for “nut cake,” entered the language early in the century; fondant, from the French for “melting,” the basic material of fudge and all semisoft or creamy centers, was developed around 1850 Most candy today is a variation of some kind on bonbons, taffy, and fondant Sugar as Disguise The medicinal origins of confections live on in expressions that we use today While “honey” is almost invariably a term of praise, “sugar” is often ambivalent Sugary words, a sugary personality, suggest a certain calculation and artificiality And the idea of “sugaring over” something, the deception of hiding something distasteful in a sweet shell, would seem to be taken directly from the druggist’s confections As early as 1400, the phrase, “Gall in his breast and sugar in his face” was used, and Shakespeare has Hamlet say to Ophelia, ’Tis too much prov’d, that with devotion’s visage And pious action we do sugar o’er The devil himself (III.i) The Rise of the Sugar Industry The 18thcentury explosion in European sugar consumption was made possible by colonial rule in the West Indies and the enslavement of millions of Africans Columbus carried the cane to Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on his second voyage in 1493 By about 1550, the Spanish and Portuguese had occupied many Caribbean islands and the coasts of western Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and were producing sugar in significant quantities; English, French, and Dutch colonists followed in the next century By 1700, some 10,000 Africans were being traded via the Portuguese colony São Tomé to the Americas every year The sugar industry was not the only force behind the great expansion of slavery, but it probably was the ...’Tis too much prov’d, that with devotion’s visage And pious action we do sugar o’er The devil himself (III.i) The Rise of the Sugar Industry The 18thcentury explosion in European sugar consumption was made possible by colonial... rule in the West Indies and the enslavement of millions of Africans Columbus carried the cane to Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on his second voyage in 1493 By about 1550, the Spanish and. .. By about 1550, the Spanish and Portuguese had occupied many Caribbean islands and the coasts of western Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and were producing sugar in significant quantities; English, French, and Dutch colonists followed in the next century