David,

    This is actually a very complex subject.  I do not know where to begin. 
First, we have to separate the ability of the antebellum South to produce 
foodstuffs from the distribution of those foodstuffs.  The South was 
agriculturally self-sufficient in the antebellum era.  The question of 
distribution is much more complex.
    Second, African peasant practices such as catching fish in baskets 
rather than with poles, a labor saving device because one doesn't have to be 
present to fish with baskets, probably supplemented protein intakes from 
salt pork for slaves.  Maize supplemented with African greens (collards) and 
American greens (mustard, turnip, and spinach) helped nutritionally balance 
the slaves' diet.
    In the cotton South the chief difficulty would be to reserve land for 
maize and kitchen gardens from the extensive clearing for cotton production. 
Tobacco production being more labor intensive than land intensive, would 
limit slaves' time devoted to food production than land so devoted.
    Maize itself can be a problem.  A maize heavy diet improperly prepared 
causes pellagra, a Vitamin B3 shortage, which is debilitating.  It is clear 
to me that blacks in Virginia and elsewhere learned to prepare maize 
properly from American Indians.  I have seen evidence for this in Virginia 
Southside after Emancipation (the source and description I need to keep to 
myself until I publish the finding.)
    (UVA Press will soon publish Dr. Dianne Glave's powerful history of 
African-American environmental history from slavery until the Progressive 
Era.  Look for it!!)

    I'll stop here but there is so much to think about on this subject. 
Perhaps the main thing to say is that the American South is agriculturally 
one of the most blessed places on earth:  rich dirt, well watered, with 
adequate timber.  The South has always had the potential to feed its 
population and feed it well.  That it sometimes did not, that it became a 
food importer after Appomattox is the product of its political economy not 
its objective environmental conditions.

Harold S. Forsythe

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Kiracofe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: Slave Narrative for WPA Project


> David Kiracofe
> History
> Tidewater Community College
> Chesapeake Campus
> 1428 Cedar Road
> Chesapeake, Virginia 23322
> 757-822-5136
>>>> Basil Forest <[log in to unmask]> 03/01/07 10:21 AM >>>
> <snip>Moreover, three  squares and a place to live is some incentive as
> well.
>
> I'll leave it to others to comment on the character of slave housing,
> but the evidence for nutritional deficiencies in the slave diet (corn
> meal and salt pork-based) is well documented.
>
> David Kiracofe
>
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