Women and the Politics of Sugar, 1792

Sussman, Charlotte

doi:10.2307/2928610

Cited by 25 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Efforts to boycott the consumption of West Indian sugar were well underway by 1791, however. 22 The installation of anti-saccharite domestic wares in recreated domestic settings might have facilitated a foregrounding both of the agency of the female consumer, and the role of women within the abolition movement itself. At the same time, this would have provided interesting ways to interrogate the relationship between the 'domestic' home setting and the slave-grown products of 'domestic' (national British) colonial territory.…”

Section: Slavery and Abolition 317mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Unredeemed Object: Displaying Abolitionist Artefacts in 2007

Webster

2009

Slavery & Abolition

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Section: Slavery and Abolition 317mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Unredeemed Object: Displaying Abolitionist Artefacts in 2007

Webster

2009

Slavery & Abolition

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“…In one candy store in Iowa, a replica of the battleship USS Maine was created through candied glass, sweets, and hills of pastry-even decades after the war had occurred (Merleaux, 2015). Even in times of political unrest, liberalism in commercial affairs remained prevalent, driven by waves of uprisings against 'undemocratic principles' (Merleaux, 2015;Sussman, 1994). With a sugar industry built upon fundamentally American ideals, Merleaux would go so far as to say that sugar, on the granular level, is embedded into American culture.…”

Section: Socio-cultural Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cold Cookies and Culturalism

Lee¹,

Stallings²

2022

J Stud Res

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Of our many sensory modalities, discussions on taste perception are widely fueled by its unconventional qualities. Gustation is unique in that it is inherently biological yet cultural. Sugar perception, particularly, has been a significant area of research in the field of taste perception—its historical, cultural, and scientific dimensionality parallels the unique qualities of taste perception as a whole. While our biology predisposes us to perceptive similarities, cultural dichotomies, especially between Eastern and Western societies, have embodied the divergence in gustatory preferences. To analyze how such dichotomies interact with a widely unresearched scientific factor— temperature—a mixed-method study was conducted between Korean and American participants, measuring how temperature and cultural background influenced the taste perception (hedonic value and taste intensity) of a classic American dessert staple—the chocolate chip cookie. Guided by quantitative measurements, a qualitative interview portion was conducted, where background information and verbal analyses contextualized the results from phase 1. Results revealed a positive correlation between cookie temperature and taste intensity as well as hedonic value. Additionally, it was also discovered that international travel served as a gustatory transition for both groups and historical events had a direct impact on dessert ‘staple’ choices by Koreans. Elements of nostalgia were exclusive factors to Americans when selecting childhood staples or expressing sentiments towards unconventional foods. When investigating perceptive changes through foreign residency, The American tendency to perceive a ‘forced change’ in eating habits reflected notions of Westernization and embodied historical interactions with colonization, the sugar industry, and the Korean peninsula.

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“…19 In 1792, an author of a series of strictures detailing the "impropriety" of Fox"s Address argued, based on their "experience and medical authority", that sugar was a necessary of life, and that many persons had done themselves great injury by abstaining entirely from it. 20 By the 1790s sugar was consumed more often, in more ways, and by significantly more people.…”

Section: Patterns Of British Sugar Consumption In the Eighteenth Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Charlotte Sussman, an English professor who specialises in eighteenth century literature, presents a detailed analysis of the treatment of the female body in discourse about sugar in 1792. 216 Mimi Sheller, who has a background in sociology and Caribbean studies, identifies continuities between anti-slavery sugar boycotts and contemporary ethical trading movements. She argues that the images of gendered consumer and racialized slave that were constructed by late eighteenth century abolitionists continue to exist as tropes in 21 st century humanitarian discourse.…”

Section: The Mouth As a Political Orificementioning

confidence: 99%

Fetishism and the Moral Marketplace: How Abolitionist Sugar Boycotts in the 1790s Defined British Consumers and the West Indian "Other"

Carmichael¹

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<p>In the early 1790s more than 300,000 Britons boycotted West Indian sugar in one of the most impressive displays of public mobilisation against the slave trade. Many of those who abstained were inspired by William Fox’s 1791 pamphlet An Address to the People of Great Britain on the Utility of Refraining from the Use of West India Sugar and Rum. The abstention movement gained momentum amidst the failures of the petition campaign to achieve a legislative end to the slave-trade, and placed the responsibility of ending slavery with all British consumers. This thesis draws from cross-disciplinary scholarship to argue that the campaign against slave sugar appealed to an idealised image of the humanitarian consumer and maligned slave. Writers such as Fox based their appeal on a sense of religious duty, class-consciousness and gendered values. Both the domestic sphere and the consumer body were transformed into sites of political activism, as abolitionists attempted to establish a direct link between the ingestion of sugar and the violence of colonial slavery. Attempts to encourage consumers’ sympathetic identification with the plight of distant slaves occurred alongside attempts to invoke horror and repulsion at slave suffering. The image of the West Indian slave presented to consumers was one shaped by fetishized European imaginings. The decision to abstain from slave sugar, therefore, was not only motivated by genuine philanthropic concerns, but the desire to protect the civilised and refined modern consumer, from the contaminating products of colonial barbarity.</p>

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Women and the Politics of Sugar, 1792

Cited by 25 publications

References 1 publication

The Unredeemed Object: Displaying Abolitionist Artefacts in 2007

The Unredeemed Object: Displaying Abolitionist Artefacts in 2007

Cold Cookies and Culturalism

Fetishism and the Moral Marketplace: How Abolitionist Sugar Boycotts in the 1790s Defined British Consumers and the West Indian "Other"

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