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 t one point during the
early 1800s, the population of St. John was around 2,000 and 1,900
of those were slaves. The partially restored Annaberg Plantation
is a reminder of the days of agriculture and toil among the sugarcane.
The plantation, set in the hills overlooking Leinster Bay, produced
refined sugar, molasses, and rum from the raw cane grown on terraces
in the hillside. A wind mill and horse mill crushed the stalks into
a juice that ran down gutters to the boiling room.
In the plantation boiling room workers ladled cane juice from copper kettle to kettle, gradually concentrating and purifying the boiling liquid which was then poured into flat wooden pans to cool and crystallize. A rum still and cistern are located behind the boiling room. Alcohol vapors from fermented molasses converted to rum as they traveled through copper coils immersed in cool water. The exported rum was aged several years before sold, but the locals drank the raw rum, called "kill devil."
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