且这些种植园常常被遗弃。

参考书目：

Disney, A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Disney, A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Newitt, Malyn. The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Oliver, Roland. The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Russell-Wood, A. J.R. The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808. JHUP, 1998.

Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

原文作者：Mark Cartwright

          驻意大利的历史作家。他的主要兴趣包括陶瓷、建筑、世界神话和发现所有文明的共同思想。他拥有政治哲学硕士学位，是《世界历史百科全书》的出版总监。

原文网址：https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1795/life-on-a-colonial-sugar-plantation/