`I suppose everybody knows that molasses is what's left over after crystallizing sugar from the crushed cane.In the early days sugar was very expensive. In the 1600's when colonists in Connecticut wanted help from Massachusetts to fight Indians, the governor of Massachusetts got Roger Williams to negotiate for a contingent of Rhode Island Indians to go to Connecticut to act as scouts and ambush preventers. The top chief of the Rhode Island Indians agreed to provide the men if he got a present of a pound of sugar. So even molasses must have been expensive. It was a favorite ingredient of home remedies administered in the Spring. And the old dark brown molasses tastes like medicine to me. For making cookies, the Barbados light brown molasses is far nicer.