1971 (Jerome S. Handler) “The History of Arrowroot and the Origin of Peasantries in the British West Indies.” Journal of Caribbean History 2: 46-93.
This paper describes the patterns of consumption, production, and distribution of arrowroot from the 17th century to the middle of the 19th, and relates those patterns to the way in which the foundation of a post-Emancipation peasantry was established during slavery. By tracing the history of minor crops one can get a better idea of the early beginnings of West Indian small-scale agricultural systems as well as a view into the processes by which the New World environment generated new patterns of plant use and ecological adaptations among the Africans and Europeans who displaced Amerindian populations.