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High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America
Acclaimed cookbook author Jessica B. Harris has spent much of her life researching the food and foodways of the African Diaspora. High on the Hog is the culmination of years of her work, and the result is a most engaging history of African American cuisine. Harris takes the reader on a harrowing journey from Africa across the Atlantic to America, tracking the trials that the people and the food have undergone along the way. From chitlins and ham hocks to fried chicken and vegan soul, Harris celebrates the delicious and restorative foods of the African American experience and details how each came to form such an important part of African American culture, history, and identity. Although the story of African cuisine in America begins with slavery, High on the Hog ultimately chronicles a thrilling history of triumph and survival. The work of a masterful storyteller and an acclaimed scholar, Jessica B. Harris's High on the Hog fills an important gap in our culinary history.
Praise for Jessica B. Harris:"Jessica Harris masters the ability to both educate and inspire the reader in a fascinating new way." -Marcus Samuelsson, chef owner of Restaurant Aquavit
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
429 people are currently reading
5,277 people want to read
About the author
Jessica B. Harris
31 books177 followersAccording to Heritage Radio Network, there's perhaps no greater expert on the food and foodways of the African Diaspora than Doctor Jessica B. Harris. She is the author of twelve critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora including Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa's Gifts to New World Cooking, Sky Juice and Flying Fish Traditional Caribbean Cooking, The Welcome Table: African American Heritage Cooking, The Africa Cookook: Tastes of a Continent, Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim. Harris also conceptualized and organized The Black Family Reunion Cook Book.Her most recent book, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, was the International Association for Culinary Professionals 2012 prize winner for culinary history.
In her more than three decades as a journalist, Dr. Harris has written book reviews, theater reviews, travel, feature, and beauty articles too numerous to note. She has lectured on African-American food and culture at numerous institutions throughout the United States and Abroad and has written extensively about the culture of Africa in the Americas, particularly the foodways. In the most recent edition of the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, author John Mariani cites Harris as the ranking expert on African American Foodways in the country. An award winning journalist, Harris has also written in numerous national and international publications ranging from Essence to German Vogue. She's a contributing editor at Saveur and drinks columnist and contributing editor at Martha's Vineyard magazine. In 2012, she began a monthly radio show on Heritage Radio Network, My Welcome Table, that focuses on Food. Travel, Music, and Memoir.
Dr. Harris has been honored with many awards including a lifetime achievement award from the Southern Foodways Alliance (of which she is a founding member) and the Lafcadio Hearn award as a Louisiana culinary icon from The John Folse Culinary Academy at Louisiana's Nicholls State University. In 2010, she was inducted into the James Beard Who's Who of Food and Beverage in the United States.
Dr. Harris holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College, Queens College, New York, The Université de Nancy, France, and New York University. Dr. Harris was the inaugural scholar in residence in the Ray Charles Chair in African-American Material Culture at Dillard University in New Orleans where she established an Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures. Dr. Harris has been a professor of English at Queens College/C.U.N.Y. for more than four decades. She is also a regular presenter at the annual Literary Festival in Oxford, England, a Patron of Oxford Gastronomica at Oxford/Brookes University in Oxford, England, and a consultant to the Lowcountry Rice Culture Project in South Carolina. She is currently at work developing a center for connecting culinary cultures in New Orleans.
In 2012, Dr. Harris was asked by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture to conceptualize and curate the cafeteria of the new museum which is being built on the Mall in Washington DC that is scheduled to open in 2015 and is a member of the Kitchen Cabinet at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The Heritage Radio Network sums her up saying, "Doctor Jessica B. Harris damn near knows it all when it comes to African and Caribbean cuisines and culinary history. She's a living legend". Harris lives in New York, New Orleans and Martha's Vineyard.
In her more than three decades as a journalist, Dr. Harris has written book reviews, theater reviews, travel, feature, and beauty articles too numerous to note. She has lectured on African-American food and culture at numerous institutions throughout the United States and Abroad and has written extensively about the culture of Africa in the Americas, particularly the foodways. In the most recent edition of the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, author John Mariani cites Harris as the ranking expert on African American Foodways in the country. An award winning journalist, Harris has also written in numerous national and international publications ranging from Essence to German Vogue. She's a contributing editor at Saveur and drinks columnist and contributing editor at Martha's Vineyard magazine. In 2012, she began a monthly radio show on Heritage Radio Network, My Welcome Table, that focuses on Food. Travel, Music, and Memoir.
