Some of the contributions the African Americans made to our cultural cuisine were made out of lack of resources. Under the conditions of slavery they were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many were often too poor to afford them. 'Soul food', a cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South, makes creative use of inexpensive products. Pig intestines are boiled and fried to make 'chitterlings'. Ham hocks and necks provide seasoning to soups, beans, and boiled greens. Other common foods, such as fried chicken and 'hoppin' John' (black-eyed peas and rice), are prepared simply.
African workers had extensive experience in cultivating rice, cotton, and sugar, all crops grown in West and North Africa. These skills became the basis of a flourishing plantation economy. Africans were also skilled at ironworking, music and musical instruments, the decorative arts, and architecture. Their work, which still marks the landscape today, helped shape American cultural styles. They brought with them African words, religious beliefs, and styles of worship, aesthetic values, musical forms and rhythms. All of these were important from the beginning in shaping a hybrid American culture.
Africans and their descendants have been a part of the story of the Americas at least since the late 1400s. As scouts, interpreters, navigators, and military men, blacks were among those who first encountered Native Americans. Beginning in the colonial period, African Americans provided most of the labor on which European settlement, development, and wealth depended, especially after European wars and diseases decimated Native Americans.
