what did slaves eat on plantations

These remnants, scant though they are, make it clear that enslaved cooks were central players in the birth of our nations cultural heritage. Weekly food rations usually corn meal, lard, some meat, molasses, peas, greens, and flour were distributed every Saturday. [8] A. T. Goodloe, Management of Negroes, Southern Cultivator, 18 (1860), 130. [3]. This is an example of the many ways in which word of mouth and early forms of media were used to spread false information to convince Americans to sit back and allow the continuation of slavery. Seemingly unimportant trades ruined old relations and wove together new webs of economic, social, political, and cultural life in a thousand stressed communities. Cookie Policy * It is also the story of countless unnamed cooks across the South, the details of their existences now lost. Serve with plain white rice, perhaps cooked with a little extra water, so that it softens a bit more than usual, and if you have it, dash some pepper sauce over it to liven up the flavor. Despite the newspapers warnings, white Southerners could not have been surprised to see enslaved buyers browsing goods for sale. Though the modern dish of the Carolinas, Hoppin John, was not described in print until the publication in 1847 of Sarah Rutledges Carolina Housewife[i], its roots are believed to lie in the Senegalese dish, thibou nib[ii]. Tableware, too, attracted slave cash, as did toiletries, watches, and tools.[7]. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine But Bailey says her favorite way to eat the peas is in a traditional dish with stewed meat and okra, another plant that originated in Africa. Craft's comments since in the first sentence, he refers to the "peace, security and national, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 2018. Jones was a slave who started as a house servant and rose to the pinnacle of American culinary life with her extravagant multicourse meals. <> The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. The stories of enslaved cooks teach us that we can love our country and also be critical of it, and find some peace along the way. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? These were compiled by slaveholding women, whose responsibilities sat firmly in the domestic sphere, and are now housed in historical societies throughout the country. This week I was reviewing Muster, Payrolls and List of Effectives for Capt Gross Scruggs company of the Fifth Virginia. They intentionally brought it to provide sustenance to slaves during the journey. Collard leaves are wrapped around a savory rice filling with toasted pecans. Black-Eyed Peas and Rice. Certainly, enslaved people found timepieces desirable because they were useful, but also because they were markers of wealth and status. What crops did slaves grow on plantations? The Slave Experience: Living .Jul 8, 2019Weekly food rations -- usually corn . ", Bailey, back on Sapelo, agrees. 6 cups (1.25 liter) water Slavery had associated with it the health problems commonly associated with poverty. F. from the Cameron Papers, Letter from John and Ebenezer Pettigrew to Charles Pettigrew, October 3, 1795, Lenoir Family Papers Account of Corn, 1785, Business Invoice from the Cameron Papers, 1774, Fiddle Headed Teaspoon, late 1700s / early 1800s, Distilling Method for Corn Whiskey Lenoir Papers (1790s), Newspaper Advertisement from The Pennsylvania Gazette (Dec 5, 1771), Accounting Record of Spice Purchases for the Household of William Lenoir (May 30, 1772), Sunflower Oil Recipe and Mangel-Wurzel Cultivation, Financial Document The Lenoir Family Papers, Excerpt from A Tour in the United States of America, Blums Farmers and Planters Almanac for the year 1870, Star Brand Fertilizers Advertisement in The Danbury Reporter, Liquid standard presented to UNC in 1883, Planting Fruit Trees to Secure Success by Abigail Bowdish, The Bennehan Familys Sugar and Rum Purchases, Mary Ann Bryan Masons Mrs. Masons New Cookery. 1/2 tsp (3 ml) salt Photo by Henry P. Moore. They might change the appearance of an itemremoving an owners mark, for example, or tailoring a piece of clothingor they could hide the item away, saving it for future use. As crops failed and the Union blockade tightened, goods became scarce. sesame. Root crops figure heavily in modern African cuisine, and yams were likely well-known in the cultures from which American slaves were taken. Well cook three representative dishes, each of which can help us understand a slightly different aspect of the food experiences of the Revolutionary Era slave. 90. But now, the Examiner and the Whig warned, auctioneers patter announced something else entirely, another symptom of the breaking down of the barriers that, until this war, kept the negro in his proper sphere. Enslaved men and women had taken to gathering at the auctions, using grossly improper language in the presence of, and even to, white women. Worse, ladies and gentlemen at auctions [were] forced to bid in competition with bondpeople, men and women who audaciously monopolize[d] the most eligible positions and claim[ed] the nod of the auctioneer. As white Richmonders sold off possessions to make ends meet in hard-pressed times, the citys slaves were going shopping. As described by Carol Graham, a former slave from Alabama: Greens was cooked in a big black washpot jus like yo boils clothes in now.. Buying goods in the Old Southa piece of peppermint candy, a silk cravat, a stolen watch, ones own bodyrevealed the fragile politics at the heart of master-slave relation. By the Civil Wars last weary winter, Confederate Richmond, had become accustomed to the pounding of artillery echoing across nearby fields. All rights reserved, Culinary historian and author Jessica Harris. So, given the risks enslaved consumers posed, why did slaveholders allow their people to trade? Each of these plant-based foods impacted the history of our eating traditions. 