Jackson Plantation
Historic
Site
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Founded in the 1840's, the Jackson Plantation was the second of three plantations developed by Abner Jackson. Formerly known as “Lake Place,” the site was once a bustling sugar plantation that stretched over 4,642 acres with more than 80 enslaved workers.
Significant to the history of industrialized sugar production in Brazoria County, it has been designated as a State Antiquities Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission. Visitors can explore this historic site, most notably those of the main house and sugar mill.
Abner Jackson
1851
The main house of
the plantation was built as
a twelve room two-story house.
1838
1857
June 19, 1865, all enslaved
people in Texas were free.
1865
1873
Abner Jackson began
developing the Lake Jackson
Plantation after establishing
his first plantation.
Margaret Jackson died. That same year, Jackson purchased the Darrington Plantation for $1116,200.
William W. Phelps of New York bought the site for $20,800. That same year, Phelps sold the property to A.J. Ward and E.D. Dewey for $36,000. Ward and Dewey used convict prisoners to farm and produce sugar.
The following image is that of the Jackson Plantation after the 1900 Galveston Hurricane.
Today the Jackson Historical main house is in ruins. The above image depicts what is left of the main house.
Circa 1890s
Photographer: Unknown
The following photograph was taken before the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, and it is the only image of the Jackson Plantation main house.
Learn More
The Process of making sugar
Follow the steps below and learn how sugar was made.
1
EXTRACTION:
First, the stalk of sugar cane sent to the sugar mill was crushed to extract the juice from the cane. When the plantation was first founded, horsepower wooden rollers were used to crush the cane. It is believed that in 1858 a steam engine was installed with a metal crusher. The juice then flowed from the crushers down to a series of large to small kettles.
Animal-powered sugar Mill, Martinique, 1885
Print Title: A Representation of the sugar-cane and the art of making sugar, 1749. The following print is a depiction of small sugar production in the West Indies. However, the image gives an example of the process of sugarcane production, from pressing the cane to boiling it.
2
REDUCTION:
Next, the cane juice was reduced to a syrup through a train of kettle heated by fire. The heat from the fire was pulled through a flue, a long funnel located under the kettles, by the draft from ta chimney. Excavations at the Jackson sugar mill have uncovered the opening of the flue chimney and its foundation along with the circular brick remains of the kettle settings. Sometime in the mid-1870s, steam replaced fire to heat the kettle. The use of steam resulted in a finer quality of sugar.
3
Sugar Boiling House, Trinidad, ca. 1830
GRANULATION:
Finally, the syrup was taken into the perjury where molasses were separated from the sugar crystals and allowed to cool. They were separated by taking the syrup from the final kettle and pouring it into wooden troughs about 10’ long by 5’ wide and 1’deep. The molasses was drained into barrels leaving the crystallized sugar on the troughs to dry.
Tools like the ones displayed below were used to produce sugar.
Circa 1800s
Collins and Company made machete Slaves harvested sugar cane with a machete, like this one.
Machete
Artifact at Lake Jackson Historical Museum
Tools used
Cog Wheel
Uncovered at the Sugar Mill site by the Texas Archeological Society in 1994.
The cog pictured here, and seen on display was found at the sight of the Lake Jackson plantation it is believed to be part of a steam-powered mill. The mill was used to extract juice from the very thought fiber of the purple ribbon variety of cane grown at the plantation.
The Cog
Artifact at Lake Jackson Historical Museum
Copper tub
The copper tub pictured here is considered similar to tubs used by enslaved workers on the Lake Jackson Plantation to transport milado, or unpurged sugar to the purging house. Notice the curved area on the bottom of the tub. Its believed that this indention allowed the slaves to carry it on their heads more easily.
Artifact at Lake Jackson Historical Museum
Replica of a plantation-style dress.
July 1, 1862 Inventory
The following list of names were taken from the property inventory of Abner Jackson after his death.
Sources Used
Brazoria County Historical Museum
Sugar, Planters, Slaves, and Convicts by Joan Few
Library of Congress
http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1112