Understanding Foodways and Plant Management Practices of Enslaved Communities in Nineteenth-Century West Tennessee

Author

Mary Katherine Brown, University of Tennessee, KnoxvilleFollow

Date of Award

8-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

Kandace Hollenbach

Committee Members

Barbara Heath, Kimberly Kasper, Jamie Evans

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, enslaved Africans and African Americans relied on multiple food sources, including foodstuffs that they grew and procured themselves. My research objectives aim to evaluate the foodways of enslaved African and African Americans in West Tennessee. Foodways include all aspects related to food, from food production and procurement to preparation, consumption, sharing, and discard. This study examines macrobotanical plant remains from Fanny Dickins EAAA House III (40FY303), which is an enslaved domestic site. Additionally, this analysis also investigates botanical remains from Cedar Grove (40FY325) and Widow Dickins (40FY462), which are an enslaved domestic site and a manor house site, respectively, to provide comparative context for 40FY303.

Incorporating two methods best suit this dataset and center this research on the production aspect of enslaved foodways. Using macrobotanical analysis, I identify the plants that enslaved Africans and African Americans interacted with and identify those that were provisioned by their enslavers, and those they procured or produced themselves. I also employ stable isotope analysis to determine if people enslaved at the Fanny Dickins and Cedar Grove plantations used plant management practices to increase the yield of crops that they cultivated. I compare the δ¹⁵N [delta 15N] values of plant remains that were grown as cultigens by enslaved people at each site to the δ¹⁵N [delta 15N] values of plant remains that would not have been fertilized to determine if the enslaved people practiced fertilization. I also compare the δ¹³C [delta 13C] values of cultivated plants to comment on irrigation practices and climatic conditions. In addition to agricultural practices, this research helps us understand more about the larger environmental conditions that people living in West Tennessee during the nineteenth century experienced. Ultimately this research considers how enslaved Africans and African Americans were able to use their limited time to cultivate and procure plants that fulfilled their otherwise unmet needs, and this work focuses on how enslaved people used fertilizers to mitigate the degradation of the land, which was caused by the harsh farming practices plantation owners implemented.

Recommended Citation

Brown, Mary Katherine, "Understanding Foodways and Plant Management Practices of Enslaved Communities in Nineteenth-Century West Tennessee. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2025.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/14511