Carefully documenting African American slave foods, this book reveals that slaves actively developed their own foodways-their customs involving family and food. The authors connect African foods and food preparation to the development during slavery of Southern cuisines having African influences, including Cajun, Creole, and what later became known as soul food, drawing on the recollections of ex-slaves recorded by Works Progress Administration interviewers. Valuable for its fascinating look into the very core of slave life, this book makes a unique contribution to our knowledge of slave culture and of the complex power relations encoded in both owners' manipulation of food as a method of slave control and slaves' efforts to evade and undermine that control.While a number of scholars have discussed slaves and their foods, slave foodways remains a relatively unexplored topic. The authors' findings also augment existing knowledge about slave nutrition while documenting new information about slave diets.

The powerful, long-neglected testimony of former slaves places African American slave foods and foodways at the center of the complex social dynamics of the plantation South.

PrefaceAcknowledgments1. The WPA Narratives and Slave Diets2. Slave Nutrition3. African Roots and Food Traditions4. Slave Cooking and Meals5. Vegetables6. Meat7. Wild Game and Fish8. Dairy9. Grains, Cereals, and Baked Goods10. Fruits, Nuts, and Coffee11. Celebrations, Special Occasions, and the War12. Closing ObservationsAPPENDICES: FOODS IDENTIFIED IN THE WPA NARRATIVESAppendix A: VegetablesAppendix B: MeatsAppendix C: Wild Game: BirdsAppendix D: Wild Game: Fish/ShellfishAppendix E: Wild Game: Reptiles and AmphibiansAppendix F: Wild Game: MammalsAppendix G: DairyAppendix H: GrainsAppendix I: Baked GoodsAppendix J: FruitAppendix K: NutsAppendix L: Sugar/Molasses/SpicesAppendix M: BeveragesAppendix N: General or UnclearBibliographyIndex