Dr. Harris has been honored with many awards including a lifetime achievement award from the Southern Foodways Alliance (of which she is a founding member) and the Lafcadio Hearn award as a Louisiana culinary icon from The John Folse Culinary Academy at Louisiana's Nicholls State University. In 2010, she was inducted into the James Beard Who's Who of Food and Beverage in the United States.
Dr. Harris holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College, Queens College, New York, The Université de Nancy, France, and New York University. Dr. Harris was the inaugural scholar in residence in the Ray Charles Chair in African-American Material Culture at Dillard University in New Orleans where she established an Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures. Dr. Harris has been a professor of English at Queens College/C.U.N.Y. for more than four decades. She is also a regular presenter at the annual Literary Festival in Oxford, England, a Patron of Oxford Gastronomica at Oxford/Brookes University in Oxford, England, and a consultant to the Lowcountry Rice Culture Project in South Carolina. She is currently at work developing a center for connecting culinary cultures in New Orleans.
In 2012, Dr. Harris was asked by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture to conceptualize and curate the cafeteria of the new museum which is being built on the Mall in Washington DC that is scheduled to open in 2015 and is a member of the Kitchen Cabinet at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The Heritage Radio Network sums her up saying, "Doctor Jessica B. Harris damn near knows it all when it comes to African and Caribbean cuisines and culinary history. She's a living legend". Harris lives in New York, New Orleans and Martha's Vineyard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
August 3, 2017
This book is a rich, tasty stew made of historical broth and seasoned with facts and figures, cultural reflections both sweet and savory, and anecdotes on the spectrum between horrific and triumphant. Jessica B. Harris’s culinary journey traces the arts of cultivating, harvesting, processing, cooking, and serving food which enslaved Africans brought to American shores, along with foods such as watermelon, okra, and blackeyed peas. She explains the origins of what is typically known as African American “soul food” and why it was so named, and shows how culinary aptitudes and services were some of the first avenues for blacks to excel with some measure of autonomy, creativity, respect, and entrepreneurial success. Initially published in 2011, I hope that future editions of this book will include colorful maps to illustrate where and when culinary gifts of the African diaspora converged with other traditions to create the wonderful flavors our contemporary palettes take for granted. This edition DOES include 21 illustrations, 19 pages of recipes, and 10 pages of suggested further readings in history, culture, and cookbooks.
November 26, 2021
After watching the Netflix documentary, I was pleasantly surprised to find much more in the book revealing how Africans and their cuisine have influenced the palate of the western world, particularly in the United States.
With their arrival in the Americas, Africans brought some of the foods, cooking, and farming techniques they had known in their homeland. Where there were obstacles to them in the new environment, they adapted.
Like the documentary, I enjoyed the book and could identify several food and dishes I grew up with.
This book shows how a people's history can, in some ways, be charted by following their food.
A great book and recommended reading.
With their arrival in the Americas, Africans brought some of the foods, cooking, and farming techniques they had known in their homeland. Where there were obstacles to them in the new environment, they adapted.
Like the documentary, I enjoyed the book and could identify several food and dishes I grew up with.
This book shows how a people's history can, in some ways, be charted by following their food.
A great book and recommended reading.
November 15, 2021
This is a very good historical look at how Africa shaped many foods in the United States that still resonate with people to this day. I loved the Netflix series about this and went out and bought this book during this past Juneteenth. I had not had a lot of time to read it due to other reading commitments, but continued to read a chapter here and there while finishing up other books. I think Harris did a great job with this and though at times it gets a bit bogged down in details that may bore other readers, I am not surprised when reading anything historical in nature. I think most historians live for the details so just expect their readers do as well.
I do have to say that even though I get why okra was and is used in many African American dishes, I still don't like it. I am sorry, I have tried, I hate it LOL.
Reading about Black colonial chefs was eye-opening to me. I had no idea and would love to read some books about them. Reading about Chef Hercules Posey, he was George Washington's chef who Washington was worried about escaping (and he eventually did---good for him).
I loved the illustrations and recipes we get though. It's a really heavy book in more ways than one.
I do have to say that even though I get why okra was and is used in many African American dishes, I still don't like it. I am sorry, I have tried, I hate it LOL.
Reading about Black colonial chefs was eye-opening to me. I had no idea and would love to read some books about them. Reading about Chef Hercules Posey, he was George Washington's chef who Washington was worried about escaping (and he eventually did---good for him).
