The Rise and Fall of the Sugar King An Early History of Williamsburg, Brooklyn by Geoffrey Cobb

The history of sugar refining and North Brooklyn are intimately linked. North Brooklyn was the largest area in the world for sugar refining and for almost a century and a half, North Brooklyn was the home of sugar refining. The tragic tale of wealth, power, greed, corruption, death and suffering that surrounds the local sugar industry has never been revealed until now. 

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Geoffrey Cobb has been a history teacher in the New York City Public School system for more than two decades. Presently teaching at the High School for Service and Learning on the famous Erasmus Hall campus, he is also a prominent local historian, walking tour guide and the author of three books; Greenpoint’s Forgotten Past - the first history of the area published in almost a century, The King of Greenpoint a biography of Irish American political leader Peter J. McGuinness and The Rise and Fall of the Sugar King An Early History of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He has published in various journals including The New York Irish History Roundtable and The Volunteer - a magazine devoted to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.