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Cover of What the slaves ate

What the slaves ate

recollections of African American foods and foodways from the slave narratives

By Herbert C. Covey,Dwight Eisnach

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Publish Date

2009

Publisher

Greenwood Press

Language

eng

Pages

311

Description:

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.