I loved the illustrations and recipes we get though. It's a really heavy book in more ways than one.
June 26, 2021
Incredible history of the African American culinary journey. I felt that the ending lacked some of the historic details that the beginning walked us through to help understand the long standing traditions that came to America and kept living on despite adversity. I believe the research may not be there for the current century. I would pair selections of this text with Stamped, X: A Novel, Fry Bread, and Blacksmith’s Song to give an overview and history of the times and the lasting impact of the various threads that built America.
August 2, 2021
I thought this was a super interesting/cool concept, but I didn't love the execution. I didn't feel like the author always totally maintained the food connection throughout the book, so at times I felt like I was just reading a general/basic history book. I also think the recipes would have been much more effective if they'd been included throughout the narrative as mentioned as opposed to just thrown in at the end.
August 4, 2020
I loved reading this; I love both history and food. And this was so vibrantly written with tidbits here and there of the author’s visits to the places she writes about, Western Africa, New Orleans, Brooklyn and Harlem, Chicago, Atlanta, and more. I learned so much about the African American experience on this continent and how varied it was. I had no idea. I learned about the cooking methods (hearth cooking) and ingredients (watermelon!) brought from Africa, famous Black chefs of colonial America, the food on slave plantations and how it differed, the way food and cooking knowledge became a way to advance and a way to hold communities together, the Black entrepreneurs who opened restaurants and catered in New York City, New Orleans, Denver, etc., Black men who became cooks on cattle drives, early cookbook authors, about soul food and how restaurants played a part in Civil Rights, and about rent parties in NYC in the 1920s. So much! I could go on and on. I loved all the food details and how the food of Africa and the Caribbean influenced African American cooking in America and became a force in its own right. Highly recommend.
August 16, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. And while I felt I knew a fair amount about the impact that Africans who came to the US as slaves had on our culinary history, I had no idea how much they influenced our farming techniques and abilities. Without slaves from Africa we would have had no rice culture in the south, or the ability to grow it. And animal husbandry skills would have been horrible and unable to sustain the cities that were growing during the 1800s. We owe a lot more to African cultures than we realize and Jessica Harris points out a lot of it. But it just made me want to read more about the subject.
November 22, 2021
reads very much like a product of the first obama term, in that it’s usually brimming with optimism about racial equity in the near future. if harris was writing in 2021–not only about race relations in the united states, but also the future of the restaurant industry—she might be a bit more reserved, but regardless…
high on the hog is an essential crash course in black cooking for anyone with an interest in the evolution of american cuisines. more history than food tour, it contains story after story of culinary history’s unsung heroes, and gives essential context to american staples. read if you like learning about food and black excellence.
high on the hog is an essential crash course in black cooking for anyone with an interest in the evolution of american cuisines. more history than food tour, it contains story after story of culinary history’s unsung heroes, and gives essential context to american staples. read if you like learning about food and black excellence.
August 3, 2022
A must read for anyone interested in cultural and culinary history of the US, Black America, or just really loves food. The bleakest parts of this history are compelling and important for all of us to know about; the research, references and annotations are an invaluable academic read; and the food descriptions are mouthwatering.
February 29, 2024
I forget how much I enjoy reading culinary history! I really loved the Netflix adaptation of this and this was the sweetest score from the free library last year, very jazzed to own this and be able to refer back
March 25, 2021
On February 1, 1960, four African American students in Greensboro, North Carolina, staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter. Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, William Smith and Clarence Henderson refused to accept the law that while African Americans were allowed to buy food from the counter, they weren’t allowed to sit there.
The Greensboro Sit-In soon burgeoned into something bigger: the four students were joined by other people, hundreds of them, many coming from far out of town, both black and white, sitting-in to protest the racist laws of America. It proved an important milestone in the Civil Rights movement, and helped bring about some changes in the law within a few months.
It seemed appropriate that a movement for black rights should find expression at a place for food, as Julia Harris points out in High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. In fact, as Harris shows us through the course of this book, the history of African Americans has been tied up, from the very first arrival of enslaved Africans in North America, with food. From the food and food ideas Africans brought with them; the foods they adopted from the Native Americans (corn became an intrinsic part of the African American diet, for one); and the food many of them in service ended up cooking for their white masters and mistresses, evolved not just a very specific style of cooking, but more. An ethos, a sense of community, an identity.
