Food is one of the most direct ways to experience cultures, both present and past. It is the physical medium through which cultures interact because there are few things more intimate than sharing a meal. Furthermore, food is a product of circumstance and tradition, making culinary art a telling aspect of life. Food is both a necessity and an expression of self. The history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade truly engages these intersections. Bringing physical representations of heritage on the Middle Passage was impossible, but cooking was able to make the journey because it is knowledge passed between generations. What we eat is our tie to the soil, to the generations that came before us and what we cook is part of the legacy that we leave for future generations. Food traditions are as central to culture as language. Food evolves with culture, so to know the history of a food is to know the culture that produced it.
Southern American food is a product of slavery’s brutal existence and the African culture that the enslaved peoples brought with them. African traditions and techniques were adapted to the foods that the enslaved people had in the New World. They found how to turn refused scraps into a product of love, an art. Like a rose growing from concrete, the enslaved people made beauty from the barren. Barbecue specifically came from the tough scraps that the slaves were given to cook and is now one of the most deeply rooted foods of American culture.
The method of slow smoking barbecue represents an aggregation of cultures who developed different slow cooking techniques to turn tough foods into tender delicacies. The technique is a blending of African, Native American, and European cultures that the enslaved were confronted with in the New World. The term “barbecue” itself derives from Caribe, Spanish, French, and West African origins pertaining to the use of all parts of the animal being cooked over a fire for long periods of time. So, while the technique is a blend of different cultures, it still has direct ties to West and Central African traditions brought by the Slaves who were essential in creating barbecue. The Slaves, confronted with various new cultures, blended African culture into their food, ensuring its survival..
African culture survived in more than just barbecue; it survived in stewed okra, red beans and rice, collared greens, chow-chow, and many other staples of a modern Southern American diet. While barbecue represents blending cultures, many foods are distinctly African in origin. Okra, brought over so that the slaves could plant for themselves, is so deeply ingrained in southern food that its origins can be easily forgotten. Gumbo often relies on Okra as a thickener, and cajun food would be incomplete without African red peas. In most cases, African culinary tradition is the basis of modern southern food.
Food is the living history and record of Slave culture. Even when they were denied literacy and the ability to record their history, they passed it in the food they made. The food carried the enslaved people’s African culture, helping it survive. These dishes are so ingrained in American society, that their status as vessels of culture can be easily forgotten. Southern food is a living history of enslaved Africans, and eating it directly engages one with the African cultures that influenced it. There is no Southern American food without African influence.
The most lasting representation of culture is not in the language a people speak or the god(s) they worship, but it is in the food they eat. Food is the physical tie to the earth, to the soil, spanning back generations to the beginning of time. And in the case of African slaves, food was one of the few solid ties they had to their cultural history. To truly know a people’s food is to know their culture and taste their history.
WC: 654 words
Pledged: Phillips Hutchison
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