Why We Eat Black-Eyed Peas

Grandson: “Grandpa, I asked my dad why we have to eat black-eyed peas every New Years, and he said I should ask you.”

Grandpa: “Did he? Well, then, let’s sit down and talk about it.”

Grandson: “Okay!”

Grandpa: “First of all, we should never think of it as *having* to eat black-eyed peas to bring in the New Year, like it’s a burden to us or something we don’t want to do; we should instead look upon it as an honor and a privilege that we do cheerfully and with gratitude and thanksgiving. Pay attention and I will explain why.”

Grandson: (look of attentive curiosity)

Grandpa: “We eat black-eyed peas on this day every year in remembrance of the suffering of our ancestors who lived over one hundred and fifty years ago; those ancestors of ours who in fact *did have to eat black-eyed peas* daily for a time, when there was almost nothing else for them to eat.”

Grandson: “A hundred and fifty years ago was a long time ago. How come they only had black-eyed peas to eat?”

Grandpa: “Yes, it was a long time ago, but not so long ago that we should forget what those people suffered and struggled through so that their posterity could live, and perhaps have an easier time of it than they had.”

Grandson: “Posterity? What is that?.”

Grandpa: “Posterity means the people that would come after them, like you and me. From their perspective looking forward to our time, we are their posterity; from our perspective looking back to when they lived, they are our ancestors. By “our ancestors,” I mean those men and women from days long gone by who are our blood relatives; who, had they not lived and married and had children together, we would not be here today having this conversation.

Grandson: “Oh, I understand now.”

Grandpa: At that time, a terrible sectional war began between the Northern, or Union States of America (USA), and the Southern, or Confederate States of America (CSA). You’ve probably heard it called the American ‘Civil War.’”

Grandson: “Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of the civil war before, but I don’t know much about it.”

Grandpa: “You will learn a lot about it as you get older. It wasn’t actually a civil war, but we can talk about what kind of war it really was and why another time. The war lasted four long years (1861-1865) in any case, and by the time the war was over more than 600,000 soldiers had died.”

Grandson: “Wow!, that is a lot.”

Grandpa: “Yes it is. But, notice that I did not say 600,000 American soldiers died in that war, as most people are led to believe: when we read the historical record and read it correctly, for ourselves from original sources, we cannot miss the fact that upwards of half of the northern army consisted of foreign-born mercenaries from several countries in Europe such as Germany and Ireland, etc.”

Grandson: “What are mercenaries?”

Grandpa: “Mercenaries are soldiers hired to fight in a foreign war, or, a war in another country not their own, and for a cause they have no real stake nor interest in either way.”

Grandson: “Oh, I think I see now. So these mer…how do you say it again? Someone hired them to come here from other countries to fight in our war? Who hired them? How did they get here?”

Grandpa: “Mer-cen-ar-ies. The northern government brought them over here on ships and hired them to fight on the union side and kill our ancestors, yours and mine.”

Grandson: “But, why would they do that, grandpa?! Were our ancestors bad people or something?

Grandpa: “No!, they were good people. But patience, m’boy, I’ll get around to answering your questions.

Now, in addition to the soldiers who were killed in that war, there were also many hundreds of thousands of non-combatant Southern civilians who died from exposure, disease and starvation because of the war.”

Grandson: “What does exposure mean?”

Grandpa: “Think about it like this: if you did not have a house, nor any other means of escaping the effects of cold temperatures, winter storms and so on, what do you think would happen to you over time? Exposure means that people are exposed to the elements, without access to proper shelter, and often even without warm clothing or blankets to protect them from the cold or bad weather.”

Grandson: “What happened to their houses and warm clothes?”

Grandpa: “I’ll tell you in a minute. But before we get to that, let’s go back further in time:

Many years before that terrible war, going all the way back to when white people first came to America, our ancestors (yours and mine) settled in various places in the Southern part of the country, including Virginia, and North and South Carolina. Many of their children and grandchildren later migrated to the west to mostly uninhabited and unimproved territories where they began to cultivate the land and helped to form new states such as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, etc.”

Grandson: “What does cultivate mean?”

Grandpa: “Cultivate means to improve the land and make it productive through industry and hard work. It also means to beautify the land, and to make it more accessible or easier for people to move around on, coming and going from place to place to trade goods and services, visit with other families, go to church and so forth.”

