The culinary world of the American South has been heavily influenced by the culture and traditions of the Africans and other people of color who were brought to the United States as slaves. The traditions they brought with them, as well as the traditions they later developed based on the available food resources, contributed to a thriving food culture that still exists today. However, the food culture of the American South no longer tells the story of the African-American people who created it, and black chefs are rarely recognized for their contributions to the food traditions in this region. This begs the question: Where are the black chefs of the South? The lack of recognition among African-American chefs in the Southern culinary world can …show more content…
In 1740, rice from Madagascar was brought to modern-day South Carolina. According to National Geographic, “African slaves are responsible for nearly every facet of one of the first rice varieties grown in the United States, as well as one of the most lucrative crops in early American history” (Roach, 2007, para. 2). Enslaved Africans primarily used three systems for rice cultivation, and these methods were identical to the methods applied in South Carolina in the 1800s, a show of Africans hand in the process. The process of growing rice was not easy; enslaved Africans used their agricultural knowledge to adapt the crop to the climate of the American South, making it possible for rice to make an entrance into American culture. Rice became an important crop produced in colonial South Carolina and helped form the basis for South Carolina’s antebellum economy (Holloway, n.d.). As a result of the wealth built upon the profits from rice, Charleston, South Carolina, became the wealthiest city in North America in the late 18th century (Harris, 2011, p. 70). Enslaved African cooks also incorporated the cash crop into the food they prepared for the plantation families. The abundance of rice led to the creation of dishes like Hoppin’ John and Charleston Red Rice, both which are derived from West African
Sugar plantations have a field where sugar cane stalks are cut and grown and then there are boiling house where sugar cane stalks are crushed and boiled which is all runned by slave labor. Because slaves planted the cane stalks, harvested sugar stalks, crushed them, and boiled the sugar stalks sugar was made(8). According to David richardson the slave Trade, Sugar, and British Economic growth, “An Average purchase price of adult male slave on west African coast in 1748 was 14£ and in 1768 was 16£”(9a).Because slaves were so cheap slave traders may profit by, selling adult male slaves to sugar plantation owners for twice as much as they bought them in Africa. John Campbell Candid and Impartial Considerations on the Nature of the Sugar Trade describes the slaves as “so necessary Negro slaves purchased in Africa by English merchants”(11). Because africa trade slaves to English merchants Africans got things they did not
As a child I remember my mom preparing Sunday dinner Saturday afternoon. I was told it took time to prepare everything. Then come Sunday dinner after church we had some of the biggest meal placed before us. Mac and cheese, collard greens, cornbread that looked like pound cake, pork chops, fried chicken, etc. As I got older I asked for some of those recipes and she could never answer what all I needed to do she showed me. Her main concern was I loved what I was cooking and to cook to please others. I guess that explained all the salt, pepper, and other heavy ingredients. I choose to write about soul food because I believe it’s a part of my heritage and its a meal I enjoy from time to time. African American Registry states that in order to understand
Just as the proprietors had anticipated, many of the early settlers to this new colony were from Barbados. Actually, “. . . Carolina was the only seventeenth-century English colony to be settled principally by colonists from other colonies rather than from England” (Roark). Also these Barbadian immigrants brought their slaves with them to what later became known as South Carolina. While there were indentured servants in the colony, black slaves quickly outnumbered them unlike in the Chesapeake. Soon more than a fourth of the early settlers were slaves and as the colony grew in population, attracting more settlers from Barbados, the black population multiplied (Roark). “By 1700, slaves made up about half the population of Carolina” (Roark). These slaves were needed desperately in the fields to grow the colony’s main export: rice.
Many African-Americans consume what is known as “soul food”, for which, it is very popular within the black community. Soul food is an African-American cuisine that can be traced back as far as African, however, the term itself was not coined until the mid-1960s. It also comprise an important element of the cuisine of the general American south. Soul food was adopted and modify during the African slave trade and it was during this time food African cuisine and southern European cuisine became one big melting pot.
2) West Indies (crops and slavery): A group of displaced English settlers from Barbados arrived in Carolina in 1670. They brought with them a few African slaves, as well as the model of the Barbados slave code, which inspired statutes governing slavery throughout the mainland colonies.
Rice was another cash crop that required a substantial investment in land, labor, and equipment. It was among the most intensive and extensive crops developed in colonial North America. Its cultivation helped shape the development of societies in South...
Agriculture was tremendously valuable to the lives of early Americans and the development of the country. It was among one of the top two most important aspects of American life, but was not quite as primary as the social and economic life. Some of the main crops grown by the earlier settlers included wheat, peas, corn, and tobacco. Farms were developed first in the Chesapeake region. Due to the abundant land and numerous streams in this region, the farm soil was richer and more ideal for farming. Farms in the northern colonies, especially New England, tended to be smaller due to smaller amounts of fields and land. Southern colonies were able to have much larger plantations and areas to plant crops. White indentured servants were sometimes hired in the earlier part of the 17th century, but black slaves became a common use of labor in the later decades of the 1600s. The New England and middle colonies in opposition, rarely hired slaves. The most abundant and common crop in every region was corn. “Every...
