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Quote by Seamus Heaney

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Aeneid Book VI

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Author

Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet born on April 13, 1939, and passed away on August 30, 2013. He is renowned for his profound humanistic concerns and exquisite poetic skills, being one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. more

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“The currency of proper food was so important that the teaching of basic reading became essential to guarantee culinary delight. It can be presumed that this skill was valuable to the larger enslaved community as well, for they could rely on the cook to read and write for those who could not. in addition to reading, enslaved cooks learned basic math. Counting, fractions, and knowing how to double or triple a recipe was mandatory for large-scale plantation cooking.”

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Book:Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine
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“The web of enslaved labor was vastly interdependent, and each ingredient stemmed from another person's forced labor. Wheat was grown, harvested, and milled by enslaved farmers to provide flour to the cook to use in the kitchen. Brandy was made from fruit gown and harvested by slaves then fermented by the enslaved cook. Rum came from the Caribbean, starting as sugarcane planted, grown, cut, and distilled by enslaved hands. Feasting in Virginia meant consuming the labor of slaves, literally eating the fruits of their labor. To dine at an elite plantation during the antebellum and late colonial periods meant that one was, without question, intimately involved with slavery.”

LoveTruthHistoryFateFood
Book:Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine
Create image