Digital Grainger

An Online Edition of The Sugar-Cane (1764)

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P R E F A C E.

SOON after my arrival in the West-Indies,1 I conceived the design of writing a poem on the cultivation of the Sugar-Cane. My inducements to this arduous undertaking were, not only the importance and novelty of the subject, but more especially this consideration; that, as the face of this country was wholly different from that of Europe, so whatever hand copied its appearances, however rude, could not fail to enrich poetry with many new and picturesque images.2

I CANNOT, indeed, say I have satisfied my own ideas in this particular: yet I must be permitted to recommend the precepts contained in this Poem. They are the children of Truth, not of Genius;3 the result of Experience, not the productions of Fancy. Thus, though I may not be able to please, I shall stand some chance of instructing the Reader; which, as it is the nobler end of all poetry, so should it be the principal aim of every writer who wishes to be thought a good man.4

IT must, however, be observed, that, though the general precepts are suited to every climate, where the Cane will grow; yet, the more minute rules are chiefly drawn from the practice of St. Christopher.5 Some selection was necessary; and I could adopt no

  1. Historically, the West Indies is the region that includes the northern coast of South America, Central America, Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles. We use the term Caribbean throughout this site to refer to the islands from Grenada through Cuba. ↩︎

  2. Grainger explains that because the Caribbean landscapes, flora, and fauna are so different from those of Europe, the region can give rise to new forms of poetry. ↩︎

  3. Poetic inspiration. ↩︎

  4. One of the georgic’s principal aims was to teach the reader about agriculture and cultivation. Despite the fact that another of Grainger’s goals was to help planters maximize their profits from sugar, which they depended upon enslaved labor to grow, Grainger also makes an appeal for the disinterested nobility and goodness of his poetic work. ↩︎

  5. The island of St. Christopher was known as Liamuiga by the indigenous Caribs who lived there. Columbus claimed it on behalf of Spain in 1493, and it was partitioned between the French and the English in the early seventeenth century, at which time it was primarily a tobacco colony. While the two countries exchanged control of the island several times during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was firmly under British control when Grainger left England in 1759 during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Grainger uses “St. Christopher,” “Liamuiga,” and “St. Kitts” interchangeably in the poem, but we have chosen to use “St. Kitts” on this site. St. Kitts has been part of the nation of St. Kitts and Nevis (also known as the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis) since it gained independence from Great Britain in 1983. ↩︎