Imagine being stolen from your home plate , forced to leave behind every physical flake of connection to your landed estate , your multitude and your family . What could you maybe take with you that would n’t be discover by invasive , cruel inspection ? Perhaps a few seeds : tiny little nitty-gritty of life story and hope .
billion of slaves were bring to North America and some managed to bring a few cherished seeds from habitation , nestled into the roll of their hair or tied into necklaces or bracelets . Think about life without some of these foods you may know and sleep together :
These staples of our advanced diets are part of our culture now because slaves smuggle them and naturalize them , sometimes in mystery .
Angelique “ Sobande ” Moss - Greer , herb doctor , endorse holistic nutritionist and with child - granddaughter of a hard worker , says that many hard worker possessor would not allow striver to have their own gardens . But many white were afraid to go into dense forests , so that is where slaves could find a resort from their victor and sow their own seeds among the wild plants . In concealed woodlands , slaves grew heirloom food that traveled with them from across the ball . These foods would nourish them , remind them of their inheritance and make a lasting bequest in their new community made up of dislocated people from heaps of distinct ethnic grouping . Karen Lanier
Moss - Greer ’s great granny barely survived aboard a slave ship that carried her fraught mother . She begin the harrowing journey as a foetus in her mother ’s uterus and come as a newborn baby . So many humans endured torture during the transatlantic hard worker trade , peculiarly this baby who was born in transition from exemption to thrall , and this , in Moss - Greer ’s perspective , created a character of generational injury . The scars live on on , transmitted to posterity on a cellular level , and deep healing is demand , so Moss - Greer is learn what her elders taught her about herbal medicine and traditional foodways and using it to heal others .
besides , the source we embed take hold all the transmissible codification for the coming propagation : Nourishment . belong . Heritage . Food . Freedom . The slave germ were hidden treasure halt a little but precious power . In this season of seed - saving , with just a brief interruption before the season of seed - starting , take a moment to think over on their heritage and import .
Karen Lanier
jaw on that food for thought during this time between Thanksgiving and New Year . From the harvest - time of year corn whisky and mash to the New Year ’s bleak - eyed pea that bring good luck , there ’s a cryptical history associated with the food we grow that must not be forgotten .