Harris delves deep to build a history of African Americans, from those first slaves brought on ships and set to work on plantations, to today’s African American celebrity chefs. She examines various aspects of food vis-à-vis African Americans across the ages: the foods cooked by slaves, the foods peddled by African Americans in the streets, the African American caterers who made it big in the 1800s. There is Harlem and its speakeasies and ‘rent parties’. There is Father Divine and the Nation of Islam (and its bean pies, something I’d never heard of). There are manners and mores on Southern plantations (who would’ve thought at least some of the etiquette stemmed from African customs?). There are parallels drawn between Africa and America, across the ages.
There are the black cooks on cattle trails, the black cowboys, and the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ (the African American soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment). There are the points of commonality between Africans and Native Americans (I hadn’t known that there were many intermarriages between them, and that some Native American tribes, like the Black Seminole, even today have a sizeable number of African-origin people). There are recipes, there are photographs, there are intersections between food and politics, between food and thought and religion.
This is a brilliant book. I learnt a lot of things I’d never known, or never thought of. It’s well-written, too, and very readable.
The Greensboro Sit-In soon burgeoned into something bigger: the four students were joined by other people, hundreds of them, many coming from far out of town, both black and white, sitting-in to protest the racist laws of America. It proved an important milestone in the Civil Rights movement, and helped bring about some changes in the law within a few months.
It seemed appropriate that a movement for black rights should find expression at a place for food, as Julia Harris points out in High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. In fact, as Harris shows us through the course of this book, the history of African Americans has been tied up, from the very first arrival of enslaved Africans in North America, with food. From the food and food ideas Africans brought with them; the foods they adopted from the Native Americans (corn became an intrinsic part of the African American diet, for one); and the food many of them in service ended up cooking for their white masters and mistresses, evolved not just a very specific style of cooking, but more. An ethos, a sense of community, an identity.
Harris delves deep to build a history of African Americans, from those first slaves brought on ships and set to work on plantations, to today’s African American celebrity chefs. She examines various aspects of food vis-à-vis African Americans across the ages: the foods cooked by slaves, the foods peddled by African Americans in the streets, the African American caterers who made it big in the 1800s. There is Harlem and its speakeasies and ‘rent parties’. There is Father Divine and the Nation of Islam (and its bean pies, something I’d never heard of). There are manners and mores on Southern plantations (who would’ve thought at least some of the etiquette stemmed from African customs?). There are parallels drawn between Africa and America, across the ages.
There are the black cooks on cattle trails, the black cowboys, and the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ (the African American soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment). There are the points of commonality between Africans and Native Americans (I hadn’t known that there were many intermarriages between them, and that some Native American tribes, like the Black Seminole, even today have a sizeable number of African-origin people). There are recipes, there are photographs, there are intersections between food and politics, between food and thought and religion.
This is a brilliant book. I learnt a lot of things I’d never known, or never thought of. It’s well-written, too, and very readable.
February 21, 2022
Really enjoyed reading about African American history through the lens of food. The larger historical events are woven in so swell, and the personal anecdotes to begin each chapter maintain a personal touch throughout.
March 6, 2023
Quite good. A lot of fascinating, granular American history. Made me wanna eat things.
February 29, 2024
4.5 stars for this one! Extremely informative overview of the history of African American cooking. After the Antebellum and Cowboy periods it got a little rushed, since there was so much to pack in. But I learned stuff reading the book I didn't know watching the documentary! And found more foods I want to try!
June 19, 2022
First, I have to note that the Kindle edition has some issues. There's a lot of weird spaces and formatting, and chapter 9 just ends in the middle of a sentence. I have no idea if that was the last sentence of chapter 9 or not, which is too bad.
Overall, this has a massive amount of information about the history of African American food. But it never went into the depth I expected. I would think of it as more of a textbook and would use it to find the next steps to dive into a topic I'd like to learn more about.
There are several spots where archaic terms are used to describe Native Americans, and the usage varies sentence to sentence and was a bit confusing. Also I have no idea why all the recipes are shoved at the end of the book instead of immediately following the chapter that referenced those dishes.
I enjoyed reading it and due to how well she cites her sources it's a great starting point for learning more. Also I'm going to have to make a bean pie, haven't had that in a long time and was glad this book reminded me of it.
Overall, this has a massive amount of information about the history of African American food. But it never went into the depth I expected. I would think of it as more of a textbook and would use it to find the next steps to dive into a topic I'd like to learn more about.
