Helen Rubio
Women, Food and Health
September 26, 2017
The context in which soul food was created is not romantic in the least. In fact, chitlins,
collard greens and other foods we’ve come to regard as staples of a soul food diet are actually
byproducts of slave trade in the Americas. As it was stated in Hurt’s work “slavery may have
been racially based, but it was an economic proposition, and it was not economic to put all those
people in a ship and have them die” (Hurt, 5:18). This economic incentive led many slave traders
to study the people they were transporting in order to provide basic necessities – amongst these
needs, was food. The food given to slaves by traders did not resembles today’s items in spice or
appearance, however. Food given to those on the ship were select items from their countries of
origin and were meant purely for sustenance. Burns even refers to these offerings as being “the
poorest quality foods” (Hurt, 5:10). Similarly, the rudimentary relationship between bread and
the people of Bosa was a very humble one; bread in this isolated town became a staple as a result
of the town’s largely subsistent wheat cultivating and animal herding economy (Counihan, 1999,
p. 26). Though the two cultures differed in the natural resources they used, they ultimately shared
the same end-goal: sustenance.
Furthermore, the true practice of preparing and cooking soul food did not begin till
slaves were put on communal plantations. The slaves’ relationship with the land was described in
documentary as follows: “Under some systems they [slaves] had provision grounds and in the
provision grounds they were expected to grow their food. Remember, slaves were responsible
not only for growing their food, but in many cases for growing the food for the entire plantation”
(Hurt, 7:27). Thus, slaves became a vital part of the developing food system. They took on the
roles of producers through those who labored in the fields and chefs through the enslaved women
that cooked for the plantation owner and his family. Women in the latter position were
considerably influential in the creation of soul food since they fed the children of the plantation
owner as well (Hurt, 9:09). In this way, a new palette, recipes and culture were passed down to
both black and white families in the south – an influence that can be seen in the cuisine of U.S.
southerners today.
Bread in Bosa served a similar, unifying function between people of their community.
Because making bread was so demanding it was a communal process that required the help of
family members and neighbors. Along the lines of the family unit fathers and sons were
responsible for cultivating the wheat. Mothers and their daughters would mill the grain and bake
the bread with women from other households. This gave way to a social matrix which allowed
