Sugar and Spice: The People Who Paid the Price | 2025

Coming 2025

Hidden Tudors Tours is honoured to announce the impending launch of "Sugar and Spice: The People Who Paid the Price," an illuminating podcast series hosted by Yvette Reinfor, founder of Hidden Tudors Tours. This series will examine the human stories behind the global trade in sugar and spices, exploring how these commodities shaped lives across continents and centuries.

The Global Trade That Changed Everything

The pursuit of sugar and spices drove global exploration, empire-building, and cultural exchange for over five centuries. From medieval merchant networks to vast colonial plantations, these precious commodities connected continents while extracting devastating costs from the people caught within these trade systems. "Sugar and Spice" explores the individual human stories behind the luxury goods that transformed the world.

About Our Host

Yvette Reinfor As the founder of Hidden Tudors Tours and a former educator, Yvette Reinfor is a dedicated storyteller with an enduring passion for uncovering hidden historical narratives. Her commitment to exploring the human cost of historical events aligns perfectly with the podcast's mission to center the voices and experiences of those who lived through these transformative periods.

Stories We'll Explore

Each episode of "Sugar and Spice" will delve into compelling human stories that reveal the true cost of global trade, including:

• The First Voyage of the East India Company Captain James Lancaster's 1601 expedition through the eyes of those who lived it—from the crew members who died of scurvy to the local people who encountered these English merchants for the first time.

• Bell's Journey from Scotland The story of Bell, the last enslaved person declared enslaved in a British Court, exploring her experiences and what her story reveals about how global trade networks brought people across continents.

• Corey's Story in South Africa Following the experiences of individuals at the Cape of Good Hope, where East India Company ships stopped to resupply, exploring the encounters between European sailors and local African communities.

• The Hidden Merchant A crypto-Jewish grocer who transformed himself into an English gentleman, showing how individuals navigated dangerous trade networks while hiding their true identities to survive and prosper.

• The Banda Massacre of 1621 The Dutch destruction of entire communities in their pursuit of nutmeg monopoly, exploring both the colonial violence and its lasting impact on indigenous populations.

• Sugar Plantation Lives The experiences of enslaved people who produced the sugar that sweetened European tables, connecting Caribbean plantations to global trade networks.

Our Global Perspective

"Sugar and Spice" seeks to interview historians, researchers, and storytellers from around the world—from the Caribbean and United States to the Netherlands, Indonesia, India, and beyond. We're particularly interested in speaking with:

• Scholars studying the impact of colonial trade on local communities

• Researchers exploring the connections between sugar plantations and spice networks

• Students and educators examining the East India Company's global reach

• Historians working on the Dutch colonial experience in Southeast Asia

• Community historians preserving stories from affected regions

Why These Stories Matter

The global trade in sugar and spices wasn't just about commerce—it was about human lives. Behind every luxury good were real people: those who grew the crops, those who were enslaved to harvest them, those who died in wars fought over trade routes and those who transformed themselves to survive within these systems. By centring these human experiences, "Sugar and Spice" aims to show how global trade networks affected individuals and communities, revealing both the brutality and resilience that characterised this transformative period in world history.

Stay Connected

Stay tuned for further updates as we approach the official launch in 2025. Join us on this journey into the human stories behind the trade that connected continents and changed the world.

For more information and updates, visit our website.

Sugar and Spice: The People Who Paid the Price - Coming 2025