African-American Crops in America: An Overview
The wide range of food crops was directly brought from Africa throughout the transatlantic slave trade. These staple foods were eaten by enslaved African-American. The foods were blended with meat and fish, or with the palm oil. The meals used by the African-Americans comprised of black-eyed peas, okra, callaloo, seasoned with pepper and salt.
Other food crops from the African continent included peanuts, sorghum, melon, watermelon, yams, and sesame. These harvests were incorporated into the mainstream American foodways and were a well-known major ingredient found in the original cookbooks written by local Southern Americans. All through the period, though, these foods not only eaten solely by the Africans but also by white southern people.
Black-eyed peas were the first to be introduced to the USA throughout the trans-Atlantic slave trade considered to be as a staple food for slaves. They reached Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. At the beginning of the American Revolution, black-eyed peas were strongly popular amongst the American people and an element of the food. Besides, the black-eyed peas became one of the most well-known staple foodstuffs in the USA.
Okra was introduced in the USA in the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the early 15th Century. It acquired extraordinary status in New Orleans. It was generally eaten by the American whites prior to the Revolutionary War in the USA. Enslaved African-Americans ate the young fruit that had the vegetable mucilage after boiling. The Okra leaves were also used as a medicine and to make a coffee alternate on the harvests of South Carolina.
The other significant crop to be quite popular in the USA was the American peanut. Whilst the peanut was native to South America, it was first introduced to the African continent by the European mariners and then to the USA by enslaved Africans.
Sesame was another vital foodstuff to reach South Carolina from the African continent in about 1730. The enslaved African-American cultivated sesame for its oil and other uses. The US President, Thomas Jefferson observed that sesame was consumed by the African slaves was toasted and boiled in various forms. He also observed that enslaved Africans boiled sesame in greens, and utilized it to develop broth.
African cooks launched their indigenous African crops and foodstuffs to the farmers hence served as mediator links in the incorporation of African and European food traditions. The enslaved African-American cooks initiated strong fat frying, a food preparation method that started from Africa. Before the invention of refrigeration, the slaves understood how strong fat frying of meat could preserve foods for a long time.
Consequently, the slave food traditions strongly contributed much to the food preference for the American. Southern cooking could be a unique experience for African Blacks and the whites played an important part; nevertheless, at present the African-American foods are powerfully affected by the distinctive style of cooking. "Soul food" could be found since the days when farm owners provided the slaves surplus animal parts. Blacks were able to utilize this discarded food to improve upon African food making techniques for delicious dishes. All of these African-American foods helped in enhancing the large variety in the American food repertoire.
“High on the Hog” by Jessica Harris provided a detailed study of African-American eating traditions. Harris noted two divergent aspects of African-American cuisines traditions. The first concerns with the staple foods like fried chickens and other of chitterlings.
Moreover, the enslaved African-American foods were strongly affected by the cuisine arising from the slavery era. Soul food was initiated when farm owners offered slaves discarded animal parts. In the contemporary period, the African-American added a zest of African cuisines (Grime, 1970).
Enslaved African Americans influencing the diet of Southerners: An Introduction
Southern food covers the distinct cultural traits of 3 major races in the USA namely Africans, Native Americans, and the Whites. Since the creation of the USA, such foods have been influenced from these ethnic groups and were developed around them. The impact of these groups makes Southern food what is well-known today. The various foods that were consumed in that period were in fact what the local enslaved African-American harvested and what the White Europeans brought over that would be cultivated on southern territories.
The introduction of crops of the enslaved African-American brought directly from the Africa comprise of rice, okra, tania, black-eyed peas, and different kinds of beans (Holloway, 1990). The foods that were sent to the USA were for particular motives. These foods all remained agreeable following the long harvesting and were therefore ideal for use on the slow journey from Africa. Secondly, they were all the cooked parts of plants that had good prospects in the American South, and thus they were found in abundance when they had been grown optimistically by the slaves in the garden space provided to him on his owner’s plantation (Wilson, 1964). In order to allow the African slaves to have some of their indigenous foods, helped them to accultarizationin American lifestyle. As a result of these kinds of foods, the enslaved African-American was capable to create new kinds of cuisines. Otherwise the foods being brought from African for some of the principal Southern foods would not have existed.
As well, the African-American foods altered when they were brought over to the USA. The majority of white landowners gave the African slaves a small piece of land to grow crops as well for their sustenance. This helped them to plant their indigenous foods and follow their age-old farm traditions.
Besides, the landowners offered the slaves surplus animal parts. The blacks took these discarded parts and included other African cooking methods to produce new delicious cuisines (Holloway, 1990). The persistence of their past food customs together with the blending of the surplus food that were given to them by their owners, helped in the conception of what is known as ‘soul food’. Though the aristocrats of southerners did not approve the southern foods that the African-American slaves were eating for a long time, the cuisines that were produced were similar to the Southern cuisines of the present times.
