Molasses Has Come a Long Way
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
During a mid-nineteenth century trip, traveler Frederick Law Olmsted observed that the provisions allotted to slaves on a plantation somewhere in Georgia or the Carolinas included, among other items, molasses. “They commence work at sunrise, and at about eight o’clock have breakfast brought to them in the field,” Olmsted writes. “The provisions furnished them consist mainly of meal, rice, and vegetables, with salt and molasses, and occasionally bacon, fish, and coffee.” South Carolina’s Henry Brown remembered receiving molasses as a part of his insufficient amount of weekly rations. “A peck o' co'n, t'ree pound o' bacon, quart o' molasses, a quart o' salt, an' a pack o' tobacco was given the men. The wife got the same thing but chillun accordin' to age.” Guest at the 2009 inaugural luncheon had among other dishes Molasses Whipped Sweet Potato. Thus sweet potatoes, which slaves planted in their subsistence farms and also received as rations along with molasses, have come a long way since it’s day as a slave ration. Here are two good recipes you can try.
