African Roots of Southern Cooking

African Americans developed a cultured identity through “soul” and associated food ways of people of African descent over hundreds of years. In this exhibit, we will explore the vast variety in African American cooking; from foods prepared by enslaved Africans in British America and the antebellum South; in the urban centers during the Great Migration; during the Depression; in Jim Crow eateries; black churches, and during times of celebration. The foods presented in this exhibit have made the long journey from Africa to the Americas.