9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Narrator) This is the story of a world[br]whose borders and territories 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were drawn by the slave trade, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where violence, subjugation [br]and profit imposed their own routes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This criminal system shaped our history[br]and our world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 On São Tomé, the Portuguese[br]invented an economic model 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with unprecedented profitability:[br]the sugar plantation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (English voiceover) This was [br]the first black colony, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the first slave society. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (English voiceover) We witnessed[br]the marriage of the black men 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with sugar cane. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (Narrator) In the 16th century,[br]other European powers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were eager to follow their model. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Their greed would plunge [br]an entire continent 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into chaos and violence. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Nearly 13 million Africans were cast onto[br]new slavery routes to the new world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where the English, the French,[br]and the Dutch hoped to become wealthy, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 immeasurably wealthy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Intense music with strong bass drum beat) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because the Caribbean[br]has similar climatic features to São Tomé, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it eventually became[br]the principal crossroads 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the slave trader's routes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 For people in the western world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 these islands are today[br]associated with vacation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Guadeloupe offers tourists[br]a dream destination. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sunshine and pristine nature, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 rekindling myths of a lost paradise. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Holidaymakers tend to confine themselves[br]to the beaches of Le Gosier, Sainte-Anne, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Saint François. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But as this sign indicates,[br]they are all too close 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to another side of the islands heritage 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that was anything but a paradise. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Just a few meters away from the bathers[br]is a burial site 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where countless skeletons were discovered. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Between 500 and 1,000 graves[br]are still buried beneath the sand. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Raisins Clairs beach is one of 15 [br]slave cemeteries that have been excavated. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 15, among the 1,000[br]that exist in the Caribbean. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 89 skeletons have been exhumed[br]by French archaeological research experts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Judging by the state of the bones,[br]they concluded that these men and women 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 had not reached the age of 30. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 By the time of their death,[br]the toll from working on the plantations 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 had so deformed their bodies[br]that they seemed more like 75 year olds. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These people were human guinea pigs[br]for the sugar experiment, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the collateral damage of an unprecedented[br]trade war: The Sugar War. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 74% of all slaves carried off, were carried[br]off because of sugar. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you want to understand the slave trade, you[br]just need to know about sugar. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sugar proved more addictive[br]than pepper or cinnamon. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 From the 17th century onward, Europeans[br]craved this rare and expensive commodity 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In London, Amsterdam, and Paris,[br]sugar fever was rampant, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 prompting a new generation of adventurers[br]to go to any extremes to get it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Shipowners and fitters,[br]merchants and pirates, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 all knew that to produce sugar,[br]you needed a lot of slaves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 John Hawkins was one of these[br]new entrepreneurs 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for whom profit reigned supreme. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The English privateer was a pioneer[br]in understanding that a fortune 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 could be made by shipping Black captives[br]to the New World. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In the mid 16th century,[br]he convinced Queen Elizabeth I 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to lend him a ship, The Jesus of Lubec. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 For the expedition,[br]Hawkins conspicuously set the tone 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by choosing a trussed up Black man[br]on his emblem. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (Male speaker) "I do confirm[br]to your highness 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "that I will bring home 40,000 marks[br]without any offense of the least 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to any of Your Highnesses,[br]allies, or friends. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "I will conduct this enterprise[br]and turn it to the benefit 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "of your whole realm,[br]with Your Highness' consent. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "The voyage I propose[br]is to load negroes in Guinea 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "and sell them in the West Indies, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "in truck of pearls, gold, and emeralds[br]that I will bring back in abundance." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (Narrator) 1620,[br]a century after sugar plantations 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were introduced in Brazil. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Atlantic became the battleground[br]for the sugar war. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 England, The Netherlands and France wanted[br]to break Spain and Portugal's hegemony. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In the Caribbean,[br]the Dutch took control 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of Curaçao, Sint Eustatius,[br]and Saint Martin. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The French: Guadeloupe, Martinique,[br]Grenada and Saint-Domingue. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The English occupied The Bahamas, Jamaica,[br]Antigua, Barbados and Dominica. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Only Cuba and Puerto Rico[br]remained under Spanish rule. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 After the extermination[br]of the native Arawak people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the first sugar canes flourished[br]on this fertile land. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - The Caribbean became a space of conquest[br]for the Europeans very early on. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Really, it was the first place[br]that Columbus landed in the new world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the first place that the Spanish[br]began to search for gold, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the first place they began[br]to enslave the Indians. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So they were thoroughgoing[br]colonial spaces 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 created by design of Europ,ean planters[br]and imperial policy makers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [br]and for their profit, right? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There aren't so many places where you can[br]completely overlay a territory like that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, in some ways, the Caribbean[br]is the space where you find 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the purest of Colonial territories. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Where the masters of the space[br]actually get to create the space 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to suit their own needs. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (Narrator) In Guadalupe,[br]every plot of land, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 every single square inch of ground, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is connected to this violent[br]and deeply rooted history. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Today, all that is left of sugar war[br]is a field of ruins. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Of the 250 sugar refineries active[br]in the late 19th century, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 only two remain in operation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In 2017, experts from France's 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 National Institute of Preventive[br]Archeological Research 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 exhumed the remains of the Saint Jacques[br]residence and sugar refinery 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in Anse-Bertrand: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A mill, stock rooms,[br]and three rows of so-called "negro huts" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where hundreds of slaves[br]were penned up together. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In this brutal work camp, human beings[br]were but one tool among others. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Each became a mechanized, emaciated body[br]consumed by work until their final breath. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - Both the time in which the slaves[br]were digging the cane holes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the times in which[br]they were harvesting 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were really the peak of the labor[br]on a plantation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You could almost see the slaves[br]wasting away 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when they were digging these cane holes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because the work was so strenuous and[br]they were getting fed so poorly. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You found women in all of the gangs, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 often times doing the hardest,[br]dirtiest labor on the plantation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 alongside the men, or even before the men. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And one of the things that means, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when you find young women doing[br]this quite debilitating labor, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that the birth rates are very low[br]and the mortality rates, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the infant mortality[br]rate is shockingly high. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In the mid-18th century,[br]people talked about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 9 out of 10 infants born [br]to enslaved Jamaican women dying, right, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 within the first year. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, there's no way in which the plantation[br]can reproduce itself 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 under those kinds of conditions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (English voiceover) The plantation[br]were managed by overseers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who saw the slaves[br]in purely functional terms. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This was an absolute exploitation[br]of the workforce. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was a very particular society 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because the average rate[br]of life expectancy on a plantation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was extremely low,[br]about 8 to 10 years after arriving. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (English voiceover)[br]The logic of the slave system 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was one where the availability[br]of the workforce had to be absolute. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And for this, man was conceived[br]as an accessory of the land. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He appeared as such in house inventories. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Slaves are listed next to records[br]for livestock or manufacturing implements. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's the archaic aspect which was[br]put to use by a capitalist system, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and which largely met[br]market supply and demand, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with its fluctuations, needs,[br]and competition - free competition. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - (Narrator) The sugar plantations[br]saw slavery enter a new era. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The stronger the demand for sugar,[br]the more the slave trade expanded, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the more the slave traders[br]sought support from banks 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to finance their expeditions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 London is one of the oldest centers[br]of global finance. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The city of London was the first[br]to create a commodities exchange, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to develop credit markets[br]and to issue banknotes on a massive scale. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Without the invention[br]of a centralized banking system, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the explosion of the slave trade[br]in the 17th century 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 would not have been possible. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Preparing for a slave expedition[br]was expensive, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and having a financial arsenal 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 gave England a decisive advantage[br]over its competitors. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You've got to remember that the State is getting a tremendous amount of revenue from the plantation complex, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so they had a very strong, vested interest in the slave trade. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you had gone to the king of England in 1680 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and said, "Look, I'm gonna give you a choice. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "You can either have these 13 colonies[br]in North America, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "or you can have this one little island called Barbados." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You would have taken Barbados[br]in a split second 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because of the sugar revenues. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And this is something that's going to persist as a very important interest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for European states up until the very end of slavery. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To support the sugar war, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the city lent money on a colossal scale. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In the midst of these steel and glass buildings, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the two pillars of the English economy that financed the slave trade 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are still prominent on the London skyline. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At the heart of the financial district is the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 venerable bank of England, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the world's first central bank. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A couple of blocks away is Britain's most powerful [br]insurance company, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the prestigious Lloyd's of London. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Atlantic slave traders had to take on heavy debts[br]to charter their ships. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Without an insurance company, [br]most would risk ruin on their first expedition. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The slave traders made investments as if playing a game of poker. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The risks were high, but if successful, [br]the return would far outweigh any other type of investment. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Insurers like Lloyd's had everything to gain by participating in this game of chance. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A successful expedition could yield up to three times[br]the initial stake. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In the Lloyd's archives,[br]little evidence remains 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the profits of insuring these high-risk expeditions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Most accounting records were lost in a fire in 1838, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the same year that slavery was abolished in the British Caribbean. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Ports had to adapt to this initial scramble for Africa and the Caribbean. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In London, Blackwall became the slave trade's principal wharf. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All manner of goods were sold here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Precious fabrics, jewels, porcelain, weapons,