There are several spots where archaic terms are used to describe Native Americans, and the usage varies sentence to sentence and was a bit confusing. Also I have no idea why all the recipes are shoved at the end of the book instead of immediately following the chapter that referenced those dishes.
I enjoyed reading it and due to how well she cites her sources it's a great starting point for learning more. Also I'm going to have to make a bean pie, haven't had that in a long time and was glad this book reminded me of it.
February 2, 2011
This is a fascinating and highly readable book and an important contribution to the social and culinary history of African Americans (and by extension, all Americans). Her use of primary sources, stories of real people, and personal experiences combined smoothly. There are a few pages of recipes at the end, but don't pick this up expecting a cookbook. It's much more than that. The only criticism I have is that it could have used more careful editing. There are places throughout the book where the wrong word was used (due/do, proceeded/preceeded, etc.). Things like that are like nails on a chalkboard to nerds like me and should not have been allowed to pass into print.
June 11, 2022
Read as though it was a PhD dissertation of sorts...an overview of African based slavery in the US ( and a bit of the world involvement as well) with a smattering about food that was repetitive in nature all the way through. The discussion of okra, yams, corn, pork and greens was interwoven at times with the same verbiage. The seemingly purpose of the book was misleading as though the author wanted to write about slavery and used food to get there. A few interesting anecdotes about chefs and their influence was enlightening.
December 15, 2021
Where it was personal, this books drew me right in. Other sections felt like a march through time, with only some new information for me. I also wanted more detailed writing on the food itself - how it was prepared, how it tasted. I wanted recipes included at the end of each chapter. One big highlight was the writing in the conclusion - it is beautiful and I can’t wait to use it in my English classes.
July 22, 2021
Don't take the length of time it took me to finish as an indicator of anything except my inability to focus for longer than 10 minutes at a time these days. This was fascinating. I also highly recommend the limited series on Netflix drawn from this book.
July 8, 2024
Wonderful book highlighting the culinary genius of the black cook. Talks about history primarily since blacks were brought to America.
February 6, 2023
I like stories—books, movies, speeches, etc.—that tell two (or more) intertwined stories at the same time. This book is like that: the story of African American food is intertwined with the stories of African American history, culture, and politics.
I enjoyed the television show based upon this book, I enjoyed the book itself, and I look forward to hearing Jessica Harris speak at an event later this month. A Triple Crown!
I enjoyed the television show based upon this book, I enjoyed the book itself, and I look forward to hearing Jessica Harris speak at an event later this month. A Triple Crown!
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March 23, 2011Listen to what Jessica Harris has to say about her "High on the Hog" here: http://bit.ly/hufQdJ
Our word for okra comes from the Igbo language in Nigeria. Gumbo, the word itself, harks back to the Bantu. So does “goober,” as in peanut.
Watermelons appear in Egyptian tomb paintings, and have been grown for centuries in the Kalahari. Black-eyed peas pour out of markets from Dakar to Zanzibar – and across soul food menus and kitchen counters all over America.
African-American food and food ways have worked deep into the American palate. Culinary historian Jessica Harris from New Orleans explains the soul and the history of African-American cooking in her new book, "High on the Hog."
Our word for okra comes from the Igbo language in Nigeria. Gumbo, the word itself, harks back to the Bantu. So does “goober,” as in peanut.
Watermelons appear in Egyptian tomb paintings, and have been grown for centuries in the Kalahari. Black-eyed peas pour out of markets from Dakar to Zanzibar – and across soul food menus and kitchen counters all over America.
African-American food and food ways have worked deep into the American palate. Culinary historian Jessica Harris from New Orleans explains the soul and the history of African-American cooking in her new book, "High on the Hog."
July 14, 2021
Abit verbose at times, but that is in comparison of watching the series first. It can come across as term paper or thesis combined with personal narrative. Much of the history behind the culinary patterns is known to me and I would think many others in general Black culture : though I appreciated the details and specific personalities and cookbook , chef and restaurant references. Good to see the genre recognized on a global level.
August 7, 2022
This is basically a history of African and African American foods and food culture, but since that can't very well be separated and discussed out of context, the book ends up also being a general history of the slave trade, slavery in the US, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and more. To fit all that -- with an emphasis on food, of course -- into a short-ish book, it moves fast and sometimes just hits the highlights. The book ends with a collection of recipes.
May 12, 2022
wanted to like this much more than I did
First - some technical issues that I assume aren’t the authors fault. There was some terrible punctuations errors and a lot of compound words that were broken up oddly.
