Data Literacy for Social Studies, Cane Sugar Production per State, 1860

We created this pie chart using tabulated data from the 1860 US Census to depict the amount of cane sugar produced by each state. As the pie chart makes clear, virtually all of the cane sugar grown in the United States was grown in Louisiana. Of the 230 million pounds of cane sugar grown in the United State in 1860, over 221 million of it was produced in Louisiana. Louisiana relied heavily on enslaved labor for their cane sugar production. Their sugar plantations averaged 50 enslaved persons as opposed to the national average of 10. Some larger, more profitable plantations had over 100 enslaved individuals. Cane sugar yielded huge profits for Louisiana, with the average value of a sugar plantation being $200,000. Maple sugar was also produced in a few states such as New York, Vermont and Michigan. Interestingly, the Census report goes into detail on the benefits of producing beet sugar, which had been done in France for many years, and was touted by abolitionists as a slave-free alternative to cane sugar. However, it would be another decade before the first successful beet sugar factory was established in the United States. Today, over half of domestic sugar production in the United States comes from sugar beets.