1, 115; Ibid., 12, pt. Grits purists will be gratified to hear that, again, we will take a very straightforward approach to this dish, eschewing cheese, ham or other additions or embellishments. But how could slaveholders take advantage of the consumer process while maintaining some semblance of control? I also love making Gluten-Free Cornbread and Southern Corn Pudding for family gatherings. Take, for example, Georgia planter James Towns, whose end-of-year celebrations always included a pay day for good behavior. [3], The internal economy allowed enslaved people to attempt to bridge this material gap. Gibbs also mentions that the most "industrious" slaves were allowed to have their own gardens and chickens to tend to, and were able to sell their crops/goods for their own profit. In turn, we still enjoy many of the foods they embraced. [an error occurred while processing this directive]. In Bailey's family, the tiny red legume, with its thin, firm shell; creamy interior; and sweet, buttery flavor was just another staple she and her family planted, harvested, and cooked. In fact, rice is one of the ingredients slave traders brought with them on their trans-Atlantic voyages from Africa. The ingredients and recipes of this early African American cuisine include: rice, okra, sweet potatoes, corn, and greens. 2, 149; Ibid., 12, pt. Reckoning with it can be cumbersome, but its also necessary. For masters and bondpeople alike, the internal economy both challenged the institution of slavery and shored it up. Gangs of enslaved people, consisting of men, women, children and the elderly worked from. Onions could be grown in the yard, alongside the black-eyed peas. During the 19th century, there were moments of widespread fear that these cooks would poison them, and we know from court records and other documents that on at least a few occasions enslaved cooks did slip poisons like hemlock into their masters food. Hercules, who cooked for George Washington, and James Hemings, an enslaved cook at Thomas Jeffersons Monticello, were both formally trained, albeit in different styles. While the missus may have helped design the menu, or provided some recipes, it was the enslaved cooks who created the meals that made Virginia, and eventually the South, known for its culinary fare and hospitable nature. In 1836 the Southern Cabinet reported that some South Carolina slaveholders stocked plantation stores with goods most likely to be in request among the negroes, selling them at cost to enslaved consumers. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent it from scorching, until peas are tender (30 minutes to an hour if using fresh or frozen peas; up to two hours for dry). Honor that past with gratitude and unity. The primary challenge, Harris says, is reconstructing history when one group of peoplein this case, white slave ownersdid their best to subjugate Africans to the point where they were nearly left out entirely. But by the 1800s, African dishes began appearing in these books. A mans world? Colonists tried to use Native Americans for labor, but they were susceptible to European diseases and died in large numbers. Slaves could cook them over fire or wrap in leaves and ash-roast. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The slave diet was very simple. What did the slaves eat on the plantation?Slavery and the Making of America . (Creeks, Choctaws, and . Planter James Goodloe posed two questions to readers of the Southern Cultivator in 1860. What do slaves want with money? he asked rhetorically. They overlook that slavery, which affected millions of blacks in America, was enforced by a system of sustained brutality, including actsand constant threatsof torture, rape and murder. They were shipped from ports in West Africa to European colonies in the Americas. Enslaved people at Mount Vernon generally wore clothing made from cloth produced on the plantation that was sewn together by enslaved or hired tailors. KATHLEEN HILLIARD is an associate professor of history at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and the author of Masters, Slaves, and Exchange: Power's Purchase in the Old South (2014). Black cooks created the feasts that gave the South its reputation for hospitality. Sources are exceptionally scarce and contemporary recipes are nonexistent, but we can reconstruct some idea of what the table in the slaves quarters might have offered to maintain these unfortunate souls in their labors. It is often smoked or roasted at Fall Pumpkin festivals. Red peas are a tangible connection to her own African heritage, Bailey says, and one reason why she has started to grow the crop commercially. Colonial and antebellum elite Southerners understood fully that enslaved people cooked their food. Booker T. Washington was born a slave on the Burroughs plantation in Franklin County, Virginia on April 5, 1856. These purchases took careful planning. [7] Hilliard, Masters, Slaves, and Exchange, 6993. While newly free African Americans fled the plantations to find work as housekeepers, butlers, cooks, drivers, Pullman porters and waitersthe only jobs they could getAunt Jemima and Rastus smiled while serving white folks, enhancing the myth that black cooks had always been cheerful and satisfied, during slavery and with their current situation. I did find references to collard greens and cabbage in the course of my research, yes. [ii] Wilke, Richard, and Livia Barbosa. Gibbs declares that there is no class of working people in the world better cared for than the Southern slave. He states that many medicines, as well as high quality Brandy or wine, are made available to sick slaves, and that the hygiene/cleanliness of plantation environments is held to a high standard. What did slaves eat on plantations? Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. Enslaved people did not restrict their spending to established merchants. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons.. David Shields, a professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and an expert in early American literature and food revivals, points to Emeline Jones as an example. What slaveholders valued as durable and hearty, bondpeople often characterized as rough and plain. They also sold items at the weekly market in Alexandria to earn small amounts of money. Most sources agree that the slaves were generally expected to get by on what was left from the slaveholders larders, supplemented with what they could raise on their own, provided that their owners permitted it. Guests wrote gushing missives about the meals in they ate while visiting these homes. Shopping, then, entailed more than the acquisition of desired goods. The plantation system peaked in the first half of the 18th century, but later on, during the middle of 19th century, there was a significant increase in demand for cotton from European countries, which means there was a need for expanding the plantation in the southern parts of United States. Yet, this technique draws directly from Africa. The system had a good many benefits, as Georgia slaveholder Thomas Clay explained. Think leafy greens and black-eyed. But their enslaved ancestors were forced to eat whatever was provided to them by the slave owners. However, the historical roots of both dishes have so much to teach us about the slave experience that its worth including them together here. When working on her master's thesis, Cromwell buried herself in documentslegislative records, tax rolls, newspaper clippings, and primary sources other scholars had reviewed hundreds, if not thousands of times beforeand was able to discern that female Muslim Nigerian slaves, working as fruit sellers and market vendors on behalf of their owners, helped shape the overall economic structure of the American South with long-distance price fixing and aggressive sales techniques. Modern chefs have rediscovered this grain and are now putting it on their menus. Buyers on the black market, then, had to alter behavior so that they could consume goods without discovery. 2014. A sure indicator that theyre done is that they start to leak caramelized sugars into the pan. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The journey from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean was called "the middle passage", and was one of the three legs which comprised the triangular trade among the continents of Europe, the Americas, and Africa. What did the slaves eat on the plantations? In a world where masters doled out rudimentary food and raiment, enslaved people most often spent cash to augment allotments, introduce variety to clothing or diets, and, sometimes, to acquire goods or participate in activities otherwise banned. Advertising Notice The next time you sit down to a piece of cornbread, a stewed gumbo, or a roasted sweet potato, take a moment to reflect on the story of this food. They . Southern Slave Life. The Weekly Standard, [Raleigh] June 30, 1858. Enslaved Africans were brought from Africa by European slave traders to the Americas. There were also many other crops that traveled as well such as watermelon, yams, guinea . In Ghana and Nigeria, fufu is a starchy mash used to sop up the broth at the bottom of bowl of stew. On a plantation with more than 100 slaves, the capital value of the slaves was greater than the capital value of the land and farming implements. Drawing water, hewing wood, cleaning, cooking, waiting on table, taking out the garbage, shopping, child-tending, and similar domestic occupations were the major functions of slaves in all slave-owning societies. In 1740 the Havana Company was formed to stimulate agricultural development by increasing slave imports and regulating agricultural exports. There, hed steal some of boiled Indian corn kernels used to feed the cows and pigs. 5 0 obj Watches, in other words, were meant to be displayed. The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? In the American South, okra is probably most well-known as the ingredient found in gumbo. Edit View history The health of slaves on American plantations was a matter of concern to both slaves and their owners. Sugarcane is harvested about 18 months after planting and the plantations usually divided their land for efficiency. yams. They often ate the entrails and appendages of farm animals, including pig's feet, cow's tongue, liver and oxtail. In December 1864, other sounds seemed equally troubling. The process of turning a person into a house servant or field hand was called "seasoning." Advertisers leaned on characters like Aunt Jemima and Rastus, stereotypical black domestics, drawn from minstrel song. On days when that wasnt available, hed head to the animal shed. Sugar plantations everywhere were disproportionate consumers of labor, often enslaved, because of the high mortality of the plantation laborers. Overcooking will often result in a slimy texture. One or more sweet potatoes or yams. Vegetable patches or gardens, if permitted by the owner, supplied fresh produce to add to the rations. Serve in slices, or mash it up with a little salt. \ .2LE_mm5!aq e2z(~i+Lj4 +a,bN^e8w)q~A0*,A|EncL&L3upPm4Y]}R"XNeFWeoN;N&hS3LW0Km]-+SNjzq"-b5m:-`v]zf6P5'm0t"~VK,Le-}9r"v ~:J3c5T~84.6kcA9jrapbZWVP~t,KERdK2Zp28i6B Historians have argued that slaves participation in the internal economy was a form of resistance, that simply the act of buying property repudiated slaves status as property. These animals can sniff it out. Offerings such as pepper pot, okra stew, gumbo, and jambalaya became staples on American dining tables. It is the story of people like Chef Hercules, George Washington's chef; and Emmanuel Jones, who used his skills to transition out of enslavement into a successful career cooking in the food industry, evading the oppressive trappings of sharecropping. 