Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods. X11ej9G}R)\.}F5aj??*? The next time you sit down to a piece of cornbread, a stewed gumbo, or a roasted sweet potato, take a moment to reflect on the story of this food. There were over 100 plantation owners who owned over 100 slaves. Sapelo, a barrier island about the size of Manhattan, has about 50 residents, primarily descendants of African slaves who settled here after slavery was outlawed. Offerings such as pepper pot, okra stew, gumbo, and jambalaya became staples on American dining tables. Slavery had associated with it the health problems commonly associated with poverty. During the slave trade, they brought with them their appreciation for okra, including it in stews that are signature to Soul food. "If we want to understand current relationships, then we need to go back to these very uncomfortable pasts and explore how Africans actually contributed to American culture. In many areas, however, it was customary for slaves to work Saturday afternoons and Sundays on their own time, devoting daylight hours to cash-earning activities similar to that of their lowcountry brethren. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Gangs of enslaved people, consisting of men, women, children and the elderly worked from. This red pea, which originated in Africa and is the original ingredient in the region's quintessential rice-and-beans dish Hoppin' John, is just one of the many heritage crops from the African continent receiving new attention from farmers, chefs, scientists, and food historians. 2 cups (450 ml) grits (regular, not instant). They might change the appearance of an itemremoving an owners mark, for example, or tailoring a piece of clothingor they could hide the item away, saving it for future use. [1] Daily Richmond Examiner, Dec. 2, 1864; Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser , Jan. 3, 1865. Our work has been featured by the New York Times, TIME magazine, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, NPR, and more. On the plantation, enslaved people continued their harsh existence, as growing sugar was gruelling work. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. Well cook three representative dishes, each of which can help us understand a slightly different aspect of the food experiences of the Revolutionary Era slave. In 1740 the Havana Company was formed to stimulate agricultural development by increasing slave imports and regulating agricultural exports. Despite the newspapers warnings, white Southerners could not have been surprised to see enslaved buyers browsing goods for sale. In Brazil, plantations were called casas grandes and suffered from similar issues. altogether different situation "us have plenty of good food to eat too. While the missus may have helped design the menu, or provided some recipes, it was the enslaved cooks who created the meals that made Virginia, and eventually the South, known for its culinary fare and hospitable nature. The sweet potato, indigenous to North America, is quite similar in texture and appearance (to the point that many modern cooks have trouble distinguishing them), and its believed that slaves simply used them just as they had yams in Africa.[iii]. Most slave purchasing reflected this tension between necessity, luxury, and potential danger. Enslaved Africans were brought from Africa by European slave traders to the Americas. What good could it possibly do them? More importantly, he must have thought, What good does a slave with money do me? Plenty, he and others like him imagined. (19721978), 15, pt. ". The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? Food was often used as a form of control. Southern foodenslaved cooks foodhad been written into the American cultural profile. . Gibbs, Robert. As Booker T. Washington recounts in his Slave Diet Bulletin, a common breakfast was cornbread and pork. These cooks knew their craft. Towns explained to readers of the Southern Planter that those who had pleased him [went] off with a pocket full of silver, taking care to note, and I always pay them in silver.[9]. This page was last edited on 11 October 2022, at 21:29. The ingredients and recipes of this early African American cuisine include: rice, okra, sweet potatoes, corn, and greens. African rice often accompanied slave voyages. In Ehtiopia, injera bread serves the same purpose. 