Chapter Two: The White Pigeon Sugar Manufactory
Chapter Two
The White Pigeon Sugar Manufactory
By the 1830s, the new European practice of extracting sugar identical to cane sugar from beets had captured the minds of separate but like-minded small groups of investors in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Michigan. The latter group took the name “White Pigeon” after the town in which the company was organized. Experiments that took place in Michigan and Massachusetts led to the construction of factories sized to produce salable white sugar in commercial quantities. Those first factories averaged five tons of sliced sugarbeets per day, an amount processed in less than sixty seconds in today’s modern factories.
World Governments Open the Door to Free Trade
Early experiments in sugarbeet processing …show more content…
He fought on the side of Spain in that country's war with France, opposed ill treatment of Native Americans, and protested the annexation of Texas. More pertinent to Child’s promotion of a sugarbeet enterprise, both Childs made known their ardent opposition to slavery and in public speeches, writings, and personal actions demonstrated a determination to help dismantle an evil system. Child aimed to secure the freedom of slaves in the South then take them to Massachusetts where he would employ them in his sugar factory, thus relieving the North's dependence on slave-labored cane sugar while at the same time providing a means of independence for freed slaves. Behind it all laid the financial panic of 1837 that was still in full bloom. The little money that became available for loans went, of course, to only the best …show more content…
Barry to Europe for the purpose of studying and reporting on the prospects for sugarbeets. He visited a number of factories in France, Belgium, and Germany during which he collected information about operating costs, sugar recovery, and the political climate in those countries. An attorney with a reputation for thorough attention to detail, Barry appeared to be well suited to the role of investigator. To his credit, this reputation would lead the people of Michigan to elect him governor in 1842. The future governor's lack of business experience, however, and lack of prior knowledge about the properties and economic potential of sugarbeets, put him at a disadvantage when interviewing French sugar manufacturers—with whom he spent the greater part of his time—including many who had become dispirited by the political clout of cane sugar importers who had gained political ascendancy. Barry arrived in France at
The White Pigeon Sugar Manufactory
By the 1830s, the new European practice of extracting sugar identical to cane sugar from beets had captured the minds of separate but like-minded small groups of investors in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Michigan. The latter group took the name “White Pigeon” after the town in which the company was organized. Experiments that took place in Michigan and Massachusetts led to the construction of factories sized to produce salable white sugar in commercial quantities. Those first factories averaged five tons of sliced sugarbeets per day, an amount processed in less than sixty seconds in today’s modern factories.
World Governments Open the Door to Free Trade
Early experiments in sugarbeet processing …show more content…
He fought on the side of Spain in that country's war with France, opposed ill treatment of Native Americans, and protested the annexation of Texas. More pertinent to Child’s promotion of a sugarbeet enterprise, both Childs made known their ardent opposition to slavery and in public speeches, writings, and personal actions demonstrated a determination to help dismantle an evil system. Child aimed to secure the freedom of slaves in the South then take them to Massachusetts where he would employ them in his sugar factory, thus relieving the North's dependence on slave-labored cane sugar while at the same time providing a means of independence for freed slaves. Behind it all laid the financial panic of 1837 that was still in full bloom. The little money that became available for loans went, of course, to only the best …show more content…
Barry to Europe for the purpose of studying and reporting on the prospects for sugarbeets. He visited a number of factories in France, Belgium, and Germany during which he collected information about operating costs, sugar recovery, and the political climate in those countries. An attorney with a reputation for thorough attention to detail, Barry appeared to be well suited to the role of investigator. To his credit, this reputation would lead the people of Michigan to elect him governor in 1842. The future governor's lack of business experience, however, and lack of prior knowledge about the properties and economic potential of sugarbeets, put him at a disadvantage when interviewing French sugar manufacturers—with whom he spent the greater part of his time—including many who had become dispirited by the political clout of cane sugar importers who had gained political ascendancy. Barry arrived in France at