If you wanted to protest with your plate, what foods would you choose?
From boycotts to cookbooks, food has been a powerful means for ordinary people to advocate for the world that they want to see. As protests erupt around the world against right-wing, patriarchal, white supremacist leaders and their policies, we wanted to learn more about how ordinary people have used their community and creativity to spark change throughout history.
Welcome to Part One of the story exploring how foods have fed and supported protests, revolutions, and resistance throughout history.
Eating on the Run: Dining on The Underground Railroad
Every step, every stop, every sound was filled with danger for those escaping slavery. On the Underground Railroad food not only meant survival, but also risk and resistance.
Freedom Seekers journeying North to freedom relied on their knowledge of the land, the ingenuity in cooking and stretching meager rations that they gained while enslaved, and stealth as they sought food in populated areas. Survival was dependent on creativity, community and civil disobedience.
Survival was dependent on creativity, community and civil disobedience.
Foraging for Freedom: Harriet Tubman and the Foods that Fed Escape
Harriet Tubman, the revered American hero who conducted over a dozen journeys on the Underground Railroad, relied on her knowledge of cooking and foraging to care for the Freedom Seekers in her charge. “One of the conductor's chief duties was finding nourishment.” Slaves escaping on their own had to rely on their own wits and knowledge for their safety.
“I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.” -- Harriet Tubman, 1896
A daughter of a cook and expert woodsman, Harriet Tubman used her cooking and foraging skills to escape from slavery when she was in her late-20s. She relied on her knowledge of edible plants as she made her way to Philadelphia. From there she traveled to Maryland and New Jersey, working as a cook to raise money so she could free her family members. The money she earned funded a raid which rescued nine people from slavery.
Harriet Tubman’s bravery as a conductor on the Underground Railroad cannot be overstated. With every journey she made, she risked her freedom and her life as well as the lives of the people she led to freedom. She foraged for plants and berries including sassafras, black cherry, and paw-paw to provide enough sustenance for the long and harrowing journey north. Of her work, Harriet Tubman said “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
But Harriet Tubman was not the only creative and ingenious conductor or traveler on the Underground Railroad. Slaves escaping to freedom would forage, fish, hunt, and steal to have enough food to eat.
The very skills that enslaved people were forced to develop to survive in slavery became the key to their survival on the escape to freedom.
While enslaved Black people were allowed the bare minimum amount of food that they needed to survive. Rations did not include the nutrients needed to meet the work demands of the enslavers, let alone be food that was appetizing over a lifetime. As a result, slaves used their limited time not working to garden, raise animals, forage, and hunt and fish. The very skills that enslaved people were forced to develop to survive in slavery became the key to their survival on the escape to freedom.
Risk and Rations: Stealing Food to Survive
The Underground Railroad showcases the strength of networks of ordinary people taking action against slavery. Slaves, Freedom Seekers, and abolitionists alike used food for acts of rebellion and support of the escaping slaves on their journey to freedom.
Using table scraps or stolen goods left out in the dead of night, food was a means of expressing love and ensuring safety.
While the Underground Railroad moved passengers to freedom in the north and west, many Freedom Seekers escaped to woods and swamps near the plantations and stayed nearby to be close to family and friends. Their loved ones, still enslaved on the plantations, would share food that they had grown or stolen. Using table scraps or stolen goods left out in the dead of night, food was a means of expressing love and ensuring safety.
Freedom Seekers who chose to make their way north would sometimes supplement what they were able to forage and hunt with stolen food and supplies. Farms and plantations posed similar risks — of being captured, tortured, sold, or killed — and escaping slaves risked everything to survive. Stealing food, like “stealing” oneself from slavery, was a necessary act for survival.
Feeding the Fight: How Food Fueled the Underground Railroad
Small acts of civil disobedience coordinated across a community of ordinary people helped 100,000 people escape slavery. Abolitionists offering shelter, food, and supplies to escaping slaves did so in defiance of the law. However, these defiant acts extended beyond the stations, or stops, on the Underground Railroad to “stockholders” who donated their time, money, and supplies to support these journeys to freedom. The stockholders would also support those who escaped to establish new lives with professional recommendations and job-placement services.
Despite the ingenuity, creativity, community, and targeted acts of civil disobedience, “Of the thousands of slaves who fled the plantations each year, most never made it to freedom. Many returned to the plantation after a few days or weeks away, tired, hungry and unable to survive as wanted fugitives.”
Through food, people ensured each other’s life, liberty, and ability to pursue happiness.
Access to food along the escape routes was essential to the Underground Railroad and helped thousands escape slavery. All of these actions were illegal. Through food people ensured each other’s life, liberty, and ability to pursue happiness.
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