University Libraries

By Rachel Littleton

Mac and cheese, dirty rice and sweet potato pie. These recipes, among so many other classic soul foods, are a testament to the strength and ingenuity of African Americans. Despite the deprivation and harm they faced throughout history, African Americans developed recipes that not only sustained them, but helped shape the greater American palate.

Coming to America

Many of the foods and techniques found in African American cuisine were brought over from Africa along with those that were enslaved. The development of black-eyed peas as a crop occurred in Ghana and South Asia before it was established in the United States. Although rice originated in Asia, it was one of the reasons so many Africans were targeted for enslavement. Plantation owners needed their technical knowledge to cultivate the rice fields, and in exploiting them, the plantation owners grew rich.

Forging Ahead

Food and cooking provided African Americans an income and respect. During the period of enslavement, some African Americans in the deeper parts of the South were permitted to sell the gumbo they made. Cooks like Hercules Posey were ranked highly and afforded greater freedoms than other enslaved persons. Still, they were limited and at the mercy of their captors, as in the case of Posey, who was later forced to dig for clay before he self-emancipated in 1797.

After Emancipation, soul food continued to allow many African Americans a source of income as both cooks and writers. Malinda Russell, an African American woman from Tennessee, did a variety of jobs before fleeing to Michigan during the Civil War after being robbed and threatened with murder. There, she published her cookbook, which she hoped would raise enough funds to enable her to return home. During a time with limited opportunities, cooking provided Russell and others a path toward independence. During the Civil Rights Movement, soul food restaurants provided places where activists could meet and eat.

Soul Food Today

Today, we continue to enjoy these recipes. Last February, the University of Dayton’s Multi-Ethnic Education and Engagement Center hosted a lunch centered on soul food. Throughout Dayton and the surrounding area, you can find various soul food spots where you can participate in this culinary journey through time and struggle.

Further Reading

Books available through OhioLINK or your local library:

• Bound to the Fire: How Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine, by Kelley Fanto Deetz
• Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine One Plate at a Time, by Adrian Miller
• Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue, by Adrian Miller
• At the Table of Power: Food and Cuisine in the African American Struggle for Freedom, Justice, and Equality, by Diane M. Spivey
• Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks, by Crystal Wilkinson

Web article:

• What Made Edna Lewis the Mother of Soul Food: The Virginia-Born Chef Did More than Anyone to Elevate Southern Food to Haute Cuisine, by Taryn White for Smithsonian Magazine.

— Rachel Littleton is the acquisitions specialist in the University Libraries.