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Did sugar workers get labeled and paid differently as beet sugar competition grew?
Research question: Do post-Civil War sugar plantation labor contracts, wage ledgers, and tenancy agreements in Louisiana's sugar parishes show a change in how workers were classified and paid as cane competition from beet sugar grew?
The verified facts show pay and classification shifting over time: field wages were set at $120 per year in 1865 1, and Chinese workers earned about $14 a month against $20 for local Black men in 1866-1870 3. Workers were paid in scrip redeemable only at company stores in the early 1880s 9, and the Louisiana Sugar Producers Association adopted a uniform pay scale and withheld 80 percent of wages until harvest's end 10. Chinese workers also moved from multiyear contracts to short-term seasonal labor in the 1870s 4, but none of the facts describes the contracts, wage ledgers, or tenancy agreements themselves, and none mentions beet sugar competition, so the facts cannot show whether beet sugar caused these changes 110.
Checked 2026-10-13. Only documented and supported facts are used.
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[1] supported
In 1865, under General Banks's and General Hurlbut's regulations, Louisiana field workers' wages were set at $120 per year.
"Now, under General Banks's and General Hurlbut's regulations, the wages paid are only $l2O per year."Image 4 of New Orleans tribune (New Orleans [La.]), July 18, 1865
[2] documented
The New Orleans Tribune argued that the wages set by the 1865 regulations did not even equal the interest on the capital planters had previously invested in a slave.
"do not amount even to the interest of the capital formerly invested in a slave."Image 4 of New Orleans tribune (New Orleans [La.]), July 18, 1865
[3] supported
Chinese laborers in Louisiana sugar plantations were paid significantly less than Black workers, receiving approximately $14 per month compared to the $20 per month received by local Black men.
"Chinese workers generally contracted to work for wage rates far below the prevailing rate in the sugar region: around $14 per month, compared with about $20 per month that local Black men received."Making sugar, making ‘coolies’: Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations
[4] supported
Chinese workers initially arrived under multiyear contracts but later shifted to short-term seasonal labor, moving between plantations and towns during the 1870s.
"Chinese workers transformed themselves from long-term contract laborers to short-term seasonal laborers. Many moved around Louisiana throughout the 1870s, stopping over in New Orleans and other towns between stints on sugar plantations."Making sugar, making ‘coolies’: Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations
[5] supported
Planters recruited Chinese workers with the expectation that they would be cheaper and more submissive than Black workers, aiming to replace Black labor with Asian labor.
"They, too, looked to Asian workers for their salvation, fantasizing that so-called “coolies” would be cheap, industrious and submissive – a “ model minority ” of sorts."Making sugar, making ‘coolies’: Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations
[6] supported
The recruitment of Chinese laborers involved significant financial investment by planters, with one group of 140 workers costing approximately $10,000 in recruitment fees.
"When 140 Chinese laborers arrived on Millaudon plantation near New Orleans on July 4, 1870, at a cost of about $10,000 in recruitment fees, the New Orleans Times reported that they were “young, athletic, intelligent, sober and cleanly” and superior to “the vast majority of our African population.”"Making sugar, making ‘coolies’: Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations
[7] supported
Chinese workers often ran away from plantations when they learned that other workers were earning higher wages, contradicting planters' expectations of their submissiveness.
"The Chinese recruits, the Planters’ Banner observed in 1871, were “fond of changing about, run away worse than negroes, and … leave as soon as anybody offers them higher wages.”"Making sugar, making ‘coolies’: Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations
[8] supported
Black Louisiana sugarcane workers cooperated with the racially integrated Knights of Labor to go on strike in November 1887.
"Black Louisiana sugarcane workers, in cooperation with the racially integrated Knights of Labor, had gone on strike at the beginning of November in 18..."Nov. 23, 1887: Thibodaux Massacre - Zinn Education Project
[9] supported
Plantation owners in the early 1880s forced workers to accept scrip (pasteboard tickets) redeemable only at high-profit company stores, binding illiterate workers to the plantations through debt in a state similar to slavery.
"A major issue arose in the early 1880s when plantation owners began cutting wages and forcing sugar workers to accept scrip for pay due to a declining international sugar market. These "pasteboard tickets" were redeemable only at company stores , which operated at high profit margins. As the plantation kept the books, often illiterate workers were increasingly bound by debt and unable to get free."Thibodaux massacre
[10] supported
The Louisiana Sugar Producers Association (LSPA) adopted a uniform pay scale and withheld 80 percent of wages until the end of the harvest season to prevent workers from leaving the plantations.
"They adopted a uniform pay scale and withheld 80 percent of the wages until the end of the harvest season, in order to keep workers on the plantations through the end of the season."Thibodaux massacre
[11] supported
In 1887, labor representatives demanded an increase in wages to $1.25 per day, biweekly payments, and payment in currency instead of scrip.
"In October labor representatives delivered demands to the LSPA that included an increase in wages to $1.25 per day, biweekly payments, and payment in currency instead of scrip."Thibodaux massacre
[12] supported
The state militia protected approximately 800 contract workers brought into Terrebonne Parish to replace strikers.
"The militia protected some 800 contract workers brought in to Terrebonne Parish and helped capture and arrest 50 strikers, most for union activities."Thibodaux massacre