What type of food did slaves eat?

Answer 1

Depends on what slaves and in what country and what historical period. If you mean the black slaves in America, they ate food similar to what Southerners were eating like fried meat, fish, cornbread, biscuits, gravy, etc. Black slaves also developed their own unique style of cooking as an offshoot of Southern cooking. Probably used some African traditions they carried over.

If you lived in the Old South it also depended whether you were a field worker or house slave. The house slaves had a slightly higher "standard of living" and might have had additional food choices and perhaps greater quantity. For this reason and others black house slaves considered themselves to be highly superior to those who picked cotton and worked the fields.

In other times and places slaves have actually be starved or severely malnourished which makes no sense as a cruel master such as this is simply hurting his labor force.

In many places where slavery is a kind of punishment, slaves are treated especially cruelly.

Answer 2

Food For Slaves

Answer 3

African slaves actually had a better diet than their owners did. The owners ate mostly fatty foods, with little or no vegetables and lots of sweets and alcohol that left them lethargic. The slaves needed to be strong and energetic to work the fields, so large vegetarian meals were encouraged and drinking discouraged. Ice tea and lemonade became typical drinks. As the Africans began to assimilate into the American slave society, they "made do" with the ingredients at hand. The fresh vegetables found in Africa were replaced by the throwaway foods from the plantation house. Their vegetables were the tops of turnips and beets and dandelions. Soon they were cooking with new types of greens: collards, kale, cress, mustard and pokeweed. With a lot of lard for flavor from the slaughtered hog and cracklin' from it's skin, they made a filling meal.

Weekly rations were given out from the smokehouse of corn meal, a few pounds of meat and black molasses. The women would use these ingredients, with onions, garlic, thyme and bay leaf, to create a variety of dishes. The cornmeal was turned into a bread. The meat (pig's feet, ham hocks, chitterlings, pig ears, hog jowl, tripe, and crackling) became the main dish with generous portions of greens, and the molasses and cornmeal would be mixed to become a dessert.

The slave diet began to evolve when slaves entered the plantation houses as cooks. With an array of new ingredients at their fingertips and a well-tuned African palate, the cooks would make delectable foods for their masters. Suddenly southern cooking took on new meaning. Fried chicken began to appear on the tables, sweet potatoes (which had replaced the African yam) sat next to the boiled white potato. Regional foods like apples, peaches and berries, nuts and grains, soon became puddings and pies. Possum was the meat of choice among slaves since hunting was done during the only free hours a slave had, after all the work for their master was complete, in the wee hours of the night.


Expanding on the meat slaves ate -- Not surprisingly, when it came to meat, slaves were given the least desirable parts of the slaughtered animals to eat. Slaves learned to make tasty dishes with these parts, which is why foods like chitlins (aka chitterlings; pig intestines), hog jowls, tripe (goat or cow stomach), neck bones, ham hocks, pig's feet, tongue, etc., remain popular today in the South and among people who enjoy "soul food".

Answer 4

I think most slaves were fed well to keep up their strength, a sick or week slave was no use for their "owners". The nicer masters let slaves keep part of crops they tended and meat raised and butchered.

I have also heard horror stories of slaves being deprived of food, especially for punishment. Some of my very distant relatives were slave owners, I hope they treated their slaves well

Answer 5

I read that the slave owners didn't like ribs they use to give it to the slaves they probably ate corn blackeyed pea greens corn bread links fish ham and eggs chitterling neckbones.

Answer 6

They also got any animal that died for unknown reasons. This led to killing cattle and other things in the fields, then brining it to a masters attention so that it would be given to your family (risky, but good meat was hard to come by).

Answer 7

Slaves ate what there masters let them eat or what ever was thrown away or whatever they could sneek.

Answer 8

they ate chicken gizzards
liver and onions
egg plants
collards
okra
sweet potatoes
catfish
hushpuppys
watermelon
turnips
cornmeal muffins
sweet milk
apple pie
grits
eggs
bacon
ham
chitlins
and cracklins

Answer 9

It all depends on who their owners were.

Answer 10

they ate low on the hog when one was killed!