Soul Food Torrent Download
Julia Heaslet
Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans.[1][2] It originated in the American South from the cuisines of enslaved Africans trafficked to the North American colonies through the Atlantic slave trade during the Antebellum period and is closely associated (but not to be confused with) with the cuisine of the American South.[3]The expression "soul food" originated in the mid-1960s, when "soul" was a common word used to describe African-American culture.[4] Soul food uses cooking techniques and ingredients from West African, Central African, Western European, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas.[5] Soul food came from the blending of what African Americans ate in their native countries in Africa and what was available to them as slaves. The cuisine had its share of negativity initially. Soul food was initially seen as low class food, and Northern African Americans looked down on their Black Southern counterparts who preferred soul food. The term evolved from being the diet of a slave in the South to being a primary pride in the African-American community in the North such as New York City.[6]
The term soul food became popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the midst of the Black Power movement.[7] One of the earliest written uses of the term is found in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was published in 1965.[8] LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka) published an article entitled "Soul Food" and was one of the key proponents for establishing the food as a part of the Black American identity.[9] Those who had participated in the Great Migration found within soul food a reminder of the home and family they had left behind after moving to unfamiliar northern cities. Soul food restaurants were Black-owned businesses that served as neighborhood meeting places where people socialized and ate together.[10][11]
Soul food recipes have pre-slavery influences, as West African and European foodways were adapted to the environment of the region.[3][12] During the period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade enslaved people ate African foods such as rice, okra, black-eyed peas, and kidney and lima beans aboard slave ships. These crops were brought to North America and became a staple in Southern cuisine.[13] Soul food originated in the home cooking of the rural Southern United States or the "Deep South" and has its origins in slavery, using locally gathered or raised foods and other inexpensive ingredients.[14] Rabbits, squirrels, and deer were often hunted for meat. Fish, frogs, crawfish, turtles, shellfish, and crab were often collected from fresh waters, salt waters, and marshes.[15][16] Soul food originated during the time of slavery, when Black American/ African American enslaved people were given only leftovers and the undesirable parts of animals, such as ham hocks, hog jowls, and pigs' feet, ears, skin and intestines, which white plantation slave owners did not eat.[17][18]
Archeological and historical research concerning slave cabins in the Southern United States indicates that enslaved African Americans used bowls more often than flatware and plates, suggesting that they primarily made stews and "gumbo" for meals, using local ingredients gathered in nature, vegetables grown in their gardens, and left-over animal scraps their white plantation owners did not eat. This process allowed enslaved people to create new dishes and develop a variety of ways to season and add spice to their food with hot sauces. Research shows that white plantation families more often used plates and flatware, indicating that they ate meals consisting of individual cuts of meats and vegetables that were not blended into one dish like the stews made by enslaved people. Enslaved people living on plantations located along the Atlantic coast developed a diversity of foodways enabled by their access to seafood.[23]
During slavery times, Gullah people in the lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia practiced a fishing culture that came from West Africa, and made canoes similar in appearance to the ones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gullah people passed down their fishing traditions, and prepared meals of fish using local ingredients from the region, developing fish dishes that are still a part of Gullah culture. Author Amy Lynne Young's research at the Mabry Plantation in Louisiana showed the differences in foodways between enslaved people living inland versus those living along the Atlantic coast. Families living along the coast had access to a variety of meats from land and sea animals, especially those that lived on the coastlines and barrier sea islands. Inland slaves' choices of meats were limited, consisting of game such as rabbit and squirrel, farm chickens, pigs, and left-over animal scraps. Vegetables were locally gathered or grown in their gardens. Young suggests enslaved people living along the coast had a more diverse diet than inland slaves. This demonstrates regional styles of cooking soul food based on local ingredients.[24][25][26]
Some slaves grew herbs in their gardens to add flavor to their food.[27] Other cooking techniques were boiling and simmering food in an earthenware or iron pot known as colonoware.[28] Salt was used to preserve meats for weeks until consumption.[29]
