When people think of Black History Month, their minds wander to Martin Luther King Jr, Maya Angelou, on a good day, maybe even Langston Hughes.
However, one thing that makes up African American culture is the food.
Mr. Harold Wallace stated, “Soul food is a large portion of our culture.”
Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center hosted a “Home Cooked History Event” that was kindly catered by Mildred Boone, the owner of Sweet P’s which is a southern style restaurant that caters to soul food in Clarksville, TN.
Along with the delicious food, students learned the history of how soul food began.
When the Atlantic slave trade began, enslaved Africans brought over their style of cooking and crops from Africa but adopted their cooking in the Americas with food items that were accessible to them.
Slaves were given the most undesirable parts of meat, especially from the pigs and chicken, which is why soul food includes chitterlings, pigs’ feet, chicken feet, chicken gizzards and hammocks.
Despite receiving scraps, they did the best they could do and cooked with their hearts to create what we know as soul food today.
Soul food is not just cornbread and greens, it was a lifestyle for those who had to make do with what they had. Ever since, it has been popular in the Black Community and has been enjoyed from generation to generation.
