Sugar and slavery have been intertwined for a long time in the Dominican Republic. Even today, on Dominican sugar plantations and cane cutters' camps, slavery is far from being history.
Every year, Haitians are lured or abducted across the border to work on sugar plantations. They must chop and load prickly cane in the hot Caribbean sun for up to 14 hours a day. Machete accidents, including severed digits and gaping wounds, are commonplace. At night, workers return to the small, filthy barracks of the camps (bateys), which lack medical facilities, running water, and electricity. The workers are paid a nominal (if infrequent) wage; but between the monopolistic company store and corrupt cane sales, that money soon vanishes. The workers earn only enough to survive the next day in the fields.
The average American consumes 170 pounds of sugar each year, and the US imports over 15 percent of its sugar from the Dominican Republic. So the next time your coffee tastes funny...it might be the sugar.
More information on slavery in the Dominican Republic »