Terrebonne County Louisiana Archives News.....Fifty Years Ago No. 10 December 13, 1890
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Savanna King savanna18king@gmail.com August 11, 2023, 12:39 am

The Thibodaux Sentinel December 13, 1890

The citizen who lay down fifty years ago to rest in peaceful dreams, along Bayou 
Lafourche, was not ruthlessly awakened by the shrill blowing of the whistles 
during the sugarmaking season. 

The whistles themselves were unknown at that date, and sugar houses with very 
rare exceptions were not run by steam. The rolls were set upright, and turned by 
horse power. For some reason the impression prevailed that mules would not 
answer to turn the rollers, and that horses only were suitable for that purpose. 
Whether it was simply an idea, backed up by tradition or whether it was a real 
fact, that the long eared animal would not work at turning rolls, it was however 
true that that part of sugar manufacturing was done with horses.

A man stood by the rollers, and fed the sugar canes into the mills by hand, 
sending about as much cane through the rollers in one day, as now goes up to the 
mills in five minutes.

The cane juice was passed through four or five kettles during its evaporation 
and clarification. There were no steam pans or great clarifiers in use then. 
Lime only was used for clarifying purposes, and, when sugar cane was a bit 
frosted or a little green the planter was generally satisfied to make what they 
called gumbo sugar, which was an article so thick and black that it would not 
half purge when put into the hogsheads.

Much of the labor about sugar rolling was done by slaves, but all the white men 
who resided in the vicinity could generally get employment, during that season, 
if they sought for it.

A sugar apparatus that would make five or six hogsheads of sugar in 24 hours was 
a “big thing.”

Planters would generally cut and haul up big piles of sugar cane, and stack it 
up around the mill, for two or three days, and then grind up that, and what 
could be supplied in the meantime, and then stop for as many days. None of them 
had the force to keep their mills going steadily, and, even if they had, their 
supply of coolers was so small, that they often had to wait for the sugar to 
cool sufficiently to be put into the hogsheads. 

The only fuel then used was wood, but there was an abundance of that. The land 
that was annually cleared furnished more wood than was requisite to evaporate 
their cane juice.

The close of sugar making was a happy day with all and a big time for the 
slaves. When the last canes came in from the fields, one or two big stalks were 
selected, for a baptismal ceremony. The men would pick up their master or 
overseer and carry him through the sugar house when the whisky jug was brought 
forth, the sugar canes properly baptized with the fiery liquid, amid the wishes 
of all that the next year would produce a larger yield, and, then all the hands 
were baptized also, only instead of sprinkling on their outsides it was turned 
inwardly and passed by the channel into which all good whiskey disappears. 

During all this ceremony the air was filled with the songs and choruses, sung 
only as slaves could sing them. The hands engaged about the sugar house had to 
attend to their work, but when the last strike was thrown out they had their 
time also. A week was generally given them after rolling was completed, or if 
that occurred before Christmas, the holiday week was given them, and on each 
plantation a grand feast was prepared, the hamsters generally furnishing the 
flour and the meat, whilst the mistresses often had a number of cakes prepared 
and sent to them. These feasts were generally participated in by the hands of 
the adjoining plantations, and wound up with a grand dance at night.

During these holiday periods woe betided the man that had not his pockets well 
lined with picayunes and bits (6 ¼ and 12 ½ cent pieces) for every slave on the 
plantation, or that happened to know him, expected one of those pieces every 
time they met. 

On every plantation were negroes who could play the violin or the banjo, and 
they were often called upon to play for the whites when other musicians could 
not be had.

When the slaves wanted a dance and no fiddle was on hand, someone would “pat his 
knee” and the ance would go on. But those gay scenes live only in memory. Only 
he or she who has seen them can comprehend and understand them.


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