New Perspectives on Foodways of Enslaved People in the Lower Southeast

Foraging is not normally associated with the lifestyle of nineteenth century enslaved African-Americans. Nevertheless, over a decade of archaeobotanical research based on sites across the lower Southeast, document that African American populations consumed a wide variety of domesticated and wild plants. This case study focuses on food plant use among the enslaved community of site 9CH1205 during distinct Ante-Bellum and Post Bellum occupations circa AD 1825-1880. Archaeobotanical data from 54 flotation samples, representing 22 features, indicate that collected resources supplemented a diet based upon Native American crops and European cereals. The recovery of native North American domesticates, imported European crop plants, both native and imported domesticated fruit taxa, and gathered, naturally occurring North American herbs and fruits, offers evidence of the richness of the enslaved residents’ diet and the complexity of knowledge acquisition of both domesticated and gathered foodstuffs by the enslaved inhabitants of Site 9CH1205.