These skeletons may have the answer, Scientists are making advancements in birth controlfor men, Blood cleaning? 2 cups (450 ml) grits (regular, not instant). Bondpeople made their bread out of shorts, while the first grade was always used in the masters house, one woman recalled. The answers to these questions depend on where a person was enslaved and what kind of work she or he performed. Food was often used as a form of control. We should acknowledge, too, that the corn and rice would not likely have appeared on the same plate together. I did find references to collard greens and cabbage in the course of my research, yes. * It is also the story of countless unnamed cooks across the South, the details of their existences now lost. [ii] Wilke, Richard, and Livia Barbosa. Take [your] negroes to the nearest dry goods store (do not let them go alone) and let them select such things as suit their fancies, he advised. The word gumbo comes from the Bantu word for okra, ki ngombo. In fact, okra is what helps thicken gumbo. The pre-slavery ancestors of people of the African Canadian community ate food directly harvested from the land. favorite foods. I am wondering, however, about the timing of Mr. G@[Nf.$*+)Qj]R+ F~[0y%gjgMbqkmvS[t6iL:ZzW;Z;!q We need to forget about this so we can heal, said an elderly white woman, as she left my lecture on the history of enslaved cooks and their influence on American cuisine. Serve immediately, with pepper sauce if desired. Frederick Douglas describes a similar use of corn: Our food was coarse cornmeal boiled. Susan McIntosh remembered that, in contrast to the coarse and rough shoes provided by her masters, she and her companions bought calico, muslin and good shoes, pants, coats and other nice things for their Sunday clothes.[4] In his 1859 autobiography, escaped slave Charles Ball described this process in more detail, elaborating spending priorities. One or more sweet potatoes or yams. The Campus of The University of North Carolina, Located in the Village of Chapel Hill. Franklin Street and its Changing Foodways, 2018, Average Age of Death and Average Income Across Durham County, 2014, The Reputation of Carolina Inn Restaurants, UNC Department of Nutrition Cookbook 1983, Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen Owner Interview, 2017, The Expansion of Chinese Restaurants in Chapel Hill During the 1980s, Vincenzo Marrone Interview, The IP3 Story, Student Resistance to Labor Rights Movements (2005), Student at Vending Machines, Carolina Union, 1983, Foundational and Colonial Culinary Encounters, Thomas Hariot Book Excerpt (1590)- Maddie Dyer, Letter from Florence OSullivan to Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, Instructions to William Berkeley Concerning the Settlement of Carolina, Hannah Wolleys Original Orange Pudding Recipe, Turkey and Deer Bone Awls from Lower Sauratown, John Whites Secotan Indian Village Watercolor Painting, The Journeys of Needham and Arthur Through the Piedmont, John Smiths observations on Native Virginia Plants and Native American Food Practices, Day Book 1774 No. "Okra is connected indelibly with the American South," says Harris. Food and Social Reform in the Progressive Era, Pepsi-Cola Advertisement in The Tar Heel, 1916, Food Conservation Effort in Orange County, NC During the First World War, News of the Academies-North Carolina Dining Hall (Aug. 3, 1913), Buffet Lunches Will Be Served During Holiday, What We Are Doing to Conserve Food and Keep Down Waste Jillian Fellows, North Carolina Supreme Court Case: Damages Awarded against Packer Because of Death Caused by Eating Unwholesome Fish, Waiters at Commons Hall, circa 1890s-1920s, 5 February 1916: The banqueting season of 1915-16 opened at nine oclock Friday night when forty-eight members of the senior class sat down in Swain Hall to grapefruit an maraschino.. A reason many did not make it to the colonies at all was disease and illness. This cornbread was crumbled into the bottom of the bowl to soak up the last bits of savory flavor. Slave cottage near Bardstown, Kentucky. Their comfort is promoted, he reasoned, and it removes the temptation to visit dram shops. Most importantly, it affords the master an excellent opportunity of judging the thrift of each negro.[10] Here was a powerful opportunity for masters not only to monitor slave spending but to criticize it, too. Vegetable patches or gardens, if permitted by the owner, supplied fresh produce to add to the rations. Growing up on Sapelo Island, Georgia, Cornelia Walker Bailey never thought of red peas as anything special. