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

We created this pie chart using a table from the 1860 U.S. Census to depict the amount of cane sugar produced by each state. The spreadsheets found here include the original table, a recreated table, and the chart. As the pie chart makes clear, virtually all of the cane sugar grown in the United States was grown in Louisiana. Louisiana relied heavily on enslaved labor for their cane sugar production. Their sugar plantations averaged 50 enslaved persons per plantation as opposed to the national average of 10. Some larger more profitable plantations had over 100 enslaved individuals. Cane sugar yielded huge profits, with the average sugar plantation valued at $200,000 (equivalent to nearly $8 million in todays dollars). Maple sugar was also produced in a few states such as New York, Vermont and Michigan. Interestingly, the 1860 U.S 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.