Slave trade grew gradually when it began in 1600's. As the demand for labor in the colonies increased, a number of plantation owners resorted to slave labor. These plantation owners used s...
Michael Twitty is a food writer and culinary historian best known for preparing, preserving and promoting African American food ways and its origins in Africa. He emphasizes how African food culture has made a great impact on the American South. His cooking helped him to learn about his identity and culture. He describes “identity cooking” a way to better understand him and his culture as a Jewish-African American. A project he developed called “The Cooking Gene” is what he explains as a means of “exploring my family history through food, from Africa to America, from slavery to freedom.” Race, food and ethnicity all have a more complex and cultural meaning especially when fused together. Different
Chef Angela Shelf Medearis, accounts her view over the topic, “The other part is because of the basic stereotypical prejudice there is about African and African American cuisine-- most restaurant chefs don't consider African and African foods that should be recognized” (Medearis). This erasure of black cuisine further displays the modern-day covert prejudice that is so often seen in the kitchen. However, historically, black chefs were well-versed in cooking techniques and made multiple contributions to the culinary industry. “Early black chefs were trained in traditional English and classic French cuisine, and they remained open to other cultural influences with which they came into contact, including Native American, Sephardic-Jewish, German, Dutch, and Scots-Irish foodways” (Twitty). The fusion of dishes and cultures are most of what people see (and eat) today. For example, gumbo, a roux based stew, is fusion between the French and creole cultures. Additionally, the decline of black chefs in the past is largely part of old stereotypes and misconceptions. In the late 90’s, most people saw the culinary industry as degrading or not as prestigious as other professions. Being in the kitchen only reinforced the negative connotation of being a servant among other things. “African-American parents -- our parents -- were Pullman porters and waiters and waitresses," said Mr. Raiford, an Atlanta chef who has returned to the institute to earn his bachelor's degree. "Once they had the ability for their children not to do that, they didn't want to choose that" (Ruhlman). It seems that being in the culinary industry is a sort of ‘double edged sword’ nowadays for black people, "They seemed disappointed in me. The perception then, around 1980, was that those kind of jobs were beneath us, that better opportunities were available. So why would want anyone
Soul Food By: Avishay Exquisite. That’s one of the many words that comes to mind when you sink your teeth into the tender surface of one of the many kinds of Soul Food, cornbread. Cornbread has been around for centuries starting with the Native Americans. It’s also one of the many types of Soul Food.
Nutritionism and Today’s Diet Nutritionism is the ideology that the nutritional value of a food is the sum of all its individual nutrients, vitamins, and other components. In the book, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, he critiques scientists and government recommendations about their nutritional advice. Pollan presents a strong case pointing out the many flaws and problems that have risen over the years of following scientific studies and government related warnings on the proper amount of nutrients needed for a healthy diet. Pollan’s main point is introducing science into our food system has had more of a negative impact than a positive one, we should go back to eating more of a traditional diet. I believe food science has given us
America is a capitalist society. It should come to a surprise when we live like this daily. We work for profit. We’ll buy either for pleasure or to sell later for profit. It should come to no surprise that our food is made the same way because we are what we eat. We are capitalist that eat a capitalist meal. So we must question our politics. Is our government system to blame for accepting and encouraging monopolies?
Africans did not willingly come to the United States, but in the slave ships which brought them, they brought food not indigenous to America, grew it, and assimilated it into everyday foods of the people that owned them. Today most Americans take this food for granted, without knowing its origin. The transatlantic slave trade brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas, and kidney and lima beans to the shores of America very early in its history. Also sorghum, millet, watermelon, yams and sesame; found their way into America and became part of the ingredients found in the early cook books written by Americans in the Deep South. To better understand the foods which arrived from Africa, knowing the slaves and slave traders that brought them is important. “It is believed that the first African slaves were imported to the New World at the beginning of the 17th century and that the first slaves came from Senegambia and the Windward Coast. Senegambia was a loosely defined region of West Africa that comprises the present-day nations of Senegal and The Gambia. Windward Coast is roughly the current country of Ivory
American culture is changing dramatically. In some areas it’s a good thing, but in other areas, like our food culture, it can have negative affects. It is almost as if our eating habits are devolving, from a moral and traditional point of view. The great America, the land of the free and brave. The land of great things and being successful, “living the good life.” These attributes highlight some irony, especially in our food culture. Is the American food culture successful? Does it coincide with “good living”? What about fast and processed foods? These industries are flourishing today, making record sales all over the globe. People keep going back for more, time after time. Why? The answer is interestingly simple. Time, or in other words, efficiency. As people are so caught up in their jobs, schooling, sports, or whatever it may be, the fast/processed food industries are rapidly taking over the American food culture, giving people the choice of hot