Foods in America from the African Slave Trade

Like the American people, American food is a hybrid of cultures and influences. Many of our most popular foods come either directly from Africa or were brought here through the culinary traditions of African slaves. The yam for example, has been a staple crop in Africa for at least 2,000 years. Other foods, like the peanut, were brought from South America to Africa by Portuguese traders in the 1500's. In fact, peanuts have been so long associated with Africa and African cuisine that until the 1800's botanists thought that the legume originated on the African continent. The peanut when on to become an important crop around the world. It traveled from Africa to the slave plantations in the Caribbean and Americas, and proved to be a steady food source and profitable crop in many areas of the world. The original Africans found it easier to grow than another peanut-like plant native to the area, the Bambara, and even later became a factor in the American Civil War, when Northern soldiers demanded peanuts, by then a staple crop in the American South. The peanut gained more popularity as its uses were further explored by George Washington Carver, a prominent African American who earned a Masters Degree at Iowa State and wrote a useful pamphlet entitled How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption.

As popular as the peanut today is the watermelon. Watermelons were first domesticated in Southern and Central Africa, but most likely appeared in Egypt around 5,000 years ago. The watermelon was a useful fruit in dry regions because it acted like a portable canteen, and its value was recognized across the Americas. This fruit to this day serves as a symbol in racist African portrayals of slaves, but the tradition of the watermelon goes far beyond that.
A few more culinary traditions originating with the importation of African slaves are the use of rice and okra in cooking. A few of the most valuable slaves knew the tradition of properly irrigating a rice field, and rice became a valued crop in the Carolinas. Okra most likely originated in Sudan, and traveling to the United States became a popular dish in the south.

Sugar migrated 12,000 year ago from New Guinea to the Middle East, where conquering Arabs eventually spread Sugar south through Africa and eventually into Spain. Sugar became popular among Europeans but for centuries could only be afforded by the wealthy. The Crusaders brought Sugar to northern parts of Europe. Sugar was used to make marzipan which was used to make figurines which were like edible sculptures. Mostly these foods were for the nobles and church leaders. Throughout its long history, sugar had five main uses: costly and precise replicas of great Italian sculptures, a medicine, spice, a sweetener, and a preservative. To quote Burt Wolf's website, "From the 10th to the 18th century, sugar was considered a wonder drug and prescribed for coughs, sore throats, labored breathing, and stomach ailments. Every medicine used during the Black Plague contained sugar. To cure impaired vision, doctors blew powdered sugar into the eye" (http://www.burttravels.com/whatweeat.htm). Its use as a sweetener and preservative are still well-known today, and the idea of sugar as sculpture has contributed to the modern idea of pastry arts.