30. This in turn may have had a very wide impact on the foodways of the entire country, as plantations and other slave-owning businesses played vital roles in the production and circulation of food and food-related items in early America. From January to June, they harvested the cane by chopping the plants off close to the ground, stripping the leaves and then cutting them into shorter strips to be bundled off to be sent to the sugar cane mill. The South continues to embrace corn in its many forms. Wrap in foil: All the plantation system had a form of slavery in its establishment, slaves were initially forced to be labors to the plantation system, these slaves were primarily native Indians, but the system was later extended to include slaves shipped from Africa. Growing up on Sapelo Island, Georgia, Cornelia Walker Bailey never thought of red peas as anything special. Corn was one of the most versatile crops eaten by American Slaves. Serve with plain white rice, perhaps cooked with a little extra water, so that it softens a bit more than usual, and if you have it, dash some pepper sauce over it to liven up the flavor. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? Describing holidays past, Esther Davis, a South Carolina planters daughter, recalled that in Camdens business district, those three days were given up to the negroes. Merchants angled for enslaved customers: the few stores that were open, were intended just for this trade and did a thriving business. Indeed, she noted, the foundations of some small fortunes were laid in those same small stores with their stocks of hardware, crockery, beads and brass jewelry, calico and bandana handkerchiefs, candy, etc. [6], Much of what we know about slave spending is anecdotal, but scattered ledgers from rural stores and outposts provide a glimpse of what and how slaves consumed. The journey from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean was called "the middle passage", and was one of the three legs which comprised the triangular trade among the continents of Europe, the Americas, and Africa. During the time of slavery, African Americans brought with them the food traditions from their native lands. A mans world? "The strange dishes they were serving us weren't strange to me, because I was going, 'Hey, we eat this back home.' The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. Life was harsh for enslaved people, and as a result, many people resisted slavery through. Rather than ham hock, use the vegan secret weapon of smoked paprika. For the slave laborer, the routine started all over again. Worse, they did not know the value of a dollar, allowing vendors to take advantage of their lack of consumer savvy. Cultivation of sugar had to follow a precise scientific system to profit from the production. Before long, plantations were founded by colonists, such as Shirley Plantation, constructed circa 1613; Berkeley Hundred, and Flowerdew Hundred, whose 1,000 acres extended along the James River. Okra is one of those under-appreciated vegetables that I love. All rights reserved. These skeletons may have the answer, Scientists are making advancements in birth controlfor men, Blood cleaning? Goodloe, for example, advised slaveholders to allow supervised shopping trips. Gibbs also mentions that the most "industrious" slaves were allowed to have their own gardens and chickens to tend to, and were able to sell their crops/goods for their own profit. How much was their labor-power worth in a market that was weighted against free people of color? But by the late 17th century, plantation homes throughout Virginia had turned to enslaved laborers, captured from central and western Africa, to grow crops, build structures and generally remain at the beck and call of white families. Though the modern dish of the Carolinas, Hoppin' John, was not described in print until the publication in 1847 of Sarah Rutledge's Carolina Housewife, its roots are believed to lie in the Senegalese dish, thibou nib.. Black-eyed peas were introduced in the Americas around the middle of the 18th century, and were noted in some of Washington's writings and . At this time, Europe was starting to industrialize, and it needed a lot of materials to manufacture goods. Only about 6% ended up in the North American colonies, while the majority were taken to the Caribbean colonies and South America. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. One plot was lying fallow, one plot was growing cane, and the final plot was being harvested. Frederick Douglas describes a similar use of corn: Our food was coarse cornmeal boiled. The American Historian