Enslaved fishermen in Virginia caught fish to feed their families and the slave community. The Encyclopedia of Virginia explained the history of free and enslaved Black fishermen: "Enslaved workers also received fish considered undesirable by whites, such as garfish, whose red flesh Niemcewicz explained 'is little esteemed, serving only as food for negroes,' and black catfish, which held less appeal for whites than white catfish, which was 'considered excellent.' Enslaved workers also fished in their time off to supplement their rations."[30][31] On George Washington's plantation called Mount Vernon in Virginia, enslaved people primarily ate corn meal and salted fish. Enslaved cooks prepared corn meal pancakes, "hoe cakes", individual cuts of meats, and seasoned cooked vegetables for George Washington and his family.[32]
The slaves' diet in Virginia consisted of meat from farm animals, vegetables, blackberries, walnuts, and seafood. Historical research at the Burroughs plantation in Franklin County, Virginia by the National Park Service showed that enslaved people there had a diet of cornbread, pork, chicken, sweet potatoes, and boiled corn for breakfast. Along the coast enslaved people ate oysters and seafood. Booker T. Washington was born enslaved in Franklin County, Virginia in 1856 and wrote an autobiography titled, The Story of My Life and Work and Up from Slavery, that explained the diet he grew up with as an enslaved child. Washington's mother was an enslaved woman who was the plantation cook and prepared meals for white families.[33]
Washington's mother prepared meals over an open fireplace or in skillets and pots. Washington, his mother, and siblings ate out of pots and skillets while white families ate from plates and flatware using forks and spoons. Washington's mother prepared one-pot meals for her family using local meats, vegetables, nuts, and berries combining all the ingredients in a pot to make a stew. This way of cooking is done in West Africa and continued in the Southern United States with enslaved families.[34] Enslaved people at the Burroughs plantation had a variety of vegetables with which to eat and make stews; they were: "Asparagus, beets, beans, black-eyed peas, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, garden peas, Irish potatoes, kale, lettuce, lima beans, muskmellons, okra, onions, peppers, radishes, tomatoes, turnips, and watermelons would be planted, ripened, and harvested from spring through fall".[35]
A few enslaved chefs had some degree of freedom for their cooking skills, such as Hercules Posey and James Hemings. Hercules Posey was the enslaved cook for George Washington at Mount Vernon in Virginia. Posey's dishes were so popular among elite white families he had quasi freedom to leave the house on his own and earn money selling leftovers. According to historians, the dishes Posey made were influenced by West African, European, and Native American foodways. He created dishes of veal, roast beef, and duck, along with puddings and jellies prepared in a way not unlike that of other chefs, but creating his own sauces and flavors. Posey was never given his freedom, so he escaped from slavery.[36][37] James Hemings (brother of Sally Hemings) was born enslaved in colonial Virginia and was the head chef for Thomas Jefferson. Hemings combined African, French, and Native American food traditions. While enslaved, Hemings traveled to France with Jefferson and learned how to make macaroni pie (today called macaroni and cheese). Hemings introduced and popularized macaroni and cheese in the United States. It became a common side item in soul food dishes in Black communities.[38][39]
Sesame is an African crop that was brought to South Carolina in 1730 during the slave trade. Thomas Jefferson noted how enslaved people prepared stews, baked breads, boiled their greens with sesame, and made sesame pudding. Slaves ate sesame raw, toasted, and boiled. It was used as an ingredient for baked breads in colonial America and is still used in the present day.[40]
According to research by scholars at Mercer University, white plantation families initially refused to eat African foods prepared by their slaves, although in many plantation kitchens enslaved African women were the primary cooks. These women passed down cultural knowledge of cooking techniques to the children. Time spent in the kitchen was time that enslaved mothers could spend bonding with their children and teaching them about life, culture, and foodways. The role of enslaved Black women in the kitchen and as mothers led to racist stereotypes portraying them as Mammys.[41]
On January 1, 1863, Gullah people in the sea islands of South Carolina celebrated their freedom on New Year's Day at Camp Saxton in Beaufort with food and barbecues. Black people in the barrier islands of South Carolina became free early during the American Civil War after the Battle of Port Royal on November 7, 1861, when many of the plantation owners and white residents fled the area after the arrival of the Union Navy and Army. As a result, over 10,000 African Americans became free on that day.[42] However, their freedom was not official in government writing until the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year's Day in 1863. Thousands of newly freed people celebrated their freedom with food, song, and dance.[43] Charlotte Forten, the first black teacher at the Penn School on St. Helena Island in Beaufort, attended the Emancipation Day celebration at Camp Saxton and recorded in her journal they ate roasted oxen and barbecue.[44][45][46]
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