Thomas Jefferson and Maple Syrup

Thomas Jefferson, our third U.S. president, saw maple sugar as a means of self-sufficiency for the early settlers, since many colonists made maple sugar for their own use and for trade. Abolitionist friends of Jefferson thought native maple sugar might even help end the slave trade by reducing demand for imported cane and beet sugars, which were made by slaves. One early almanac urged its readers to "prepare for making maple sugar, which is more pleasant and patriotic than that ground by the hand of slavery . . . "

Source: The Maple Sugaring Story: A Guide for Teaching and Learning the Maple Industry, 1990.