Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, General Research and Reference Division

Cecilia Bååth-Holmberg, Kampen för och emot negerslafveriet; ett blad ur Förenta Staternas historia (Stockholm: Fahlcrantz, 1896)

Sugar cane was the cornerstone of Haiti's colonial prosperity. The French colony was the world's largest exporter of sugar on the eve of the Haitian Revolution. The wartime devastation of the economy drove sugar planters into exile, and many of them settled in south Louisiana, where they joined with local growers to meet the world demand for sugar. Skilled Haitian immigrants, both free and enslaved, transformed the crop into the region's primary economic asset.