The slave-owners generally employed African-American women to be their cooks. At first, many slave owners declined to consume the African food brought from Africa. The dietary discrimination was thought to be the most rational tendencies. Though such culinary strangers could be accepted in the compartment of the slaves, they were not initially deemed appropriate for the slave owner's table (Wilson, 1964). Nevertheless, over time they started to make new experiments and provided the Africans more freedom in preparing the food of their choice. Many enslaved African cooks introduced their native African produce and foods to the farmers, thus they provided liaison connections in the amalgamation of African-American and European food traditions (Holloway, 1990). Once the slave owners and their wives gladly favored the African dishes, they started to claim the rights of some of the cuisines. When these were finally included among the ingredients employed in the earliest cookery books written by Southerners for use in the South, the 4 slave foods namely the peanut, the okra, the black-eyed pea, and the sesame had in fact exceeded the class boundaries (Wilson, 1964). In fact, the slave owner’s approval of many of the slaves’ techniques and cuisines, Southern food would not have such significant influence.
African-American slave food afterwards changed into a good variety that became much accepted and a source of delight for them. They gave the name the soul food and entirely a new significance. The enslaved African-Americans continued with the traditions of slaves’ cuisines and persisted it differently that was distinctive of their past traditions, though it also incorporated the future.
African-American Soul Food
As regards the primary experience of African-Americans, to the colonization of the Americas, and to the African slaves toiling for many years generates a distinct type of food and culinary.This was termed by the enslaved African-Americans as ‘soul food’. Soul food is a kind of enslaved African- American food that is a distinguished and momentous part of their customs and civilization that traced out prior to the colonial period. It is a blend of African societies and cultural impacts in addition to the diverse enslaved African-Americans conditions in the Americas. Soul food was promoted and created by the enslaved African-Americans in their constantly shifting role in the USA. Nevertheless, there exists a powerful link between the socio-religious association between people of African ancestry and their foodways. Yet, a lot of people, of different ethnic races, consider the belief that there is “soul” embodied in these distinctive cuisines, and for the enslaved African-Americans, thus soul food was an incarnation of their self-importance.
The enslaved African-Americans were forced to adopt new ingredients into their Soul food. They frequently used new ingredients to prepare the foods their masters ordered. The cook’s natural intuition about food and ability to improvise made it possible for the cooks to prepare these foreign dishes with, their “soul.” The analyst Fredrick Douglass Opie stated that “without timing and skill a cook had no soul worth talking about” and reveals how the soul food was basic food that tasted good and helped the African Americans to survive in the difficult periods (Opie, 2013).
The preparation of soul food was considered as a distinctive trait that was only conferred on the enslaved African Americans owing to their distinct skills and experiences. However, the exclusive ownership of this food has long been a topic of controversy in the American society. Despite the fact the soul food and the southern food are products of fundamentally dissimilar cultural milieus, both of them appear to go supplement each other. It is however complex to consider soul food without sweet potato pie, although the roots of this culinary are based in the pie making traditions in England. Pork, plentiful amounts of salt, and meat used made was introduced into slaves’ cuisine as a result of the English colonists.
Religious undertones
The enslaved African-Americans had a well-developed religious lifestyle prior to their forced migration to the Americas that comprised of distinct culinary traditions. Thus, in essence “soul” was much esteemed by the African-Americans even before the growth of the soul food.
Though the slave-owners in the America had a deep impact on the African-American religion, it was nevertheless something distinctive to them and the enslaved African-Americans that approved it as a soul food. The article by Dodson & Gilkes (1995) described the connection between food and spirituality, as spirituality and food are significantly interlinked in African-American culture and has a distinctive link with African-American people all over the new world (Dodson & Gilkes, 1995).
Various routines ritual ceremonies did take place in their homes as well in their churches to focus on culinary and foods. There was a large construction of African-American churches following the declaration of emancipation. Earlier, the enslaved African-American quietly practiced their religious rites at their farms, however, such practices soon developed to become the focus of the African-American civilization. The religious site helped the slaves to acquire a sense of freedom and services and these places soon staged friendly cooking contests as well for community building. Different African-American cuisines became the icon of the rich traditions that continued to exist long after the fetters of slavery were eliminated in the USA.
In contrast to the constant changing socio-political conditions of the enslaved African-Americans, the concept of African soul food continued to strongly integral and powerful all over their history. This notion inspired the enslaved African-Americans all over the USA to endorse a crusade all over the country for liberty and equality.
Throughout the American history, the enslaved African-Americans acquired the capability to endure nearly all the difficulties that came into their lives, the era of slavery, racial discrimination, and cruelty etc. In the USA, this narrative is clearly depicted in the growth of soul food. At present, the modern African-American foods took the form of many slave food recipes and Southern foods. Such food recipes and methods were passed down to the subsequent generations. A lot of these recipes are kept confidential in their families, since they wanted them to remain unique with them only. It should be seen that these recipes were only kept secret, although the majority of them were verbal, and not written. Many African-Americans households might have the obvious ingredients, though not the ones that could make the food recipes dissimilar to each others. Henderson stated that the soul food was consumed as a method by which the enslaved blacks distinguished themselves from the white middle class (Henderson, 2007).
