Anburey, a traveler through America during the Revolutionary War, describes
foodways of enslaved people in the Low Country
“They [“poor negroes”] are called up at day break, and seldom
allowed to swallow a mouthful of hominy, or how cake, but are drawn out into
the field immediately, where they continue in hard labour [sic] without intermission,
till noon, when they go to their dinners, …their meals consist of hominy
and salt, and if their master is a man of humanity, touched by the finer feelings
of love and sensibility, he allows them twice a week a little skim milk, fat
rusty beacon, or salt herring, to relish this miserable and scanty fare. (Anburey
“Travels thorough America during the War,” in Travelers’ Impressions
1916:497).”