Wow, this is a first for me.  I finally listened to someone and began a blog.  I pity those who read!  If you can wade through the muck and mire of my mind as transcribed digitally, you truly deserve a medal for bravery.

That said, I'm starting off with a bit of a challenge.  Reading this as my first post, I hope no one slams the proverbial electronic door behind them, thinking me radical and unfeeling in my stance on historical interpretations of racial topics in the South.  I am, I hope, impartial and balanced in my attempt to discuss concepts like credit and attribution when talking about cultural impact by groups or pockets of our Southern society.  I have my biases, all of us do, but I attempt to acknowledge them and use them as a scholarly compass to direct my thoughts, and words, in summarizing my conclusions on the past.

Here is my initial question to you, my invited reader. 

Does anyone else, other than me, have an honest interest in exploring the rise of professional African-American cooks and caterers from 1865-1965 era and the significance of their contribution to modern Southern food culture?

Just curious. There's a national dialogue progressing right now, but it's missing the mark in attribution of Southern food to Black Southerners. Hey, don't jump to conclusions!  Southern Food = Black, but it also = white, red, etc. There would be no modern understanding, or eating, of Southern food without the contribution of those of African descent.  I just caution us not to reach to far in defining an origin for anything.

With some 20 years of Black historical research under my belt, I stand firm as one of the first to assure we fairly represent the African-American experience in talking about the South.  As a people, they've been neglected, forgotten, and plain eradicated from our history for too long.  But I want to represent them fairly, and not offering pretention, or fantasy, out of an emotional need to compensate for past injustices. 

Here's my take on the "Black experience" in relation to Southern food.  I contend their major impact came after 1865, not prior. Shocked yet, or just confused?  Stay with me a moment.  In fact, respond, and share with me, for I'd be interested to read the citations of other regional food scholars on this subject.  I would love to see it develop into a collection of biographical cameos that debunk a series of now long-standing "plantation" guilt-inspired slavery myths inferring unfair weight to the influence of Africa on early Southern food traditions. 

Aren't we past this as a nation?  Honestly, we have folks on the attack every day now of most nostalgic Southern imagery, yet we are fearful of chipping away at similarly fictionalized connotations regarding slavery.  Why?  Why are we willing to discard historical fact that provides astounding cultural truths, just to prop up old fantasies about how plantation slave cooks "created" our entire culinary heritage?

I'm calling our regional food historians, black and white, to arms.  I propose we jump the "Great Divide" of civil war and instead support the notion that previously unrecognized late 19th & early 20th century Black cooks "saved" our food ways rather than their slave grandparents developing them alone. These later African-American cooks, both home & professional, were our primary Southern food historians, but lack credit for preserving our recipes and traditional food preparation methods. As a result, their enslaved ancestors are given an undue, expanded, & often times mythical credit that fails to amend for the horrors of slavery, leaving their descendants in the shadows of Southern, and American, history. Controversial? Perhaps to some, but I say credit is due to the rightful heirs of American slavery, and it's not necessarily the enslaved themselves. Anyone brave enough to venture into a discussion?