Let's not forget "the hookworm belt" in the south, bare feet picked  
up hookworm eggs from the soil, it was terribly debilitating to both  
blacks and whites who went barefoot and picked up the noxious  
parasite. I wonder if the natives were afflicted with hookworms, they  
don't seem to have been, since the earliest descriptions have them so  
healthy and robust. Surely they went barefoot a lot. Was it a pest  
introduced with European livestock and the penning of same in more  
crowded conditions made the eggs more plentiful? It is also spread in  
dogs and cat waste. Did the natives have a natural remedy they took  
regularly that the Europeans were unaware of? In any case, it can  
take a terrible toll on one's health.

Nancy

-------
Believe those who seek the truth;
Doubt those who find it.

-Andre Gide



On Mar 1, 2007, at 11:49 AM, Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe wrote:

> 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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