Jackson Historic Plantation Site
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
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.
The following image is that of the Jackson Plantation after the 1900 Galveston Hurricane.
Today the Jackson Historical Plantation is in ruins. The above image depicts what is left of the main house.
Sugar Mill
The sugar mill at the Jackson Historic Plantation site.
A plantation is a large-scale estate meant for farming that is specialized in producing a cash-crop or crops. Enslaved workers worked the plantations and often experienced harsh working conditions. On Abner Jackson's 4,642 acres of land, livestock, cotton, and sugarcane were sold and produced; however, sugarcane became a key crop for the Jackson plantation - and made it one of the most profitable sugarcane plantations in Texas.
Central to Jackson's success was the plantation's location in what we now call Brazoria County. The combination of the humid subtropical climate and fertile and soil allowed for an almost year-round growing season for sugarcane. Although producing sugar all-year was profitable for the Jackson family, it meant that enslaved workers were forced to work year-round without rest.
The production of sugar was a difficult, dirty, and dangerous task. Because sugarcane fields grow in tropical to subtropical climates, any open wounds had a high chance of becoming infected. The hot, humid environment, allowed microbes to thrive and, at times, resulted in the amputation of a limb or even death.
The job started by cutting down the sugarcane at its roots usually a machete was used. Enslaved workers would wear protective gear such as gloves to protect their hands from the thick sugarcane leaves, and padded material was used on the legs, ankles, and feet as protection from possible injuries.
Next, workers removed the sugarcane leaves and carried the sugarcane trunks to the sugar mill, where cane rods were squeezed to extract the sucrose or sugar. Following the step, the sucrose was sent to build to crystallize the material.
From cutting the sugarcane from the fields to extracting the sucrose was all done under 24 hours.
About Sugar Production
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.
Enslaved Period
Despite the lack of paper evidence documenting the lives of the enslaved workers of the Jackson Plantation, it is still possible to piece together some of who they were and what their life was like. Below are different sources containing information about individual and groups of enslaved people owned by Abner Jackson.
About the sources:
many of the documents contain original language appropriate to the time it was written. In an attempt to maintain historical objectivity, the language has not been changed.
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Circa 1840s
Bricks made by enslaved laborers at the Jackson Plantation with finger impressions.
Artifact at Lake Jackson Historical Museum
Poldo Sanco
Poldo Sanco was one of many victims of the Atlantic Slave trade. According to the article below, Sanco was born in Africa and brought to Charleston, South Carolina as a slave. He remained in Charleston for fifty-years and was later sent to Georgia, where he stayed for six years. Eventually, Poldo Sanco was bought by Abner Jackson and brought to Texas to work on the plantation. Sanco stayed in Lake Jackson for forty-three years. The following documents allow us to get a glimpse into the life of Poldo Sanco.
The following document is the census that begins on June 1, 1879, and extends to May 31, 1880. In this document, Poldo, his wife, and their son are recorded as living in Brazoria County.
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