Food


 * Nutrition**

Depending on where the slave worked, the nutrition varied, but it usually consisted of meat and corn meal. On rice plantations along the coast, many slaves ate the bad rice that was dirty or broken rice. Slaves on cotton plantations weekly rations were about half a pound of meat(bacon, salt herrings, pork) and some corn meal. “The food of the slave is this: Every Saturday night they receive two pounds of bacon, and one peck and a half of corn meal, to last the men through the week. The women have one half pound of meat, and one peck of meal, and the children one half peck each. When this is gone, they can have no more till the end of the week. This is very little food for the slaves. They have to beg when they can; when they cannot, they must suffer. They are not allowed to go off the plantation; if they do, and are caught, they are whipped very severely, and what they have begged is taken from them.” —Peter Randolph, //Sketches Of Slave Life: Or,Illustrations Of The ‘Peculiar Institution.’// Boston: published for the author, 1855.


 * Truck Patches**

The rations slaves were given much less than adequate, therefore, they were forced to find ways. Many grew veggetables in a __Truck Patch.__ A Truck Patch was small garden behind their living quarters where they grew many vegetables like lima beans, cabbage, corn, squash, onions, peanuts, peas, potatoes, and pumpkins. The vegetables grown were usually easy to take care of, since the slaves had to tend the gardens after they worked all day. The vegetables grown also usually produced a lot of crop.


 * Supplementing**

Slaves found other ways to find food as well. many women pick nearby berries and plants to eat or cook. Some planation owners gave some slaves a gun to hunt for their own food. Some fished as well. When times grew desperate enough, some courageous slaves stole an animal or some crop at the risk of punishment.

http://www.hushpuppynation.com/what-did-slaves-eat/ http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215086/thefoodofaslave.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASfood.htm