The usual diet for slaves was cornbread and pork.
Weekly food rations -- usually corn meal, lard, some meat, molasses, peas, greens, and flour -- were distributed every Saturday. Vegetable patches or gardens, if permitted by the owner, supplied fresh produce to add to the rations. Morning meals were prepared and consumed at daybreak in the slaves' cabins.
In truth, rations consisted of a monthly allowance of a bushel of third-rate corn, pickled pork (which was "often tainted") and "poorest quality herrings" – barely enough to sustain grown men and women through their backbreaking labors in the field. Not all the enslaved, however, were so ill-fed.
Slaves ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet that would allow them to burn 3,000 calories a day working, she explained. Southern food began to be called soul food during the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s, according to Hurt.
They brought the kola nut – one of the main parts of Coca-Cola – to what is now the United States. West Africans chewed the nut for its caffeine. Enslaved Africans also brought watermelon, okra, yams, black-eyed peas and some peppers. These foods are commonly eaten in the U.S. today.
Corn: The Versatile Food
Washington recounts in his Slave Diet Bulletin, a common breakfast was cornbread and pork. On days when that wasn't available, he'd head to the animal shed. There, he'd steal some of boiled Indian corn kernels used to feed the cows and pigs.
Fried chicken, the iconic dish of American slavery
And there was no shortage of fried chicken in the houses, consumed almost on a daily basis, since subject to a rapid deterioration: there were no refrigerators at the time, so the meat had to be cooked and eaten immediately.
In good weather the captives were brought on deck in midmorning and forced to exercise. They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were force-fed.
One of the ways in which they tried to bring death on when they couldn't jump overboard: they tried to just starve themselves to death. And so, in order to discourage this they would force the slave to eat.
In ordinary times we had two regular meals in a day: breakfast at twelve o'clock, after laboring from daylight, and supper when the work of the remainder of the day was over. In harvest season we had three.
Faunal remains in excavations have confirmed that livestock such as pigs and cows were the principal components of slaves' meat diets. Other sites show remnants of wild species such as opossum, raccoon, snapping turtle, deer, squirrel, duck, and rabbit.
Some enslaved men and women refused to eat, hoping to starve themselves to death. This might involve holding food in their mouths and then spitting it out when the crew weren't looking although this could lead to floggings and force-feedings as punishment. Leaping overboard to drown was another means of escape.
During the winter, slaves toiled for around eight hours each day, while in the summer the workday might have been as long as fourteen hours.
Archaeology at the House for Families slave quarter unearthed remains from fruits and vegetables that enslaved people ate. They likely foraged peaches, cherries, and persimmons from Mount Vernon's orchards or nearby woods. In personal gardens, they grew beans and cowpeas (a legume originating in Africa).
A broad and common measure of the health of a population is its life expectancy. The life expectancy in 1850 of a White person in the United States was forty; for a slave, it was twenty-two. Mortality statistics for Whites were calculated from census data; statistics for slaves were based on small sample-sizes.
On Sundays, enslaved individuals tended to their own gardens and livestock provided by their enslavers, practiced religion, and engaged with family and friends.
Some Africans on the Middle Passage journey to slavery in the United States tried to take their own lives by starving themselves, and were force fed with a contraption called the speculum orum. This device forced the slave's mouth open in order to be fed.
Dried beef and fish made up the protein for the enslaved plantation workers. Dried beef yields about half the fat and twice the protein of a similar portion of fresh beef.
Yes, enslaved children were forced to labor on this plantation. Boys and girls under ten assisted in the care of the very young enslaved children or worked in and around the main house. From the age of ten, they were assigned to tasks—in the fields, in the Nailery and Textile Workshop, or in the house.
Slaves, especially those in the field, worked from sunrise until sunset. Even small children and the elderly were not exempt from these long work hours. Slaves were generally allowed a day off on Sunday, and on infrequent holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July.
On a typical plantation, slaves worked ten or more hours a day, "from day clean to first dark," six days a week, with only the Sabbath off. At planting or harvesting time, planters required slaves to stay in the fields 15 or 16 hours a day.
They often ate the entrails and appendages of farm animals, including pig's feet, cow's tongue, liver and oxtail. This food had little nutritional value but the slaves made these scraps as palatable as possible by adding herbs as well as large amounts of the fat, sugar and salt that were readily available.
Although the peanut originated in either Peru or Brazil, Africans were the first to introduce the legume to the United States in the 1700s. Peanuts were often the only food for the enslaved while on ships heading to America. In the earliest days of this country, peanuts were not held in high esteem.
A likely scenario is that, at some point between the 17th and 19th centuries, enslaved African Americans began cooking fried chicken based on the recipes provided by Scottish slaveholders. In time, African American cooks embraced it as part of their own culinary tradition.