Grandson: “Like making towns and roads and stuff like that?”

Grandpa: “Yes, exactly, like making towns and roads and stuff like that. Anyway, many of our (direct and indirect) ancestors fought in the war as Confederate soldiers – some of them were infantrymen, others were cavalrymen, others still fought in artillery units and so on. And there are a number of our ancestors who in fact lost their lives as soldiers in that terrible war.”

Grandson: “Do you know where they died, or where they are buried?”

Grandpa: “Some of them I do, others I don’t. Remind me later and I will tell you of the ones whose burial places I know of.

Now, it is impossible to put an accurate number to our non-combatant ancestors who also died as a result of the exposure, starvation and disease we talked about a minute ago, but it is safe to say they number in the hundreds, if not in the thousands.”

Grandson: “What is a non-combatant?”

Grandpa: “Non-combatants are civilians or regular people who do not participate in the war as soldiers for different reasons, like women and small children, old people, sick people, etc.”

Grandson: “I see. But if they didn’t fight in the war, how did they die because of it?”

Grandpa: “That’s what I’m about to tell you. Listen closely:

After setting the whole city of Atlanta, GA on fire in November of 1864, General William Tecumsah Sherman gathered his army of 60,000 soldiers outside of the burning city, getting ready to make total war on the non-combatant citizens (women, children, the elderly, and blacks of all ages) misfortunate enough to be in or near his army’s path during his infamous “March to the Sea” expedition. This path of total war or total destruction Sherman’s army cut through the state of Georgia was sixty miles wide and two hundred and eighty-five miles long. You’ve seen the terrible devastation that a mile-wide tornado leaves behind it; close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine, if you can, a tornado sixty times that wide and the devastation it would leave in its path, and you will get a pretty accurate picture in your mind’s eye of the devastation General Sherman’s army left behind it during its march from Atlanta to Savannah leading up to New Year’s Day, 1865.

Grandson: (look of trepidation on his face)

Grandpa: Pretty scary to think about, isn’t it. The word “infamous” means “wicked,” or “abominable”; it is a perfect word for describing the evil deeds Generals Sherman and Sheridan and other northern generals inflicted on Southerners towards the end of the so-called “Civil War.” General Sherman said himself it was his intention to leave behind him and his army, “that most reliable of all Generals – General Starvation.” Other northern generals said similar things. In other words, northern generals purposely left defenseless women and children, old and infirm people, to starve to death in their army’s wake. Think about that for a moment, and what it tells us about those fiendish men and their wickedness. And keep in mind too that they are still revered in the northern states today as “heroes” of the “Civil War.” What does it tell you about the people who revere them as “heroes” for those evil deeds?”

Grandson: “I think they must be bad people too.”

Grandpa: [*]“Me too. Sherman and other Yankee Generals carried out these wicked designs by burning Southern homes and structures containing food supplies, and by slaughtering living food sources like cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and so on. General Sherman did his best to destroy every ounce of food supplies in his army’s path, as well as their only means of transportation – horses and carriages, and railroads – so that the citizens he left in his wake would succumb to the elements, to disease, and/or to starvation. This wasn’t only done in Georgia, though; it was done all over the South.”

Grandson: “How did Southern people eat after that?”

Grandpa: “Well, it so happened that there was one food source in the South that northern generals and their armies could not possibly destroy all of or even close to all of, try as they did and as much as they would have liked to.”

Grandson (excitedly): “Wait, I think I know!: was it black-eyed peas?”

Grandpa: “Yes, that’s right. Although our ancestors from those days usually called them by other names such as ‘cornfield peas’ or ‘cow peas.’”

Grandson: “Why did they call them that?”

Grandpa: “They called them cow peas because they fed them to their cattle and other animals; some Southerners called them cornfield peas because they planted them in cornfields to keep the soil energized in those fields. Sometimes they planted rows of black-eyed peas in between rows of corn. Anyway, the northern army couldn’t destroy all of the black-eyed peas in the South due to their great abundance. By “abundance,” I mean there were lots and lots of them in all parts of the South, dried and sacked, and stockpiled for feeding their farm animals.

You see, black-eyed peas were thought by many people back then, both in the North and in the South, to be “animal food,” not fit for humans to eat. Since the Old South was an agrarian society, it had an abundance of farm animals of every sort, which of course had to be fed and taken care of, and black-eyed peas or corn field peas were a main food source for their animals.”

