Guadeloupe was discovered by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in 1493.  Though the Spaniards settled the island, they had little interest in it so in 1635, Charles Liénard de L’Olive and Jean du Plessis d’Ossonville conquered the island on behalf of France.  

On January 28, 1654, the Dutch finally lost control of Recife and Dutch Brazil, leaving to the Portuguese their colony of Brazil.  The farming of sugar cane in Guadeloupe began with the arrival of Dutch Jews forced to flee Brazil after the Portuguese re-conquest. They knew how to process sugar cane and taught it to the French, who then established their own sugar plantations.  Guadeloupe also benefited from the influence of Jean-Baptiste Labat (1663-1738), a Dominican missionary monk and strong leader who is considered the founder of the Basse-Terre and who in 1703 armed the island’s African slaves to fight against the English.  He also established the first sugar refineries, thereby laying the foundation for the economic prosperity that followed.

Roussel-Trianon Plantation

By the early 18th Century, Guadeloupe and the other French Colonies in the Caribbean of Saint Domingue and Martinique, accounted for the majority of the France’s overseas profits.  Guadeloupe was the first of the French colonies to make the shift to a sugar monoculture.  One of the oldest surviving plantations in Gaudeloupe is the Roussel-Trianon Plantation in Marie-Galante.  From 1720s to the 1740s, its owner was Nicolas Bonhomme, a Creole native of Marie-Galante.  It was then successively bought and sold by the Fossecave and Roussel families.  
As it was customary, the Roussel-Trianon Plantation used wind power to move its mill.  The windmill at the Roussel-Trianon Plantation is one of the most impressive of its kind on the island.  The plantation prospered in and around the revolutionary period, and moved progressively from wind to steam power from 1845 onward.  In 1860, Victor Roussel, the owner of Trianon Plantation, became the first man in Guadeloupe to introduce Derosne & Cail triple-effect machinery for boiling operations.  The Roussel-Trianon Plantation is part of the Slave Route—Traces of Memory organized by the Conseil Général of Guadeloupe.

Beauport Sugar Factory

In 1864, industrialist Jean François Cail and Creole factory worker Ernest Souques (1831-1908) joined forces to create the Société de la Sucrerie Beauport of which Souques was manager.  The Beauport Plantation and sugar factory was established in 1788 by Ernest Souques' father, Doctor Armand Souques in Port-Louis.  Upon his death, it became the property of his eight children.  On December 30, 1864 the Souques heirs a majority interest in the factory and the land to the Société J-F Cail & Co., probably in payment for debt related sugar factory machinery acquired from Cail.  Its name changed to Société Sucrière de Port-Louis in 1875 while managed by Société Souques-Cail & Co.  In 1901 it was acquired by Fernand Clerc of Martinique from Crédit Foncier who had foreclosed on it.  On August 4, 1908, the factory and the properties were sold by Clerc to the Société Anonyme des Usines de Beauport, headquartered in Bordeaux, who was its owner until its closure in 1990.  The factory is now a cultural center about the history of sugar cane.

Usine Darboussier

On October 16, 1771 a gentleman named Dulubre sold land to Jean Darboussier ( -1803), a French merchant and smuggler who came from an old family from Montbazin, France and settled in Guadeloupe during the 18th century and made a fortune in trade.  By 1772 Darboussier had established there a “vinegary”, or an alcohol distillery and in 1781 acquired additional adjoining lands. On February 18, 1805 Darboussier's son and only heir, after an agreement with his step-mother, sold the distillery to Frenchman Silvestre Lombard (1748-1808).   On August 27, 1807 Lombard acquired from Léonard Tabanon property previously also owned by Darboussier which he called Bellevue, comprised of approximately seven hectares and several houses and buildings by the sea in Pointe-à-Pitre. Silvestre Lombard (1748-1808) was born in Séméac, France to a wealthy family.  He arrived in Pointe-à-Pitre sometime between 1767 and 1776 and soon became a very successfull merchant.  In 1784 at the age of thirty six, he married sixteen year old Magdalaine Cleaveau (1769-1834) who also belonged to a wealthy family from Berry, France.  Upon Silvestre’s death, Magdalaine and two daughters, Marie Anne Adélaide Lombard (1784-1824) and Louise Adélaide Lombard (1789-1871) inherited the properties in Pointe-à-Pitre which were kept in the family until 1867.

Having been in the sugar business together and wanting to expand, on September 17, 1867 Jean François Cail (1804-1871) and Ernest Souques acquired the Darboussier family property for 200,000 Fr and that same year established the Société Agricole et Industrielle de la Pointe-à-Pitre. Between 1867 and 1869 they built the sugar factory and a goods warehouse on the docks.  When Cail died in 1871, Souques who had already been the manager since its creation, found himself alone in charge of the factory.  Darboussier was the biggest sugar factory in the West Indies and with a thousand workers was the largest employer in Guadeloupe.  From 1870 to 1980 it was the economic heart of Guadeloupe and Marie Galante. Ca. 1880 the director's residence later known as Villa Souques-Pagès pictured below, was built at 9 Rue Nozières in Pointe-à-Pitre. It has housed the Saint-John-Perse Museum since its inauguration in 1987.  The property where the Darboussier sugar factory operated was for several years abandoned and partially destroyed.  Today, a cultural center on the memory of slavery, the Memorial ACTe is built on the site.

Poisson Sugar Factory

Located in Grand Bourg on the island of Marie-Galante, the Poisson Distillery elaborates Rhum Père Labat, an agricultural rhum also known as Rhum Agricole, very popular all over the world.  The Poisson sugar factory was established in 1860 by the Poisson family, the distillery was established in 1916 when the sugar factory was bought by Edouard Reameau who improved the process of rum preparation by using the same distillation process used for Cognac.

Père Labat

Rhum Père Labat pays tribute to the French missionary monk known for recounting his 17th Century Antillean adventures in two books titled Nouveau Voyage aux iles de l'Amerique and Voyage du Chevalier Demarchais en Guinee, iles voisines, et a Cayenne, fait en 1725, 1726, et 1727.   Labat owned a sugar estate in Martinique where he developed new methods for the manufacture of sugar.  He is considered the inventor of the high quality rum known as Rhum Agricole by improving the functioning of the stills used at the time. At Rhum Pére Labat factory, the sugarcane is still hand-cut and transported to the distillery on ox-drawn carts and ground within forty eight hours of harvest.  Fermentation takes place through the use of baking yeasts and the barrels used to refine "rhum vieux" are of the ex-bourbon type. Thanks to a traditional distillation method, it is manufactured from pure sugar cane juice which gives it a unique aromatic richness.  Père Labat Rhum is produced in extremely limited quantities and is therefore a highly sought after product by many collectors.

Today there are nine distilleries in the Guadeloupe Islands and centuries-old traditions in distillation are still used to produce multi-awarded labels.  Located in Basse-Terre are Domaine de Severin, Distillerie Bologne, Distillerie Longueteau and Distillerie Reimonenq, where the Musée du Rhum is located.  In Grande-Terre there is Distillerie Damoiseau and in Marie-Galante there are Distillerie Bellevue, Distillerie Bielle and the already mentioned Distillerie Poisson, also known as Rhum du Père Labat.​