Southern Food History

While the plantation owners would eat large meals that consisted of salted meats, fish and mostly root vegetables, the slaves were fed the local growing fruits, such as pineapple, plantains and corn which could be used to make bread.

Columbus sailed to the new world and brought sugar cane. This was the start of slave trade and the trafficking of slaves from west Africa to the West Indies.

Slaves got small cut offs of meat from their Master's ( pig feet, gizzard, and ham hocks ) that was all they had to work with. It was common for slaves to make one pot meals on a shelf above the fireplace.

All of the plants reached the mainland of North America either directly from Africa, or came with enslaved Africans destined for North America and through trade with the West Indies.

He brought 40 bushels of black-eyed peas seeds for planting on his plantation.

A slave born on the Lloyd plantation in 1817, meals prepared and cooked for their owners and guests included a wide variety of foods and beverages.

These crops included several basic starches central to the African diet, for instance rice, okra, black-eyed peas, cassava, yams, and kidney and lima beans. Other crops brought from Africa included peanuts, millet, sorghum, guinea melon, liquorice, watermelon, and sesame. Slaves usually received a monthly allowance of corn meal and salt-herrings. Some plantation owners gave their slaves a small piece of land, a truck-patch, where they could grow vegetables.

Scottish immigrants to the southern United States, had a tradition of deep frying chicken in fat, unlike their English counterparts who baked or boiled chicken. A number of West African cuisines featured dishes where chicken was fried, typically in palm oil, sometimes having been battered before.

Slavery was abolished.

This was when the term "Soul" became popular which was use in soul food and soul music.