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. Each of these plant-based foods impacted the history of our eating traditions. Fruit as Food and Medicine Orange County Observer July 7, 1883, U.S. House of Representative Speech of North Carolina on Food Adulteration, H. H. Patterson Account Books from the 1880s, A Cure for Consumption by Jillian Fellows, Catherine Roulhacs Recipe for Infant Food, Foodways During Enslavement and War Bob Paynes Object, Letter from Nathan P. Neal to Aaron and Elizabeth Neal, September 2, 1857, Letter of Charles P. Mallett to Charles B. Mallett, 18 April 1865, Letter from Elisha Mitchell to Maria North, February 11, 1818, October 12, 1863 Letter from Judge William H. Battle to his son, Richard Battle, Food wanted for North Carolina Solders in the trenches around Petersburg Riley Bechter, Circular from UNC President to Parents on Student Alcohol Use, September 30 1840, President James K. Polks Visit to Chapel Hill (1847), Hireling Labor and Slave Labor in Farmers Journal, Raleigh, May 1854, Mrs. Anne Ruffin Camerons Red Cabbage Pickle, Decadence and Opulence in Smart Society Dinners, Fight Taken Up for Oleomargarine, The German Club & a Tradition of Cotillion at UNC, The Carolina Medical Journal: Health in the Age of Decadence. Okra is one of those under-appreciated vegetables that I love. The journey from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean was called "the middle passage", and was one of the three legs which comprised the triangular trade among the continents of Europe, the Americas, and Africa. For more than 200 years, Southern plantation owners relied on enslaved Africans and their descendants to work in their fields and houses, to help raise their children, and to provide food and . . Of course, nobody at that time had any sense of vitamins or trace minerals, but some cookbooks of the period do have lengthy discourses on the importance of balance of different sorts in ones diet. These staples of our modern diets are part of our culture now because slaves smuggled them and cultivated them, sometimes in secret. All de possums and rabbits and fish and such wer jus dat much more"(5) Clothing for slave children was in general very basic and generally consisted of a smock like garment worn by both boys and girls. Part of a feature about the archaeology of slavery on St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, from the International Slavery Museum's website. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? How much was their labor-power worth in a market that was weighted against free people of color? Choosing to buy control of ones own body affirmed a slaves status as chattel, even as that commodity transaction broke the chains of servitude completely. She earned admirationand job offersfrom Presidents Garfield, Arthur, and Cleveland, who sampled her fabulous meals of terrapin and canvasback duck, Lynnhaven oysters and crab salad, hominy cakes and fabulous confections, prepared when Jones worked as a cook at New York clubs in the late 1870s. Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Some plantations also went a step further and distilled the molasses, the liquid left after the sugar is boiled or clarified, to make rum. Sources are exceptionally scarce and contemporary recipes are nonexistent, but we can reconstruct some idea of what the table in the slaves quarters might have offered to maintain these unfortunate souls in their labors. Jones was a slave who started as a house servant and rose to the pinnacle of American culinary life with her extravagant multicourse meals. This letter was clearly written, and later published, to give the public a firsthand view of how southern slaves were treated. I top them with broccoli and red chili paste, Roasted Corn with Garlic Shallot Buttah, able to survive by hunting, fishing, and gardening. During the 19th century, there were moments of widespread fear that these cooks would poison them, and we know from court records and other documents that on at least a few occasions enslaved cooks did slip poisons like hemlock into their masters food. "Everybody needs to keep in touch with their ancestors, and through food is one of the best ways to get close," she says. By the Civil Wars last weary winter, Confederate Richmond, had become accustomed to the pounding of artillery echoing across nearby fields. Gangs of enslaved people, consisting of men, women, children and the elderly worked from. House slave was a term used to refer to those enslaved Africans relegated to performing domestic work on American slave plantations. SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York. Keeping the traditional "stew" cooking could have been a form of subtle resistance to the owner's control. [i] Rutledge, Sarah. Nice recipes. It is often smoked or roasted at Fall Pumpkin festivals. The remainder of the letter consists of detailed explanations of medical care and resources made available to Gibbs slaves. Enslaved cooks brought this cuisine its unique flavors, adding ingredients such as hot peppers, peanuts, okra, and greens. It's possible it was incorrectly annotated. A sure indicator that theyre done is that they start to leak caramelized sugars into the