The Brightside: Sugar Exhibit at Poplar Hill Mansion

SALISBURY, Md. – Sugar is a product many of us can run to the grocery store and grab for under $3.

But it wasn’t always that simple, according to Poplar Hill Mansion Curator Sarah Meyers. This year’s special exhibit at the mansion gives community members a new outlook on an almost everyday used product. The sweet substance was a key component of Dr. John Huston’s work.

“Sugar was treated basically to treat indigestion, that was one of the things it helped to treat. They were actually making candy back then to help soothe the sore throats, not quite as sweet as we’re used to today, but they could add herbs to it and actually give it some flavor.”

Sugar tongs, pots, goblets, casters, a sugar mold, a firkin, and a chest, all painting the picture of the evolution of sugar. But, the exhibit also tells the side of the product’s history that caused quite a bit of controversy in our nation’s past.

Sarah tells us the product’s sale and distribution drove the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which saw millions of enslaved people transported from Africa to the Americas, often to toil on sugar plantations.

“You start going down the rabbit hole about all the slave ports that were in Africa, here in the United States, in parts of England, then that leads you to the whole abolition question of which countries were first to abolish slavery, first 43 and why America was so slow in doing it.”

The history broadens into the maple sugar scheme, and early American efforts to become less reliant on sugar from the West Indies and more reliant on growing sugar ourselves. Now, close to two centuries later, sugar is a household staple, and its history on the forefront for places like Poplar Hill Mansion.

“You walk into a grocery store and buy a bag of sugar for $2, but hopefully this exhibit will teach people, okay we do that now but back then, wow. Engrain into them, don’t take these things for granted, it was a long history before it got to that grocery shelf.”

While each year features a new exhibit with a new focus, it goes to show history is never stagnant, and there’s always something to learn.

The exhibit is on the second floor and will remain open until the end of December.

More information on the exhibit or the museum can be found here.