Caribbean Wedding Traditions
Courtesy of The New York Public Library
Another story in our series food and wedding traditions The survival of wedding traditions and cookery depended on the region of the Americas to which Europeans and Africans, disembarked, and the Amerindians who inhabited those regions. Those who lived and worked in the Caribbean did so in largely black majority populations where the African influenced the European more than the European the African. British laws did not recognize slaves marriages as compared to Spanish and Portuguese laws. Enslaved Africans held weddings followed by receptions with music and food. I imagine the food would have been similar to that served at enslaved held balls. A travel account from 1790 informs us that the cooks for a black ball in the British West Indies prepared “a number of pots, some of which are good and savory; chiefly their swine, poultry, salt beef, pork, herrings, and vegetables with roasted, barbecued, and fricasseed” meats.