pan. ~:J3c5T~84.6kcA9jrapbZWVP~t,KERdK2Zp28i6B Think leafy greens and black-eyed. Still others performed extra labor for their mastersoften called overworkor for other white people in the community, earning precious cash or credit for purchases of their choosing. In the American South, okra is probably most well-known as the ingredient found in gumbo. [2] The number of slaves in the 15 States was just shy of 4 million in a total population 12.4 million and the percentage was 32% of the population. The process for converting plain corn to the more-digestible hominy, which involves soaking in lye (extracted from ashes), was taught to the earliest settlers by the Native Americans. In a world where masters doled out rudimentary food and raiment, enslaved people most often spent cash to augment allotments, introduce variety to clothing or diets, and, sometimes, to acquire goods or participate in activities otherwise banned. Peddlers and wagoners roved from farm to plantation, selling trinkets, candies, cakes, and often alcohol. For masters and bondpeople alike, the internal economy both challenged the institution of slavery and shored it up. "Yet gumbo has become totemic," says Harris, "linked forever in the American mind, particularly with southern Louisiana.". Comparing and contrasting culinary practices as told through personal letters. These dishes traveled with captured West Africans on slave ships, and into the kitchens of Virginias elite. Can we bring a species back from the brink? Print. [4], As the plantation economy expanded, the slave trade grew to meet the growing demand for labor. He urged masters to pay for the goods themselves, always rewarding more liberally those that have performed their duty best. Other slaveholders took a more relaxed approach, allowing slaves to make purchases with their own money, but restricting when and where they could trade. Honor that past with gratitude and unity. But how could slaveholders take advantage of the consumer process while maintaining some semblance of control? The slaves would have to wake up at 4 o'clock and work in the fields until sunset. Purchased most often were cloth and sewing suppliescalico, cambric, muslin, shirting, and occasional bits of silkand ready-made clothing and accessories such as shoes, caps, hats, coats, dresses, shawls, shirts, and cravats. 6 cups (1.25 liter) water It became a small way for slaves to create their own personal space. Yet, many of the plant-based foods in our current diet are reflections of our nations history. The plantation system was based on slave labor and it was marked by inhumane methods of exploitation. Food supplies The plantation owners provided their enslaved Africans with weekly rations of salt herrings or mackerel, sweet potatoes, and maize, and sometimes salted West Indian turtle.The enslaved Africans supplemented their diet with other kinds of wild food. In fact, okra is what helps thicken gumbo. The first plantations occurred in the Caribbean islands, particularly, in the West Indies on the island of Hispaniola, where it was initiated by the Spaniards in the early 16th century. These remnants, scant though they are, make it clear that enslaved cooks were central players in the birth of our nations cultural heritage. The next time you sit down to a piece of cornbread, a stewed gumbo, or a roasted sweet potato, take a moment to reflect on the story of this food. 2, 297. One plot was lying fallow, one plot was growing cane, and the final plot was being harvested. 2. Typically slave labor on the plantation was divided into two broad categories: house servants and field hands. Some indentured servants were also leaving to start their own farms as land was widely available. Slavery had associated with it the health problems commonly associated with poverty. Guests wrote gushing missives about the meals in they ate while visiting these homes. Thank you very much!! In fact, rice is one of the ingredients slave traders brought with them on their trans-Atlantic voyages from Africa. 8H^IBL,c~`x^',M pR5i?mT{QfwN se!ntRZ.Y2 B9G5<2h7POdS_]g*lXBN[g5=jV#NT 8u;MnOn/n VFAh.l~)Ra@6!vmR@JHI )HiZ 8@hw+ev#ZV'Wby-sOATsf:!S",K t1*m!6>2 Gb-xhD=pdW{ @|O. There were many African grown crops that traveled along the slave ship with slaves. stream According to Ball, earned money was. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. They had it in stews and stuffvery, very similar to what we eat here," she says. Yet, this technique draws directly from Africa. These purchases took careful planning. [9] Goodloe, Management of Negroes, 13031; James M. Towns, Management of Negroes, Southern Cultivator, 9 (1851), 86. Once a task was finished, that persons labor was complete for the day. Folklore, archaeological evidence, and a rich oral tradition reveal that other cooks, their names now lost, also weaved their talents into the fabric of our culinary heritage, creating and normalizing the mixture of European, African, and Native American cuisines that became the staples of Southern food. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? What did the slaves eat on the plantations? Most slave purchasing reflected this tension between necessity, luxury, and potential danger. The Southern Colonies: Plantations and Slavery, Plantation System. What do slaves want with money? he asked rhetorically. What enslaved men and women did with that cash or creditand what it meantchallenged the institution of slavery. On days when that wasnt available, hed head to the animal shed. Many had experience growing rice. theamericanhistorian@oah.org, 2023 Organization of American Historians, Masters, Slaves, and Exchange: Power's Purchase in the Old South. 2, 149; Ibid., 12, pt. The practice was abolished in most places during the 19th century. Our work has been featured by the New York Times, TIME magazine, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, NPR, and more. Post-emancipation America still relied heavily on the skills and labor of newly freed African Americans. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. But now, the Examiner and the Whig warned, auctioneers patter announced something else entirely, another symptom of the breaking down of the barriers that, until this war, kept the negro in his proper sphere. Enslaved men and women had taken to gathering at the auctions, using grossly improper language in the presence of, and even to, white women. Worse, ladies and gentlemen at auctions [were] forced to bid in competition with bondpeople, men and women who audaciously monopolize[d] the most eligible positions and claim[ed] the nod of the auctioneer. As white Richmonders sold off possessions to make ends meet in hard-pressed times, the citys slaves were going shopping. In my recent study of enslaved cooks, I relied on archaeological evidence and material culturethe rooms where they once lived, the heavy cast iron pots they lugged around, the gardens they plantedand documents such as slaveholders letters, cookbooks, and plantation records to learn about their experiences. 112 N. Bryan Ave., Bloomington, IN 47408 black-eyed Peas. In December 1864, other sounds seemed equally troubling. Slaveholders had long debated the merits of granting small luxuries to their charges during the holiday seasonextra or special types of food, trinkets and accessories like ribbons or penknives, extra plugs of tobacco, or even drams of liquor. Reckoning with it can be cumbersome, but its also necessary. In Slave culture, these big pots of stewed greens drew a direct resemblence to the stews of Western Africa. The sweet potato, indigenous to North America, is quite similar in texture and appearance (to the point that many modern cooks have trouble distinguishing them), and its believed that slaves simply used them just as they had yams in Africa.[iii]. Indeed, the progress of the plantation system was accompanied by the rapid growth of the slave trade. They overlook that slavery, which affected millions of blacks in America, was enforced by a system of sustained brutality, including actsand constant threatsof torture, rape and murder. Gibbs, Robert. Number of slaves in the Border States: 432,586 (13% of total population) 3,323 million. Photo by Henry P. Moore. Some even went out of their way to place money in enslaved peoples hands. Serve in slices, or mash it up with a little salt. It also ties us to the past. This was called mush. 2, 23; Ibid., 3, pt. Edit View history The health of slaves on American plantations was a matter of concern to both slaves and their owners. The slave diet was very simple. Some of this produce and meat supplemented their rations. Well cook three representative dishes, each of which can help us understand a slightly different aspect of the food experiences of the Revolutionary Era slave. Gibbs declares that there is no class of working people in the world better cared for than the Southern slave. He states that many medicines, as well as high quality Brandy or wine, are made available to sick slaves, and that the hygiene/cleanliness of plantation environments is held to a high standard. A mans world? They created favorites like gumbo, an adaptation of a traditional West . [an error occurred while processing this directive]. Sweet potatoes can easily grow, even in less than ideal soil. What the Slaves Ate. They might change the appearance of an itemremoving an owners mark, for example, or tailoring a piece of clothingor they could hide the item away, saving it for future use. Slaves could cook them over fire or wrap in leaves and ash-roast. I top them with broccoli and red chili paste, make quick Southwest Stuffed potatoes, and roast them in wedges for Buddha Bowls. [1] Charles Ball, Fifty Years in Chains; or, the Life of an American Slave (1859), 129. This page was last edited on 11 October 2022, at 