As well, the African-Americans were offered the lower paying jobs all over the early and mid-19th century, in order that low-priced food could be grown. As the enslaved African-American prepared these foods, it became quite popular amongst the whites. The whites were fond of such foods and considered such foods not bad at all, if they were prepared appropriately.
Enslaved African Americans impacting the diet of all Southerners: A Literature Review
Southern foods and cuisines have always ingeniously drawn upon the blend of various cultures most notably of Native Americans, European, and African cultures. John Egerton wrote about Southern foods that “Within the South itself, no other form of cultural expression, not even music, is as distinctly characteristic of the region as the spreading of a feast of native food and drink before a gathering of kin and friends. For as long as there has been a Southerner, and people who think of themselves as Southerners, food have been central to the region’s image, its personality, and its character” (Egerton, 1993).
Moreover, about the impact of the enslaved black role in the dietary habits of southern, Joe Gray Taylor stated, the original white colonists learned from the enslaved African-Americans the knowledge of wild plant foods and their preparation. Most notably, certainly, the enslaved Indians taught the first colonists how to cultivate, prepare, and eat corn. Certainly, the British colonists would have liked to eat wheat bread, or even the rye bread that had been their staple food in Britain, however these crops did not grow fine in the soils of the New World. The enslaved African-Americans gave the Southerners squash and the many types of beans that they eat till today. As well, tomatoes and eggplants were produced by the slaves, though many southerners considered them as toxic till the 20th century (Taylor, 2008).
Jessica Harris, the noted author explained the ways in which enslaved Africans-Americans influenced foodways in the South: the foods consumed throughout the slave centuries pointed out that although the farmers might have tried to reproduce the food of their homeland across the Atlantic, a change was brewing up. The food recipes were constantly being changed in line with indigenous items and the enslaved Africans culinary methods. There was the large consumption of spices in the tropical climates both to cover up flawed meats and to improve the flavor. Foods were being cooked and vegetables added to them what in the Europe had been mostly a nutritious diet (Harris, 1989).
The African Links
African traditions have had the most impact on the flavors and the methods of Southern cookery. Jessica Harris (1996) stated, no matter what their plight, the enslaved Africans did not simply prepare their food for their own sustenance. They also prepared their food mostly, if not all, and their cooking in this field caused the delicate however very real change of the culinary tastes of the American South. The dishes like fried chicken, which required the African art of frying; a wide variety of fritters, and different kind of nut soups, continued to symbolize some of the best cuisines the South offered. Lastly, in the 1960s and 1970s emerged the family kitchens were known as soul food or survival food, and disparaged similarly as the food of enslavement (Harris, 1996).
Regardless of the abolition of slavery the African-Americans continued to hold authority over the preparation of various cuisines. Harris added that in the Southern and the Northern parts, a lot of enslaved African-American women were employed as housekeeper and chefs, and different kinds of house jobs. These kinds of services, however generally humiliating, provided strong, generally terribly intimate undertones about how the other African males lived. All over the USA, these employed women prepared homemade soups and fried chickens as well newly produced African-American culinary from their individual family recipes. Their culinary knowledge and skill is mostly not appreciated, though can be seen in old community cookbooks, where the recipes were praised for the cooking skills of many slave women. During the 20th century, the slave African-Americans were still employed in many countryside kitchens and are still influencing the culinary tastes of Americans (Harris, 1996).
References
Dodson, Jualynne E., & Gilkes, Cheryl T. (1995). "There's Nothing Like Church Food." Journal of The American Academy Of Religion 63.3: 519. America: History & Life. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Egerton, J. (1993). Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History. The University of North Carolina Press.
Ferguson, S. (1989). Soul food: classic cuisine from the deep South. New York, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 208 p.
Grime, William (Ed) (1970). Ethno-Botany of the Black Americans Algoniac, Mich.: publications.
Harris, Jessica B. (1989). Iron pots and wooden spoons: Africa's gifts to New World cooking. New York: Atheneum.
Harris, Jessica B. (1996). The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking. Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition.
Harris, Jessica B. (2011). "Recipes." High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. New York: Bloomsbury. 219-22. Print.
Henderson, L. (2007). "Ebony Jr!" and "Soul Food": The Construction Of Middle-Class African American Identity Through the use of Traditional Southern Foodways." Melus 32.4: 81-97.
Holloway, Joseph E. (1990). Africanisms in America Culture. Indiana University Press.
Opie, Frederick D. (2013). Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America. Columbia University Press.
Taylor, Joe G. (2008). Eating, Drinking, and Visiting in the South: An Informal History. Louisiana State Univ Pr; Updated edition.
Wilson, M.T. (April 1964). “Peaceful Integration: The Owner’s Adoption of his Slaves’ Food.” The Journal of Negro History. 49.2: 116-127.
