Maple Sugar for a Noble Cause
—Allison Bedosky, Education Director
As the end of winter approaches and spring is in the not-too-distant future, we recognize many signs of the changing seasons. One of these traditional signs is the picturesque steel buckets that will be hanging from metal spouts attached to our sugar maples here at the Nature Center. The Nature Center has our own yearly sugaring traditions, but this sweet treat has an even longer and more significant history that has ties to a very noble cause.
In the early years of our country's independence, some experienced the freedoms of no longer being colonists, while others had no freedoms at all. Many argued that slavery was necessary to increase the production of goods and natural resources, while others felt that it was immoral and had no place in our new country. These abolitionists tried multiple tactics to help people see that slave labor was wrong and unnecessary. One of these strategies included using maple sugaring as a means to bring about an end to slavery. They believed that the replacement of cane sugar with maple sugar would be an economic blow to slavery in the West Indies because maple sugar does not need slave labor for production. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was also one of the earliest anti-slavery voices. In 1789 he founded the Society for Promoting the Manufacture of Sugar from the Sugar Maple Tree with the goal of decreasing consumption of cane sugar. He even hosted tea parties where ladies and gentleman would taste and compare the flavors between teas with cane sugar and teas with maple sugar to prove that maple sugar is just as sweet as sugar from the south. Thomas Jefferson was another civil rights activist who believed that the maple sugaring industry could lead to the end of slavery. He felt so strongly in this belief that he even attempted to import and grow sugar maples on his property at Monticello.
Unfortunately, before it was even given a chance to be an economic weapon against slavery, northern capitalists proved them wrong. Northerners continued to purchase sweeteners from the south because they were cheaper. They also believed this product was not a dependable resource because of the ever-changing New England spring weather and unpredictable yield of syrup.
Although this plan didn't work, abolitionists gave a valiant effort in trying to use a natural resource as a way to end slavery. Hopefully it will taste a little sweeter the next time you enjoy maple syrup on your pancakes.