2: 21; Booker T. Washington and Frank Beard, An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work (1901), 1617; Rawick, American Slave, 2, pt. Throughout history domestic service was probably the major slave occupation. *Editor's Note, August 15, 2018: A previous version of this article wrongly stated that Chef Hercules was our nations first White House chef, when, in fact, he served as George Washington's chef at Mount Vernon and at the President's House in Philadelphia, before construction of the White House was complete. Indigofera was a major crop cultivated during the 18th century, in Venezuela, Guatemalaand Haiti until the slave rebellion against France that left them embargoed by Europe and India in the 19th and 20th centuries. What enslaved men and women did with that cash or creditand what it meantchallenged the institution of slavery. In 1786, Washington noted that his plantation produced enough woolens to satisfy his needs. Bacon grease or other pork fat would have been relatively easy to come by, and if chicken stock werent available on a given day, this recipe would still work, with the addition of some extra salt. Bondpeople made their bread out of shorts, while the first grade was always used in the masters house, one woman recalled. favorite foods. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858. (1849.) cook them over fire or wrap in leaves and ash-roast. The food was to ensure that the slaves were able to eat while traveling to their new way of life. "Transatlantic Slave Trade". They created favorites like gumbo, an adaptation of a traditional West . A slave plantation was an agricultural farm that used enslaved people for labour. However, because the availability of ham and even bell peppers, typical of the later dish, would likely have been limited, weve stuck with a much more limited selection of ingredients for our recipe. The pre-slavery ancestors of people of the African Canadian community ate food directly harvested from the land. Your Privacy Rights The slaves would have to wake up at 4 o'clock and work in the fields until sunset. This was called mush. This secret hole was hidden from plantation owners. Hercules was taught by the well-known New York tavern keeper and culinary giant Samuel Frances, who mentored him in Philadelphia; Hemings traveled with Jefferson to Paris, where he learned French-style cooking. Enslaved men and women began the year with a set amount of cash listed in Towns log book, deductions being made over the course of the year for disciplinary breaches or property loss. [3] George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, 41 vols. As Booker T. Washington recounts in his Slave Diet Bulletin, a common breakfast was cornbread and pork. "The strange dishes they were serving us weren't strange to me, because I was going, 'Hey, we eat this back home.' Some indentured servants were also leaving to start their own farms as land was widely available. Take [your] negroes to the nearest dry goods store (do not let them go alone) and let them select such things as suit their fancies, he advised. Black-eyed peas were introduced in the Americas around the middle of the 18th century, and were noted in some of Washingtons writings and other contemporary sources. Accessed October 09, 2018. http://www.nndb.com/people/016/000117662/. It means that whilst the dish may be a national staple on both islands in Trinidad and Tobago . Slaves were especially deficient in iron, calcium, vitamin A and Vitamin D. Each of these deficiencies causes its own set of health risks. Ethiopias gomen wat and Ghanas kontomire stews both resemble the stewed collard greens of the American South. A slave plantation was an agricultural farm that used enslaved people for labour. Part of the National Museums Liverpool group. During the slave trade, they brought with them their appreciation for okra, including it in stews that are signature to Soul food. As Frederick Douglas recounts I have often been so pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog. The revisionism went full throttle during the era of Jim Crow, when new laws made segregation the norm. Most favoured by slave owners were commercial crops such as olives, grapes, sugar, cotton, tobacco, coffee, and certain forms of rice that demanded intense labour to plant, considerable tending throughout the growing season, and significant labour for harvesting. The seeds of the 1969 UNC food service worker strike. Franklin Street and its Changing Foodways, 2018, Average Age of Death and Average Income Across Durham County, 2014, The Reputation of Carolina Inn Restaurants, UNC Department of Nutrition Cookbook 1983, Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen Owner Interview, 2017, The Expansion of Chinese Restaurants in Chapel Hill During the 1980s, Vincenzo Marrone Interview, The IP3 Story, Student Resistance to Labor Rights Movements (2005), Student at Vending Machines, Carolina Union, 1983, Foundational and Colonial Culinary Encounters, Thomas Hariot Book Excerpt (1590)- Maddie Dyer, Letter from Florence OSullivan to Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, Instructions to William Berkeley Concerning the Settlement of Carolina, Hannah Wolleys Original Orange Pudding Recipe, Turkey and Deer Bone Awls from Lower Sauratown, John Whites Secotan Indian Village Watercolor Painting, The Journeys of Needham and Arthur Through the Piedmont, John Smiths observations on Native Virginia Plants and Native American Food Practices, Day Book 1774 No.