Peddlers and wagoners roved from farm to plantation, selling trinkets, candies, cakes, and often alcohol. [i] Rutledge, Sarah. Her essay derives from that book and her current book project Bonds Burst Asunder: The Revolutionary Politics of Getting By in Civil War and Emancipation, 18601867. What did the slaves eat on the plantations? 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Booker T. Washington was born a slave on the Burroughs plantation in Franklin County, Virginia on April 5, 1856. The Southern Colonies: Plantations and Slavery, Plantation System. 6 cups (1.25 liter) water Such paradoxes troubled more than a few, but practical concerns and a desire for labors just reward pushed them to work extra hours, save cash, and put plans in motion to make freedom theirs. "We have a waiting list that's almost a yard long," she says, adding that they should have enough to go around, at least this year. This is relevant to our general understanding of Chapel Hill, as well as the foodways of the time, because it gives us a clear insight to what is claimedto be the diet and well-being of an average southern slave was in the mid 19th century.It also may have had a significant impact on keeping slavery practices in the American south. It became a small way for slaves to create their own personal space. Want to read more articles just like these? This week I was reviewing Muster, Payrolls and List of Effectives for Capt Gross Scruggs company of the Fifth Virginia. Well substitute aluminum foil and an oven. Secession in 1860 sharpened this double-edged sword and threw all aspects of southern economic life into crisis. Not according to biology or history. * It is also the story of countless unnamed cooks across the South, the details of their existences now lost. The system was largely run by European merchants[6]. Food and Social Reform in the Progressive Era, Pepsi-Cola Advertisement in The Tar Heel, 1916, Food Conservation Effort in Orange County, NC During the First World War, News of the Academies-North Carolina Dining Hall (Aug. 3, 1913), Buffet Lunches Will Be Served During Holiday, What We Are Doing to Conserve Food and Keep Down Waste Jillian Fellows, North Carolina Supreme Court Case: Damages Awarded against Packer Because of Death Caused by Eating Unwholesome Fish, Waiters at Commons Hall, circa 1890s-1920s, 5 February 1916: The banqueting season of 1915-16 opened at nine oclock Friday night when forty-eight members of the senior class sat down in Swain Hall to grapefruit an maraschino.. Sugarcane is harvested about 18 months after planting and the plantations usually divided their land for efficiency. West African rice and beans dishes, called waakye in Ghana and thiebou niebe in Senegal, became the Souths Hoppin John. Slaves were usually given a weekly ration of food such as cornmeal, lard, offals, and molasses greens etc supplemented at times with meat and fish. During the 19th century, there were moments of widespread fear that these cooks would poison them, and we know from court records and other documents that on at least a few occasions enslaved cooks did slip poisons like hemlock into their masters food. watermelon. The Bantu people originated in Central Africa, near Nigeria and the Congo. Practically speaking, slaveholders contended with the loss of plantation stores and risked unruly behavior resulting from unregulated rum. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. While gumbo, the flagship dish of New Orleans, is usually thickened with okra, the technique is actually an adaptation of soupikandia, a Senegalese soupy stew slave cooks prepared in plantation kitchens for both themselves and their owners. They adapted these to the harsh living conditions on plantations. It is often smoked or roasted at Fall Pumpkin festivals. Enslaved cooks brought this cuisine its unique flavors, adding ingredients such as hot peppers, peanuts, okra, and greens. Cookie Policy Luckily, many slaves were able to survive by hunting, fishing, and gardening. Plantation owners would ration food in order to limit the power of slaves. Fantastic work and writing. "Slave owners sent back and got seeds for what the slaves were used to eating, because they weren't used to the food here in America. Watches, in other words, were meant to be displayed. They overlook that slavery, which affected millions of blacks in America, was enforced by a system of sustained brutality, including actsand constant threatsof torture, rape and murder. 5U67n 3e7o_y$( +_* %YqYV/P)'.M While it might be fun to think about boiled sweet potatoes and cornbread, we must also remember the dark truth of slavery. Hercules and Hemings were the nations first celebrity chefs, famous for their talents and skills. cook them over fire or wrap in leaves and ash-roast. My presentation covered 300 years of American history that started with the forced enslavement of millions of Africans, and which still echoes in our culture today, from the myth of the happy servant (think Aunt Jemima on the syrup bottle) to the broader marketing of black servitude (as in TV commercials for Caribbean resorts, targeted at white American travelers). Take, for example, Georgia planter James Towns, whose end-of-year celebrations always included a pay day for good behavior. We need to forget about this so we can heal, said an elderly white woman, as she left my lecture on the history of enslaved cooks and their influence on American cuisine. Her own mission is to make sure that the contribution of slaves to America's culinary traditions isn't forgotten. By the Civil Wars last weary winter, Confederate Richmond, had become accustomed to the pounding of artillery echoing across nearby fields. Choice implied agency and that agency undermined masters rule. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Carolina Housewife. Buying goods in the Old Southa piece of peppermint candy, a silk cravat, a stolen watch, ones own bodyrevealed the fragile politics at the heart of master-slave relation. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. We feature smart, groundbreaking research and well-written narratives from expert writers. During the 18th century Cuba depended increasingly on the sugarcane crop and on the expansive, slave-based plantations that produced it. It is to ignore the story of Chef Hercules, or the real story of Aunt Jemima. Then, other foods made available to slaves are listed, including: bacon, molasses, potatoes, poultry, and eggs. The Campus of The University of North Carolina, Located in the Village of Chapel Hill. By forgetting enslaved cooks pain to soothe our own, we erase the pride and the achievements of countless brilliant cooks who nourished a nation. Your email address will not be published. Cooked low and slow, these greens are often flavored with a small piece of ham or bacon. Slaveholders lamented spending on alcohol most of all, complaining that it caused disorder on the plantation and hindered productivity, but memoirs, slave narratives, and court records indicate that rum and liquor were highly sought. City newspapers noted the Army of the Potomacs unrelenting pressure on nearby Petersburg, but the sieges long familiarity muted the panic that dull roar might have incited only three years before. It was only a matter of time before hominy was ground and boiled, and the result became an easy (and cheap) food to sustain both slaves and slaveholders. They often ate the entrails and appendages of farm animals, including pig's feet, cow's tongue, liver and oxtail. On a plantation with more than 100 slaves, the capital value of the slaves was greater than the capital value of the land and farming implements. Records from six antebellum stores across Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia indicate that enslaved consumers spent hard-earned cash on a wide variety of goods. x}Y%q)kOIf5WN'|2k@[46 > TY4!4BF/>xu~}q%xdG?4O/ W?yqyP ^jrq:|'1Yv>=~uuZo? For a guest, this must have been delightful: biscuits, ham, and some brandy, all made on site, ready to eat at 2:30 a.m. or whenever you pleased. Indeed, the progress of the plantation system was accompanied by the rapid growth of the slave trade. "I had quite a few okra dishes when I went to West Africa. Their comfort is promoted, he reasoned, and it removes the temptation to visit dram shops. Most importantly, it affords the master an excellent opportunity of judging the thrift of each negro.[10] Here was a powerful opportunity for masters not only to monitor slave spending but to criticize it, too. This was called mush. Rice is not native to the United States. While newly free African Americans fled the plantations to find work as housekeepers, butlers, cooks, drivers, Pullman porters and waitersthe only jobs they could getAunt Jemima and Rastus smiled while serving white folks, enhancing the myth that black cooks had always been cheerful and satisfied, during slavery and with their current situation. The slaves had to work for long hours under the scorching heat daily. Ethiopias gomen wat and Ghanas kontomire stews both resemble the stewed collard greens of the American South. Ploughing cotton (detail). Some of the foods that could be consumed by slaves were beans, peas, corn, wheat, rice, oats, rye, barley, wheat flour, oatmeal, wheat bran, maize, apples, pears, beets, carrots, beets, carrots, apples, pears, berries, honey, currants, raisins, lemons, raspberries, plums, kiwi fruit, lychees, peaches, figs, pomegranates, oranges, grapes, peaches, Heres why each season begins twice. However, the historical roots of both dishes have so much to teach us about the slave experience that its worth including them together here. Grits purists will be gratified to hear that, again, we will take a very straightforward approach to this dish, eschewing cheese, ham or other additions or embellishments. According to Ball, earned money was. tUqqM^]gG oyQH5/CKu m:' $D0 &1*eKQ 2 *XlserS4'S:qJfpf+^rhMT4`yi
