As William Ball was crafting this silver-covered sugar basin in Baltimore—in a sleek Neoclassical style that celebrated the art of ancient Greece and Rome—the brutality of sugar cultivation and production ravaged colonies throughout the Americas. Enslaved men and women on Caribbean and Brazilian plantations cut cane stalks to extract sugar, while their colonizers exported this product to tables and kitchens around the world. In the eighteenth century, Baltimore was a trading post for both enslaved people and raw sugar. Silversmiths here and elsewhere designed elegant footed urns and tongs to showcase the sweet delicacy enjoyed by the wealthy.