Antebellum Slave Diet: Nutritional or Not?

The essay will begin with a discussion of the staple foods and other common foods that were available to the slaves, including those foods grown on the slaves"tm provision grounds. After addressing the types of foods that were available to the slaves, Fogel and Engerman"tms argument will be critically analyzed with factual evidence opposing their claim. The evidence will include first-hand accounts from slaves of dietary insufficiencies, including underfeeding and malnutrition. Then, the essay will describe ways in which the slaves"tm poor diet triggered day-to-day resistance, as well as how the fruits and vegetables they cultivated on the provision grounds sparked commerce among the African American slaves. Also addressed will be an analysis of how the slave diet is remembered and how it has influenced the African American diet of today through "Soul Food." Factual evidence that supports the essay"tms arguments is collected from an assortment of primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources include slaveholder"tms journals and slave"tms journals, while the secondary sources include African American history books including Time on the Cross, The Species of Property, and Born into Bondage. A synthesis of the arguments and evidence presented in this essay will then conclude the essay.

Starvation and malnutrition in the slave"tms diet led them to undermining their master by stealing food. When dealing with issues of food stealing, the slave owner always labeled the act theft, while the slave called the behavior "taking." Food stealing became a form of day-to-day resistance for the slaves as a chance to get back at their master. Children who worked in the plantation house would return to their cabins with pockets filled with salt and wheat and anything else they could pick up from their strategic position in the house. Another area where children were known to steal food was from the peach apple and plum orchards, many times before the fruit could even ripen. Slaves also "took" many different types of animals to cook for fresh meat, something the slaves rarely experienced. Slaves were known to steal chickens and pigs to digest a sufficient amount of protein. A Virginian slave named Henry Johnson successfully lured a turkey into his cabin, broke its neck, and then cooked it. He boasts saying, "Dat night we cooked him, and didn"tmt we eat somethin"tm good." The slaves not only received satisfaction for their hunger for this day-to-day resistance, but also for their pride as they could successfully undermine the slaveholder.

The slave"tms nutritionally insufficient diet caused many health related issues on top of the everyday physical fatigue. Dietary deficiencies occurred often among plantation slaves as their vitamin intake was so lopsided on corn and salt pork and severely lacking the vitamins found in vegetables other that corn. One type of dietary deficiency disease that occurred from eating too much corn and salt pork was pellagra. The symptoms included dermatitis, diarrhea, and dementia, along with dizziness and vertigo. Slaves who suffered from starvation were known to eat dirt to appease their hunger. This was a habit that occurred most among young slaves who were supposed to fend for themselves. This act did turn fatal at times, as a slaveholder from South Carolina recalls, ""one of the boys about 3 years old died this morning (from eating dirt as stated by the doctor)." These are just a few examples of the many health problems associated with malnutrition that the slaves faced while living on the southern plantations.

In the 21st Century, the same types of food that Africans and African American slaves ate during the colonial and antebellum periods have influenced the way modern African Americans remember and enjoy certain types of foods. African Ame

Some topics in this essay:
African Americans, Born Bondage, Fogel Engerman, corn salt pork, fogel engermantms argument, robert fogel stanley,