Sugar Mill in Colonial Brazil

O sugar mill in colonial Brazil it was the place where sugar was produced for domestic consumption and for export.

The devices of colonial period began to emerge from the 16th century onwards, when the economic cycles in Brazil. O redwood cycle was the first and the of sugar was the second.

The first sugarcane seedlings arrived in the country in the 16th century, when settlers brought them from European continent. They already had planting techniques, as they already cultivated the species in other countries of the world.

Structure of colonial mills

You colonial mills had a large structure, divided into:

• Plantations: in addition to sugar cane, there were plantations (vegetables, vegetables and fruits) of other products;
• Casa Grande: it was the place where the power of the mills was concentrated. In addition, it was the house that inhabited the Senhores de Engenho (rich landowners) and their family;
• Senzala: they were places with terrible conditions that had the objective of sheltering people enslaved;
• Chapel: built to represent the beliefs of the mill dwellers, mainly the Portuguese. Place where masses and other celebrations religious were carried out;
• Houses of Free Workers: places where free workers lived;
• Corral: place that housed the animals;
• Canavial: place where sugar cane was cultivated;
• Milling: place where sugarcane was ground by animal traction, human power or mill;
• Casa das Caldeiras: place where the product was heated;
• Casa das Fornalhas: place where sugarcane was heated and transformed into molasses;
• House of Purging: place responsible for refining the product, turning it into sugar.

Operation of the sugar mill

After harvesting the sugar cane, the product was taken to the mill, where it was expressed until all its juice was extracted.

After removing all the broth, the product was sent to the boiler room and furnaces, where it was cooked in copper pots.

Afterwards, the molasses was refined in the purge house, where the last stage of sugar production took place.

Two types of sugar were produced on the mills, white, which had virtually all of its production directed to the European continent, and brown, dark in color, aimed at the domestic market.

After being packaged, the products were sent to Portugal and to Netherlands, which distributed them throughout the continent.

It is important to highlight that the mills were not just sugarcane plantations, they had all the structure mentioned above, being considered as “small cities”

Farmers who were unable to build their own mill were called cane farmers. Generally, they used the ingenuity of some large landowner in exchange for material compensation.

The sugar economy developed to such an extent that, by the beginning of the 17th century, the colony already had more than 400 sugar mills, mainly in the northeast region.

O sugar cycle went into decline from the 18th century onwards, when there was an increase in foreign competition and a drop in production.

In addition, the discovery of gold deposits in the states that currently correspond to Minas Gerais, Goias It is Mato Grosso, contributed to the decline of sugar.

In this sense, the sugar mills were being deactivated, making room for the advent of the gold cycle in the country.

Slave labor on the mills

Enslaved black people were the main workforce on the sugar mills. They lived in appalling conditions, in addition to working long and exhausting hours and suffering physical and psychological aggression.

Slave labor was used both on plantations and in large houses, as cleaners, nannies, cooks, wet nurses, among other functions.

Learn more at:

• List of exercises about Colonial Brazil
• Colonial Brazil by Jean-Baptiste Debret
• Timeline – History of Brazil