Morgan Lewis - The Last Mill Standing
By Rekke Editorial
A historic monument to the bygone era of sugar plantations
How did we get sugar from sugar cane?
To extract sugary juices from sugar cane, the cane needs to be crushed between rollers, in fact twice, to extract the maximum amount. The juices were then fed, under gravity, to the boiling house where it was collected in the first of several large copper vessels. The coppers were heated by fires under them, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so the extraction of cane juices had to be a continuous process, using enslaved labour on two shifts of 12 hours. Recognising when the sugar was about to crystallise was a skilled job; while it was boiling, the surface was skimmed to remove impurities whilst concentrating the sugar syrup. After passing through several vessels, the final stage of this process involved the cooled liquid being transferred to clay pots. A few days later, the molasses component was drained out the bottom and taken to the spirit house for distillation to produce rum whilst the remaining semi-refined sugar was dried in the sun, packed and sent to Europe and America.
By the end of the process, about one gallon of cane juice would yield one pound of muscovado sugar.
In the early years of sugar production, cattle mills were used (driven by horses or later cattle) to drive the rollers but animals need feeding and replacing, this was not economical. Around 1655, (as a consequence of the signing of the Charter of Barbados in 1651) with the finance of the Jews and the technology of the Dutch, windmills were introduced to Barbados. Windmills were generally built on high ground surrounded with as much open land as possible, to utilize the power of the trade winds to turn the sails.
The first windmills were made of wood; however, with every storm or hurricane, these wooden structures and their associated boiling houses would be destroyed. After the great hurricane of 1675, all windmills were made of stone or coral blocks.
At its peak, sugar production was the main output of the island with over 800 plantations. In the mid 1800's, although there was a reduction in the number of plantations, Barbados had over 500 windmills. The Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill was built in 1727 and is built using rubble stone and mortar. As one of the largest and the only complete sugar windmill surviving in the Caribbean, the wind-driven machinery that ground the sugarcane is still intact, in place and visible. However, despite being one of the last mills to close, the mill is no longer operational; a lightning strike in 2007 and sails damaged by a storm in 2018 have had their impact.
There are remnants of other mills all over the island, these structures are known as Millwalls and are an important part of the landscape of Barbados. The structures stand as a reminder of the history of sugar production and of the labour of enslaved Africans - how the sugarcane crop was processed by the windmill and boiling house system.
The Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill stands on approximately 3, 000 square feet of gently sloping land, halfway between the top of Cherry Tree Hill to the west and Shorey Village to the east.
This restored mill consists of a tower, four giant arms and the gears that convert wind power to the rotational energy of the rollers. The tail can be used to rotate the top to face the prevailing winds, making it more efficient. The display at the mill also includes an exhibit of the equipment used to produce sugar at the time. Visitors may also be able to climb partway up into the mill and see the machinery.
The rubble walls are clearly visible and comprised of boulders held together with a mixture of egg-white and coral dust, there was no cement when this was built!
By 1946, the only two working mills were Morgan Lewis in St. Andrew and at Colleton Plantation in St. Peter; they ceased their commercial operations in 1947. The Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill was donated to The Barbados National Trust in 1962 for preservation. In 1996, it was put on the World Monuments Watch list and since its’ restoration it has been opened to the public as a museum.
