For all its sweetness, sugar has a complicated history that stretches all the way back to slave days, a time when the British empire had its eye on controlling sugar production and its profitable by-product, rum. This installment of "Modern Marvels" includes a visit to a Hawaiian sugar plantation to learn how the sweetener is produced today, focusing on the technology that's turned sugar into one of the most-used substances on the planet.

The origins of sugar production can be traced all the way back to 500 B.C. India.

In the Western world, the sugar industry came of age on the Caribbean plantations, and later played a surprisingly critical part in America's battle for independence. In this program, take a tour of a sugar plantation on the Hawaiian island of Maui to get an inside look at how sugarcane production has evolved into the massive industry it is today. Learn the technology behind creating the ubiquitous sweetener in all of its permutations, including corn syrup, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and cube sugar, and find out how it is used in candies, soda, sauces, and even in pipe tobacco and processed meat.

Join The History Channel for this fascinating examination of the important history behind manufacturing in the United States.