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oS@ hFoL:ZxZ\]&eP I top them with broccoli and red chili paste, Roasted Corn with Garlic Shallot Buttah, able to survive by hunting, fishing, and gardening. Slaveholders lamented the theft of plantation stores, noting that slaves traded purloined corn, cotton, and bacon for goods of their choosing or cash outright. Slaves rued old coarse shoes widout no linin, so stiff you could hardly walk in em. Masters, they observed, wore finer cloth and donned shoes made of soft calf leather. In food provisions, too, enslaved people noted differences. Others hoped that property ownership might induce enslaved people to work harderfor themselves and, by extension, their masters. There was waste and urine throughout the hold; this caused the captives to get sick and to die from illnesses that could not be cured. They were given a. The process for converting plain corn to the more-digestible hominy, which involves soaking in lye (extracted from ashes), was taught to the earliest settlers by the Native Americans. The seeds of the 1969 UNC food service worker strike. He spent his first nine years of life an enslaved child on the piedmont Virginia tobacco plantation. In a highly racialized and segregated America, still grappling with its guilt over slavery, white people created a myth that these cooks wereand always had beenhappy. Of course, nobody at that time had any sense of vitamins or trace minerals, but some cookbooks of the period do have lengthy discourses on the importance of balance of different sorts in ones diet. Still others performed extra labor for their mastersoften called overworkor for other white people in the community, earning precious cash or credit for purchases of their choosing. Indigofera was a major crop cultivated during the 18th century, in Venezuela, Guatemalaand Haiti until the slave rebellion against France that left them embargoed by Europe and India in the 19th and 20th centuries. Carolina Gold is one of the heirloom rices receiving a Renaissance. The slave diet was very simple. Southern Slave Life. The Weekly Standard, [Raleigh] June 30, 1858. Franklin Street and its Changing Foodways, 2018, Average Age of Death and Average Income Across Durham County, 2014, The Reputation of Carolina Inn Restaurants, UNC Department of Nutrition Cookbook 1983, Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen Owner Interview, 2017, The Expansion of Chinese Restaurants in Chapel Hill During the 1980s, Vincenzo Marrone Interview, The IP3 Story, Student Resistance to Labor Rights Movements (2005), Student at Vending Machines, Carolina Union, 1983, Foundational and Colonial Culinary Encounters, Thomas Hariot Book Excerpt (1590)- Maddie Dyer, Letter from Florence OSullivan to Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, Instructions to William Berkeley Concerning the Settlement of Carolina, Hannah Wolleys Original Orange Pudding Recipe, Turkey and Deer Bone Awls from Lower Sauratown, John Whites Secotan Indian Village Watercolor Painting, The Journeys of Needham and Arthur Through the Piedmont, John Smiths observations on Native Virginia Plants and Native American Food Practices, Day Book 1774 No. A slave plantation was an agricultural farm that used enslaved people for labour. [ii] Wilke, Richard, and Livia Barbosa. The monopolies were insured high profits from the sale of plantation products by having cheap labours, forced recruitment, peonage and debt servitude. Think leafy greens and black-eyed. 8H^IBL,c~`x^',M pR5i?mT{QfwN se!ntRZ.Y2 B9G5<2h7POdS_]g*lXBN[g5=jV#NT 8u;MnOn/n VFAh.l~)Ra@6!vmR@JHI )HiZ 8@hw+ev#ZV'Wby-sOATsf:!S",K t1*m!6>2 Gb-xhD=pdW{ @|O. But cooks wielded great power: As part of the front stage of plantation culture, they carried the reputations of their enslaversand of Virginiaon their shoulders. My favorite plant-based okra recipe involves a quick saute with garlic, tomato, and herbs. In fact, okra is what helps thicken gumbo. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. Shopping, then, entailed more than the acquisition of desired goods. After being established in the Caribbean islands, the plantation system spread during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries to European colonies in the Americas and Asia. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. What the Slaves Ate. Underneath the slave ship's decks, Africans were held chest-to-chest and could not do much moving. [9] Goodloe, Management of Negroes, 13031; James M. Towns, Management of Negroes, Southern Cultivator, 9 (1851), 86. Slaves in a lot of cases were given some land to grow their own vegetables on also also soon keep few chickens and pigs. Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). One formerly-enslaved woman remembered that she and her family aint had nothin but de coarsest food an clothes. Educator and former slave Booker T. Washington commented on clothing in particular, recalling shirts that were stiff and coarse . Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2009. %PDF-1.4 In a large pot, bring to a boil: I delivered the talk to an audience of 30 at the Maier Museum of Art in Lynchburg, Virginia. Enslaved people at Mount Vernon generally wore clothing made from cloth produced on the plantation that was sewn together by enslaved or hired tailors. In Ghana and Nigeria, fufu is a starchy mash used to sop up the broth at the bottom of bowl of stew. Drawing water, hewing wood, cleaning, cooking, waiting on table, taking out the garbage, shopping, child-tending, and similar domestic occupations were the major functions of slaves in all slave-owning societies. Douglass was born on a plantation in Eastern Maryland in 1817 or 1818 - he did not know his birthday, much less have a long-form birth certificate - to a black mother (from whom he was . Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? Information about diet and food production for enslaved Africans on plantations. Should they free themselves individually or wait until they had saved enough to buy kin as well? There were many African grown crops that traveled along the slave ship with slaves. [an error occurred while processing this directive]. At the top of that list is Atlanta chef Linton Hopkins, who has concocted several ways to serve her peas at his acclaimed southern-upscale Restaurant Eugene, including in his version of Hoppin' John. Plus, a sweet potato puree adds creamy richness. On days when that wasnt available, hed head to the animal shed. That meant the slaves could plant for themselves," says Bailey, who has recruited other local farmers to plant the crop this spring. Up every day before dawn, they baked bread for the mornings, cooked soups for the afternoons, and created divine feasts for the evenings. Required fields are marked *. With the 19th-century abolition of slavery, plantations continued to grow sugar cane, but sugar beets, which can be grown in temperate climates, increased their share of the sugar market. What did slaves eat on plantations? "Slave owners sent back and got seeds for what the slaves were used to eating, because they weren't used to the food here in America. My favorite plant-based recipes for corn are Roasted Corn with Garlic Shallot Buttah and Peppery Corn Grits with Tomato Jam. Grits are today considered a staple of the Southern diet, but they were, in fact, a classic merger of the Old World and the New. Cookie Settings, Courtesy of Internet Archive Book Images, via Wikimedia Commons, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, Rare Jurassic-Era Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart. "Everybody needs to keep in touch with their ancestors, and through food is one of the best ways to get close," she says. I am wondering, however, about the timing of Mr. As crops failed and the Union blockade tightened, goods became scarce. Upon hearing that these are the types of food that slaves were eating, as well as the extensive medical care provided to slaves, a layman that was ignorant of southern slavery practices would certainly be swayed in favor of slavery. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. One or more sweet potatoes or yams. But to openly wear or use purloined goods was to risk detection and punishment. The slaves were not only responsible for the cultivation and harvesting of the sugarcane, but also the production of sugar. 2, 149; Ibid., 12, pt. [6] Esther S. Davis, Memories of Mulberry (1913), 15. Advertising Notice Bondpeople made their bread out of shorts, while the first grade was always used in the masters house, one woman recalled. Private moments were rare, as was rest. He urged masters to pay for the goods themselves, always rewarding more liberally those that have performed their duty best. Other slaveholders took a more relaxed approach, allowing slaves to make purchases with their own money, but restricting when and where they could trade. Black cooks were bound to the fire, 24 hours a day. The fact that we still eat many of these foods today is a testament to the spirit and strength of these early African Americans. Planters embraced the use of slaves mainly because indentured labor became expensive. So why cant we, as Americans today, look at this history for what it was? It means that whilst the dish may be a national staple on both islands in Trinidad and Tobago . Morning meals were prepared and consumed at daybreak in the slaves' cabins. Craft's comments since in the first sentence, he refers to the "peace, security and national, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 2018. .