“He turned to observe the rubbish heap of destruction that was his shop… aerated water, white rum, boxes of clothes peg, hairpin, button, phensic…” pg. 18
Lowe is staring at the burned heat that is still somewhat discernable but definitely gone. The shop which was owned by Cecil but run by Lowe is completely gone and with it so is Lowe’s capturer. This moment has so much significance because the white protagonist in this novel is dead and the inclusion of white rum incorporates a history of Caribbean slavery. Rum’s first origins are in the West Indies, with names such as “rumbullion” or “kill-devil.” Its history is centralized in the Caribbean because it is made from molasses which comes from sugarcane. The slave trade prompted the distribution of rum African slaves would be traded to the island for molasses, which would then be used to make rum in New England, and then traded back to Africa for more slaves.
This makes me think of Lowe and how he was essentially taken into slavery when he boarded that slave ship from China to Jamaica. The entire course of his life was primarily dictated by Cecil who perished in the fire alongside the white rum. There is a parallel to be made between Cecil and the rum because both are defined by their whiteness and their involvement in slavery in the Caribbean.
“Rum.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/rum-liquor.
Powell, Patricia. The Pagoda: a Novel. Harcourt, Inc., 1999.
This was fascinating to read. I had no idea that rum was a staple of the Caribbean and I knew even less about its involvement in slave trade. It’s both interesting and depressing to read about how people’s value was equated to molasses. The functioning of the world was so dependent on the labor of enslaved people, and there are connections that can be drawn to how workers across the globe are treated today.