January 27 – Evolution of Sugar Cane Plantations

January 27, 2015 Meeting
By: John Doucet
Joanne Ryan of Coastal Environments, Inc. (Baton Rouge), discussed her project, “The Spatial Evolution of Sugar Plantations in Louisiana.” An archaeologist, Ryan sought to describe the commonalities of land usage and sugarhouse structures on historical plantation properties, as well as changes in usage and structures over time. Her excavations demonstrated that brick foundations of many abandoned and demolished sugarhouses remained underground. She explained that before the advent of heavy machinery, buildings like mills were demolished by hand as low as possible to the ground line, and the remainder was covered with earth or new construction. By comparing shapes of excavated foundations, as well as using historical maps and photographs, Ryan showed changes in sugarhouse design during the technological change from animal-powered to steam-powered cane grinders.
Ryan described a clear difference in property utilization between older and more recent plantations. Older plantations began as cotton enterprises, and riverside location was important for transportation. During the transition to sugar cultivation, cotton buildings became sugarhouses. As more land was cleared, however, these structures were typically located far from the banks and near the back swamps to maximize plantable land, to avoid riverbank erosion, and to easily access the swamp forest for firewood to generate steam power. At plantations along inland waterways like bayous, however, sugarhouses were typically always found on the narrow highland near the bayou banks where there was little threat of waterside erosion.
Ryan received the Bachelor of Arts in classical archeology from UNC at Chapel Hill and the Master of Arts in archaeological studies from Yale University