American Slave Food: Food, Drink and Cooking

TRUE STORIES OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA African American Studies - American Slave Food. Foods of the American Slave researched from the interviews from the Slave Narratives held at the Library of Congress. Food, Drink and Cooking. True Stories of American Slavery in their own Words. Recollections of American ex-slaves about the foods they ate, the things they drank, the rations they received and how they cooked and prepared their foods. House slaves usually lived better than field slaves. They usually had better food and were sometimes given the family's cast-off clothing.

However, not all slave-owners took this view, Harriet Jacobs reports that her mistress "would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans" to make sure that the slaves did not eat what was left over. "We had plenty common eating. They had a big garden and plenty milk. They cooked wid the eggs mostly. They would kill a beef and have a week of hog killing. They would kill the beef the hardest weather that come. The families cooked at night and on Sunday at the log cabins. They cook at night for all next day. The old men hauled wood. Barnett (blind), Ex-Slave, Holly Grove, Ark. Age: 81 at time of interview