Maple Sugar and the Pursuit of American Self-sufficiency

An impassioned 1791 plea urged Vermonters to build a domestic maple sugar industry as both a patriotic economic venture and a moral weapon against slavery.

Writing in the Vermont Gazette under the pseudonym Clergyman, the author argued that turning the slow spring season into sugaring work could make the state four thousand pounds richer each year.

Caribbean cane sugar prices had roughly doubled after hurricanes, earthquakes, and uprisings by enslaved people disrupted supplies, strengthening the case for local production.

Near the letter's close, Clergyman contended that reducing reliance on Caribbean sugar would diminish the plea of necessity for enslaving people from Africa.

The appeal reflected a wider movement led by figures like Declaration signer Benjamin Rush and William Cooper, who founded the Society for Promoting Maple Sugar Manufacturing in 1789 and drew visits from Jefferson and Madison.

The maple sugar bubble ultimately deflated, in part because Vermonters preferred independent operation over the foreign investment schemes attached to the movement.