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104 chapter vi y How Sugar Is Removed from the Molds, Separated, and Dried When the time has come to remove the sugar from the molds, on a very clear day as many people as possible work at the drying counter. The molds are brought on the backs of slaves or in wheelbarrows from the refinery to the separating tables. It is very important that the selected day be very clear, since if the sugar absorbs any humidity, even if later dried in the sun, it will never return to the perfect state it had previously. In a similar way, leftover sugar from one year loses its cohesion and whiteness, and it can never regain them. This is the nature of purity: once it is offended it can never return to what it had been. The person in charge of these activities is the crater, and he is responsible for all I am about to relate. At the bottom of the separating table, the molds are arranged on leather hides. The hide is moved back and forth very slowly while the molds are face down on them. In this way, the loaves will leave the molds correctly. A negro man then places the loaves on one of the canvas cloths covering the separating table. Then one of the negra women (known as “mothers of the table”) takes a large knife and separates all the poorly refined sugar that has a brown color at the bottom of the loaf. This is called mascavar, and this sugar is therefore called mascavado. Meanwhile, another slave woman, who has more practice, uses a small ax to remove the wettest part of the mascavado sugar, called “the foot of the mold,” or cabucho. This goes back to the refinery in other molds until it dries. Then, other black women break the lumps of sugar with hammers on top of the canvas cloths. These will also go to the drying tables. Perfect loaves of sugar have little mascavado and yield two and half arrobas of white sugar. This is the size of the molds used in Bahia and is a very good yield. If “faces” of sugar for little delicacies are desired, the crater right here and now will use a large knife to cut the top of the 105 How Sugar Is Removed from the Molds loaf in such a way that, once straightened out and made even, it will weigh an arroba. After this has been in the sun, it is packed in straw or leather and is shipped to Portugal. Also, if morsels are wanted, the loaf is cut (after removing the mascavado) into six or eight pieces and each is made into a square cube, so they may be sent as eye-catching sweets. If small cases or special boxes are wanted, the part of the sugar is selected that matches the wishes of the person who ordered it. The finest sugar from the faces [tops of the loaves] is used to make cases of up to twelve arrobas, while thirty or thirty-five arrobas are used in a box. From what we have said so far, it will be understood that certain terms refer to different partitions of the sugar. These terms are: box, case, loaf, face, shavings, morsels, lumps, and crumbs. I will reserve for another chapter information about the various qualities and differences of sugar. Moving now from the separating area to the drying area, as many canvas cloths as needed are brought to dry that day’s production of sugar. If the sugar has different owners, it will be noted who owns what by the arrangement of the cloths. If they are continuous in a line, the sugar belongs to the same person. If there are breaks in the line, then the sugar has different owners. What is said about white sugar also applies to the mascavado. It is distributed in the same way on its lines of cloths. Once this is completed, the loaves are taken to the cloths. A large straight pole called the “breaking pole,” rounded on the hitting end, is used to break the loaf in four pieces. Each of these is quartered again and then again using large knives, and then broken into lumps. Each of these is pounded with hammers into smaller lumps. After it has been in the sun for a while, these are broken into tiny lumps. This method of breaking the sugar is done deliberately. If it contains any...

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