My biggest disappointment was that for “a culinary journey”, the author spent too much time not talking about food.
First - some technical issues that I assume aren’t the authors fault. There was some terrible punctuations errors and a lot of compound words that were broken up oddly.
My biggest disappointment was that for “a culinary journey”, the author spent too much time not talking about food.
June 21, 2012
Fascinating information, but I didn't enjoy the overly embellished writing. I was also hoping for a more scholarly treatment. Might revisit this book again in the future.
October 13, 2013
Enjoyable, rather personal history of African American food. Some recipes. Some of the historical background is fascinating.
September 4, 2021
High on the Hog tells the story of foods and culinary history that started in Africa and were brought over via slaves to the US and are now part of our collective food culture in America. Each chapter talks about a period of time and how food and/or cooking shaped that time period. Harris also shows how food has played a pivotal role in the lives of African-Americans and how that role has changed over time too. In the same vein as Michael Twitty's The Cooking Gene, this is a unique look at how Africa and the slave trade shaped the food culture of the US. Definitely an interesting book and now that I've read the book I'll check out the Netflix series based on it.
Some quotes I liked:
"Most Americans today base their ideas of the antebellum South on images created in popular culture that have little to do with the realities of history. Despite a tendency to generalize slaveholding into North and South, there was no monolithic South even in the antebellum period. The region was divided into upland and coastal, and then subdivided further into the Up South, the Carolinas and Georgia, the Deep South, and the Gulf South. The mountainous spine of the Appalachians further bisected the region and was an area in which slaveholding was minimal. Each area had a unique experience with enslavement...In fact, even in slaveholding areas, in many cases hard-pressed whites had only a few hapless slaves; and in more than a few cases, owners were apt to be working in the fields alongside their one or two slaves. Less than one quarter of white Southerners held slaves, and half of those held fewer than five. Only 1 percent of Southerners owned more than one hundred, and a minuscule number owned more than five hundred and the large spreads that we imagine; they lived mainly in South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana." (p. 93)
"It is somehow fitting that so much of the organization of the Civil Rights Movement took place around tables in home kitchens and restaurants like Paschal's and others. After all, during the 350-year-plus history of African Americans in this country, we were relegated to the kitchen and kept in actual or metaphorical servitude. The food that flourished in these restaurants during the 1960s and 1970s came to be known as soul food because it fed the spirit as much as the body on the long march to institutionalized equality." (p. 201)
"...SCLC [Southern Christian Leadership Conference] began to train student activists on black college campuses in the South who provided the next wave of protest. This wave did not start at the kitchen tables or the black restaurants where King and his followers had planned the Montgomery bus boycott. Rather, it started at the lunch counter of a five-and-dime store...This phase of the fight for equality began in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1, 1960...The sit-ins galvanized the country, demonstrations were staged in more than one hundred cities in the South and the North, and the lunch counter rapidly became a national symbol of the South's inequalities." (p. 203-4)
"Then, in 1977, the publication of the autobiography of writer Alex Haley, Roots, and the subsequent television miniseries based on it transformed the way many African Americans thought of themselves and Africa. Blacks were galvanized by Roots, and large numbers made pilgrimages to the African continent with hopes of discovering their own ancestral origins." (p. 214)
Some quotes I liked:
"Most Americans today base their ideas of the antebellum South on images created in popular culture that have little to do with the realities of history. Despite a tendency to generalize slaveholding into North and South, there was no monolithic South even in the antebellum period. The region was divided into upland and coastal, and then subdivided further into the Up South, the Carolinas and Georgia, the Deep South, and the Gulf South. The mountainous spine of the Appalachians further bisected the region and was an area in which slaveholding was minimal. Each area had a unique experience with enslavement...In fact, even in slaveholding areas, in many cases hard-pressed whites had only a few hapless slaves; and in more than a few cases, owners were apt to be working in the fields alongside their one or two slaves. Less than one quarter of white Southerners held slaves, and half of those held fewer than five. Only 1 percent of Southerners owned more than one hundred, and a minuscule number owned more than five hundred and the large spreads that we imagine; they lived mainly in South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana." (p. 93)
"It is somehow fitting that so much of the organization of the Civil Rights Movement took place around tables in home kitchens and restaurants like Paschal's and others. After all, during the 350-year-plus history of African Americans in this country, we were relegated to the kitchen and kept in actual or metaphorical servitude. The food that flourished in these restaurants during the 1960s and 1970s came to be known as soul food because it fed the spirit as much as the body on the long march to institutionalized equality." (p. 201)