21:29. Enslaved cooks were always under the direct gaze of white Virginians. My favorite plant-based recipe for Carolina Gold rice is Southern Collard Dolmades. "Black people have been in the room, but for so long they were so good at being invisible" that they were easy to leave out of the historical record, Harris says. Booker T. Washington was born a slave on the Burroughs plantation in Franklin County, Virginia on April 5, 1856. These were compiled by slaveholding women, whose responsibilities sat firmly in the domestic sphere, and are now housed in historical societies throughout the country. Make no mistake: this was taxing work in often stifling and deadly environments, but even so, some slaves were able to complete daily tasks early and earn time for themselves. For a guest, this must have been delightful: biscuits, ham, and some brandy, all made on site, ready to eat at 2:30 a.m. or whenever you pleased. They were shipped from ports in West Africa to European colonies in the Americas. Sugarcane is harvested about 18 months after planting and the plantations usually divided their land for efficiency. Most favoured by slave owners were commercial crops such as olives, grapes, sugar, cotton, tobacco, coffee, and certain forms of rice that demanded intense labour to plant, considerable tending throughout the growing season, and significant labour for harvesting. Perhaps the easiest way to monitor slave spending was through the operation of a plantation store. Sugar has a long history as a plantation crop. Private moments were rare, as was rest. It is the story of people like Chef Hercules, George Washington's chef; and Emmanuel Jones, who used his skills to transition out of enslavement into a successful career cooking in the food industry, evading the oppressive trappings of sharecropping. The revisionism went full throttle during the era of Jim Crow, when new laws made segregation the norm. If a traveler showed up, day or night, bells would ring for the enslaved cook to prepare food. Food not only brings us together in our current communities. Not according to biology or history. So why cant we, as Americans today, look at this history for what it was? Information about diet and food production for enslaved Africans on plantations. As Booker T. Washington recounts in his Slave Diet Bulletin, a common breakfast was cornbread and pork. Another ingredient that came from Africa was okra. Bondpeople in urban and rural areas alike had long sold their labor power, bought property, earned credit, and incurred debts through participation in what historians and anthropologists call the slaves internal economy.[2] Spending money they earned after and between labor completed for their masters, enslaved consumers sought to provide material comfort to themselves and their kin, to differentiate themselves from their peers, and perhaps most importantly, to acquire material markers of freedom in a world that hemmed them in at every turn. Slavery. [7] Hilliard, Masters, Slaves, and Exchange, 6993. as if a thousand needle points were pricking [his] flesh. Knowledge that masters material worlds differed so greatly from their own could worsen discomfort. Planters embraced the use of slaves mainly because indentured labor became expensive. A slave plantation was an agricultural farm that used enslaved people for labour. As crops failed and the Union blockade tightened, goods became scarce. The sugar was then shipped back to Europe. Then, other foods made available to slaves are listed, including: bacon, molasses, potatoes, poultry, and eggs. The master class scraped to make ends meet. The process of turning a person into a house servant or field hand was called "seasoning." :"Zc35I*Ga^ In 1740 the Havana Company was formed to stimulate agricultural development by increasing slave imports and regulating agricultural exports. 90. They were given a. By forgetting enslaved cooks pain to soothe our own, we erase the pride and the achievements of countless brilliant cooks who nourished a nation. Plus, a sweet potato puree adds creamy richness. Miles places the number of enslaved people held by Cherokees at around 600 at the start of the 19 th century and around 1,500 at the time of westward removal in 1838-9. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. There was waste and urine throughout the hold; this caused the captives to get sick and to die from illnesses that could not be cured. X11ej9G}R)\.}F5aj??*? Something I said, or perhaps everything I said, upset her. This secret hole was hidden from plantation owners. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1979. The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? From January to June, they harvested the cane by chopping the plants off close to the ground, stripping the leaves and then cutting them into shorter strips to be bundled off to be sent to the sugar cane mill. All the plantation system had a form of slavery in its establishment, slaves were initially forced to be labors to the plantation system, these slaves were primarily native Indians, but the system was later extended to include slaves shipped from Africa. Joyner Rare E444.B58, Special Collections Department, J.Y. What struck me is the summary of the June 1777, I agree, and checked my source before submitting. Slaveholders wrestled with the implications of such behavior, sometimes outlawing slave spending outright, but more often looking to manipulate it to their own advantage. His great-great-great grandfather Jupiter Gilliard, the man who purchased the farm, was born a slave in 1812. These have been a great deal of fun to work on, and I love getting feedback from readers. 5U67n 3e7o_y$( +_* %YqYV/P)'.M Buyers on the black market, then, had to alter behavior so that they could consume goods without discovery. (Creeks, Choctaws, and . That meant the slaves could plant for themselves," says. 8LX Black-Eyed Peas and Rice. Manufactured goods, of higher value, were then sold both to Africa and the New World. Practically speaking, slaveholders contended with the loss of plantation stores and risked unruly behavior resulting from unregulated rum. The Bantu people originated in Central Africa, near Nigeria and the Congo. The cooking traditions of the slaves were, as with most newcomers to these shores, a creative amalgamation of what they knew from their homelands and what was available to them here. Journal of the American Revolution is the leading source of knowledge about the American Revolution and Founding Era. altogether different situation "us have plenty of good food to eat too. Douglass was born on a plantation in Eastern Maryland in 1817 or 1818 - he did not know his birthday, much less have a long-form birth certificate - to a black mother (from whom he was . F. from the Cameron Papers, Letter from John and Ebenezer Pettigrew to Charles Pettigrew, October 3, 1795, Lenoir Family Papers Account of Corn, 1785, Business Invoice from the Cameron Papers, 1774, Fiddle Headed Teaspoon, late 1700s / early 1800s, Distilling Method for Corn Whiskey Lenoir Papers (1790s), Newspaper Advertisement from The Pennsylvania Gazette (Dec 5, 1771), Accounting Record of Spice Purchases for the Household of William Lenoir (May 30, 1772), Sunflower Oil Recipe and Mangel-Wurzel Cultivation, Financial Document The Lenoir Family Papers, Excerpt from A Tour in the United States of America, Blums Farmers and Planters Almanac for the year 1870, Star Brand Fertilizers Advertisement in The Danbury Reporter, Liquid standard presented to UNC in 1883, Planting Fruit Trees to Secure Success by Abigail Bowdish, The Bennehan Familys Sugar and Rum Purchases, Mary Ann Bryan Masons Mrs. Masons New Cookery. Describing holidays past, Esther Davis, a South Carolina planters daughter, recalled that in Camdens business district, those three days were given up to the negroes. Merchants angled for enslaved customers: the few stores that were open, were intended just for this trade and did a thriving business. Indeed, she noted, the foundations of some small fortunes were laid in those same small stores with their stocks of hardware, crockery, beads and brass jewelry, calico and bandana handkerchiefs, candy, etc. [6], Much of what we know about slave spending is anecdotal, but scattered ledgers from rural stores and outposts provide a glimpse of what and how slaves consumed. It is to ignore the story of Chef Hercules, or the real story of Aunt Jemima. They were also found in Africa and Asia were also based on slavery. At this time, Europe was starting to industrialize, and it needed a lot of materials to manufacture goods. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. Acts of buying and sellingof crops, goods, cash, and labor-powerwould remake the South in freedoms image. Throughout the Western Hemisphere, the plantation served as an institution in itself, characterized by social and political inequality, racial conflict, and domination by the planter class. As Frederick Douglas recounts I have often been so pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog. During the time of slavery, African Americans brought with them the food traditions from their native lands. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Once in the Americas, slaves then planted the rice for their own consumption. In the rice-growing lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, enslaved men and women usually labored according to the task system. Under this scheme, planters or overseers assigned each laborer a daily task, hoeing a portion of field, for example, or pounding so many mortars of rice. What documentation exists of what rations slaveholders provided is typically from later periods, but it would be in their own interest to ensure that their labor force was well-nourished enough to work effectively.