African Americans Subsistence and Hunting Before the 1900s

LESSON PLANS

STUDENT HANDOUTS

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Hunting has always been essential to the survival in the south and was a key point of distinction between rich white people, poor white people, and the enslaved persons who were forced to live and work in the region.  From the very beginning enslaved people were treated as less than human and were forced to be subservient to their masters who told them what they could and could not do, and when they should or shouldn’t do it.  Enslaved people lived horrible lives and, on many occasions, tried to escape to freedom in the northern United States or to Canada, and even organized armed rebellions to free themselves.  During the time of the Civil War all enslaved persons were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and following the conclusion of the War, a period called Reconstruction, tried to build new lives for themselves.  For the first time the vast majority of enslaved peoples had access to hunting tools like shotguns, rifles, and traps that they could use to hunt for food and build a life free from slavery. 

These three artifacts relate to hunting and the importance of food gathering to the community.  Specifically, these three artifacts tell the story of both how technology changed and was implemented into community life and tells the story of how the community adapted to the environment around them.  The artifacts also highlight important differences in the lives of the enslaved members of the community as opposed to their enslavers. 

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Shotgun

“Full Image of Shotgun, Side 2,” Vermilionville Educational Enrichment Program, Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park collections.

Shotguns and rifles were the most commonly used tools for hunting during the 1800s.  For wealthy individuals hunting was a sport and to distinguish what they did from hunting from the few enslaved persons who could or poor white people did to survive they changed the rules.  Sport hunters would only shoot a bird “on wing” (or in the air) and only with a shotgun, this was called Snipe Shooting.  For enslaved persons and poor white people it was the opposite, they would mainly use a rifle and shoot at birds and game on the ground.  Weapons like these were also used as tools of oppression as enslaved persons were not allowed to have them under the Louisiana Code Noir. Many Slavery Revolts hinged on the organized collection of these weapons and was a major part in the planning in the both the planned Point Coupee Rebellion in 1795, and the German Coast Rebellion in 1811. To learn more about the German Coast Rebellion click here.

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Primary Sources
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "The Maynard rifles and shot-guns." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed October 15, 2020. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-cde0-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Hunting Traps

“DSC_0498,” Vermilionville Educational Enrichment Program, Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park collections.

Hunting traps like these were a quite common way of hunting during Louisiana in the 1800s as it was across the county, including on famous excursions like Lewis & Clarks trip.  Small traps like these would be laid out to try and catch animals like feral pigs which could then be used for food and preserved in the meat smoker. In many cases this is the only hunting many enslaved peoples were allowed to do, and even then it was limited as most we not allowed to hunt at all.  After the Civil War hunting played a huge role in the change in southern society as for the first time the formerly enslaved peoples were allowed to hunt big game and fish.

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Primary Sources
Leandra Zim Holland, Feasting and Fasting with Lewis & Clark: A Food and Social History of the Early 1800s, First Edition (Emigrant, Mont: Old Yellowstone Publishing, Inc, 2003), 36–39.

Louisiana Digital Library. “Setting a Trap in the Marsh.” Accessed October 15, 2020. https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-sea-p15140coll21:1724.

Meat Smoker

“Meat Smoker,” Vermilionville Educational Enrichment Program, Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park collections.

During the 1800s there were not refrigerators like we know them today, in their place where a myriad of methods to preserve food including smoking it.  Smoking food was one of the most popular methods of food preservation and became a large part in the regional Louisianan diet.  Dedicated meat smokers were usually community owned and served many families as they were too expensive for one family to own by themselves.

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Primary Sources
Newspapers.com. “The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana on October 18, 1900 · Page 4.” Accessed November 19, 2020. http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/220880442/.

Secondary and Additional Resources

Real World Survivor. “A History Lesson: Ancient Traps and Mountain Men,” July 14, 2015. https://www.realworldsurvivor.com/2015/07/14/a-history-lesson-ancient-traps-and-mountain-men/.
Between the Waters. “The Culture and Tradition of Hunting in the American South: Hunting in the Antebellum South (Part I).” Making History Together (blog), August 13, 2016. https://makinghistorybtw.com/2016/08/13/the-culture-and-tradition-of-hunting-in-the-american-south-hunting-in-the-antebellum-south-part-1/.
Between the Waters. “The Culture and Tradition of Hunting in the South: Hunting in the New South, Class and Racial Divides, and Environmental Conservation (Part II).” Making History Together (blog), September 3, 2016. https://makinghistorybtw.com/2016/09/03/the-culture-and-tradition-of-hunting-in-the-south-hunting-in-the-new-south-class-and-racial-divides-and-environmental-conservation-part-ii/.
Brasseaux, Carl A. The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803. LSU Press, 1987.
“Deer-Drive-1907.Png (PNG Image, 988 × 1478 Pixels) - Scaled (63%).” Accessed October 22, 2020. https://makinghistorybtw.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/deer-drive-1907.png.
Eisnach, Dwight, and Herbert C. Covey. What the Slaves Ate: Recollections of African American Foods and Foodways from the Slave Narratives. Illustrated edition. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood, 2009.
Giltner, Scott E. Hunting and Fishing in the New South: Black Labor and White Leisure after the Civil War. Illustrated Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Holland, Leandra Zim. Feasting and Fasting with Lewis & Clark: A Food and Social History of the Early 1800s. First Edition. Emigrant, Mont: Old Yellowstone Publishing, Inc, 2003.
NYPL Digital Collections. “If You Want It - Take It - with a Kodak.” Accessed October 18, 2020. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-90e1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.
Stevenson, Brenda E. Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
NYPL Digital Collections. “The Gun of the Period.” Accessed October 18, 2020. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-cddc-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.
US History Scene. “The Soul of Food.” Accessed November 19, 2020. https://ushistoryscene.com/article/slavery-southern-cuisine/.