"...SCLC [Southern Christian Leadership Conference] began to train student activists on black college campuses in the South who provided the next wave of protest. This wave did not start at the kitchen tables or the black restaurants where King and his followers had planned the Montgomery bus boycott. Rather, it started at the lunch counter of a five-and-dime store...This phase of the fight for equality began in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1, 1960...The sit-ins galvanized the country, demonstrations were staged in more than one hundred cities in the South and the North, and the lunch counter rapidly became a national symbol of the South's inequalities." (p. 203-4)
"Then, in 1977, the publication of the autobiography of writer Alex Haley, Roots, and the subsequent television miniseries based on it transformed the way many African Americans thought of themselves and Africa. Blacks were galvanized by Roots, and large numbers made pilgrimages to the African continent with hopes of discovering their own ancestral origins." (p. 214)
February 8, 2024
“The Africanizing of the Southern palate outlasted the reign of Baron Tobacco, King Cotton, and Empress Sugar and defined the taste of the American South.” High On the Hog historian and cultural critic Jessica B. Harris is a deeply personal account of the history of African-descended people in North America, told by tracing the evolution of culinary culture beginning in West-Central Africa and coming to maturity in the United States of America.
In retelling some of the more grotesque aspects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Middle Passage, Harris details how continental African food traditions made their way to North America, highlighting the specific regions in Africa that some of the most popular and well-known African American dishes are rooted in.
Once in North America, Africans and their food went on a long journey characterized by constant migration and motion, particularly after slavery was formally abolished with the American Civil War. Harris brilliant details this history, telling the story of how food and culinary entrepreneurship and innovation evolved from the plantations of colonial and antebellum America, to the Jim Crow era, to the dense ghettos of North, all the way to the present day.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the parallels Harris drew between the culinary cultures of West Africans and that of the Native Americans they encountered during the colonial period. In engaging in this comparative analysis, Harris shows just how much one can glean about the socio-organization of a given society just by evaluating that society’s food culture.
Ultimately, this book excels in connecting modern African American food to its precursors on the African continent. It also shows that many of those precursors are still alive and well in Africa itself, further indicating the close kinship that diasporic Africans share with their continental family. Highly recommended.
In retelling some of the more grotesque aspects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Middle Passage, Harris details how continental African food traditions made their way to North America, highlighting the specific regions in Africa that some of the most popular and well-known African American dishes are rooted in.
Once in North America, Africans and their food went on a long journey characterized by constant migration and motion, particularly after slavery was formally abolished with the American Civil War. Harris brilliant details this history, telling the story of how food and culinary entrepreneurship and innovation evolved from the plantations of colonial and antebellum America, to the Jim Crow era, to the dense ghettos of North, all the way to the present day.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the parallels Harris drew between the culinary cultures of West Africans and that of the Native Americans they encountered during the colonial period. In engaging in this comparative analysis, Harris shows just how much one can glean about the socio-organization of a given society just by evaluating that society’s food culture.
Ultimately, this book excels in connecting modern African American food to its precursors on the African continent. It also shows that many of those precursors are still alive and well in Africa itself, further indicating the close kinship that diasporic Africans share with their continental family. Highly recommended.
December 13, 2021
A fascinating book, one that dances between a historical survey of the African-American experience and a culinary tour of the cuisine from that same demographic, High on the Hog satisfies as both cultural and culinary history. I thoroughly enjoyed the "behind-the-scenes" look at the genesis for many of the foods I grew up with (my mom being from South Carolina) and was surprised to learn how many of them I owe to the marginalized African-American population that in many ways built our country.
That last element of the book was excruciatingly humbling as well, knowing how much I as a white person have benefited from the systematized racism and subjugation of people of color that is endemic to the United States. I appreciated Harris' grace and candor as she chronicled the journey and development of the rich culture and food of the African people across the Atlantic and back again in many ways.
I will also admit to copying down a few of the recipes at the end of the book that made my mouth water!
That last element of the book was excruciatingly humbling as well, knowing how much I as a white person have benefited from the systematized racism and subjugation of people of color that is endemic to the United States. I appreciated Harris' grace and candor as she chronicled the journey and development of the rich culture and food of the African people across the Atlantic and back again in many ways.
I will also admit to copying down a few of the recipes at the end of the book that made my mouth water!
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