In the 18th and early 19th centuries, sugar plantations in the Caribbean supported by the slave trade met high demand for the product from countries like Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands. During an uprising in Jamaica in 1831, many sugar plantations were burned. Three years later, the British Parliament set forth the Emancipation Act which called for all British colonies of the West Indies to end slavery, although slaves were not actually emancipated until 1838. caribya.com/caribbean/economy/
