It produced 40% of Europe's sugar, 60% of its coffee, and it was home to more slaves than any place except Brazil. And as you'll recall from our discussion of Atlantic slavery, being a slave in a sugar production colony was exceptionally brutal. In fact, by the late 18th century, more slaves were imported to San Domingo every year, more than 40,000, than the entire white population of the island. By the 19th century, slaves made up about 90% of the population, and most of those slaves were African-born because the brutal living and working conditions prevented natural population growth. Like, remember Alfred Crosby's fantastic line, it is crudely true that if man's caloric intake is sufficient, he will somehow stagger to maturity and he will reproduce? Yeah, well, not in 18th century Haiti, thanks to yellow fever and smallpox and just miserable working conditions. So most of these plantations were pretty large.