What the slaves ate : recollections of African American foods and foodways from the slave narratives
Herbert C. Covey (Author), Dwight Eisnach (Author)
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
Print Book, English, 2009
Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California, 2009
Cookbook
xi, 311 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.
9780313374975, 031337497X
290431563
The WPA narratives and slave diets
Slave nutrition
African roots and food traditions
Slave cooking and meals
Vegetables
Meat
Wild game and fish
Dairy
Grains, cereals, and baked goods
Fruits, nuts, and coffee
Celebrations, special occasions, and the war
Closing observations