Out of the Belly Shall Flow Rivers of Truth: Food as an Analytical Lens into Slavery in Nineteenth-Century North Carolina

How can one gather new understandings of the experience of enslaved peoples without locating new historical archival documentation? The dilemma is not resolved through the discovery of new sources, but instead addressed by viewing those same sources with a new lens, a food lens. Food, whether it be in terms of the diet, its distribution, or in the body itself, has the power to control and inspire. This research uses food to illuminate the experiences of the enslaved as recorded in their own narratives in North Carolina during the late nineteenth century. Through the voices of the people themselves, it was discovered that food was not just a source of pain or control; it also inspired resistance, community building, and black culture. The breast milk of enslaved mothers was viewed as a source of nourishment for their children, yet also a window to introduce racial inferiority to black children. The growing and stealing of food was a method for black men to reclaim their masculinity and for the enslaved to resist their subjugation. Food contextualized the hierarchies of relationships within North Carolina during the period under study. Slave owners used food as a mechanism of both punishment and reward, while the enslaved used food to aid runaways and to foster community. The cultural significance of food and its consequential health associations within slavery have implications for the present. Thus, food became a medium through which enslaved people spoke their truth, allowing for a new perspective on nineteenth-century North Carolina history and later times