Grandson: “What is an agrarian society?”

Grandpa: “An agrarian society is one consisting mostly of farmlands and farmers, and few large cities. And this is why the South had cornfield peas/cowpeas/black-eyed peas of various sorts in such abundance; that they had them in such abundance proved to be the saving grace of a many a hungry Southerner, including no doubt some of our own ancestors left to starve in the wake of General Sherman’s March to the Sea, and his march later through the Carolinas.

Grandson: “What are the Carolinas?”

Grandpa: “By ‘the Carolinas,’ I mean the two southern states called North Carolina and South Carolina. Have your dad show you later all of the places we’ve talked about on a map.

What I’m telling you, in other words, is that had it not been for black-eyed peas and their abundance in the Southland at that time, you and I might not even be here to bring in this New Year in remembrance of the crucial role “animal food” played in saving many of our suffering ancestors from what would have otherwise and most assuredly been death by starvation or disease, if not by exposure to the elements or just plain hopelessness.”

Grandson: “That sounds pretty bad, grandpa; it sounds like our people suffered a lot back then.”

Grandpa: “I know. Are you beginning to understand now why we eat black-eyed peas to bring in every New Year, and, as importantly if not more so, why we should do it not only cheerfully, but also with feelings of reverence and of thanksgiving?”

Grandson: “Yes, I understand now. It makes me sad they had to suffer like that, but I’m glad they had black-eyed peas to eat to help keep them alive! Thank you for explaining it to me, grandpa. When I grow up and have my own family, we’re going to eat black-eyed peas to bring in the New Year too. And I’m going to tell my kids everything you told me about why we do it, and why we should be glad and thankful to do it.”

Grandpa: “Very good; I’m very happy to hear it! And you’re welcome; I’m glad your dad sent you to talk with me about it. Oh, one more thing: remember what I said earlier about our ancestors cooking and eating dried peas from sacks?”

Grandson (thinking): “Yeah? … Wait!, that’s why momma and grandma always cook the dry ones and not the ones in cans on New Years, isn’t it, grandpa!”

Grandpa (big grin, a nod and a wink): “How’d you get to be so smart? Now, run along and ask your mom and grandma when the peas and hoecakes and soft fried potatoes will be ready; I don’t know about you, but all of this talk about black-eyed peas has my stomach a-growling, and we don’t want to bring in the New Year on an empty stomach.”

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[*] On these highly cultivated plantations not a fence is left, except mutilated garden enclosures. The fields were as free from vegetation after a few days as the Arabian desert; the very roots seemed eradicated from the earth. … After the eight days were accomplished, the army moved off, leaving not a quadruped, except two pigs, which had ensconced themselves under the ruins of a servant’s house, and perhaps a dog to one plantation; to the other, by some miraculous oversight, two cows and a few pigs were left.

Not a wheeled vehicle of any kind was to be found; all the grain, flour, meat, and other supplies were swept off, except the few things hid in those wonderful places which could not be fathomed even by the “Grand Army.” These particulars … I have from our nephew, J. P., who is now a scout for General W. H. F. Lee. He called by to rest a few hours at his uncle’s house, and says he would scarcely have known the barren wilderness.

[,,,]

Women and children are made homeless at midnight, and not allowed to save anything, even their clothes. When houses are not burned, they are robbed of everything which a rapacious soldiery may desire. The last barrel of flour, the last ham, is taken from store-rooms; and this is done, not in Virginia only; nor are Hunter, Sheridan, Kilpatrick, or Stoneman the only men who do it; but every State in the Confederacy has felt the heel of the despot. North and South Carolina have suffered on their eastern borders most severely; the same of Georgia and Florida. Alabama has had much to bear. The Mississippi country in Louisiana, Arkansas, and the State of Mississippi, has been ravaged and desolated; Tennessee has perhaps had more to bear than any of them. But poor old Virginia has been furrowed and scarred until her original likeness is gone. From the Potomac to the Roanoke, from the seaboard to the Kentucky boundary, including the downtrodden Eastern Shore, she could scarcely be recognized by her sons. Marked by a hundred battle-fields, and checkered by fortifications, almost every spot is classic ground. –Judith White Brockenbrough McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, pgs. 207-211