Food In Colonial American Culture

By 1700, the Middle Colonies also known as The Bread Basket, had been established by different people with different purposes. Religion plays a big part in the colonies. There were mostly catholics and quakers. Here in the Middle colonies, there are more rich soil, mild winter, deep rivers, and natural ports. Because of longer growing seasons, it was able to produce more grains and wheats. With the huge amount of farming lands, causing small coastal towns with few large ones. Though they were mainly focused on agriculture and eat, colonists elect their proprietary government, representative. All this wouldn't be possible if it weren't for the founding fathers of the four colonies.

In the new world, Europeans encountered indigenous plant foods cultivated by Native Americas. These plants were potatoes, beans, corn, tobacco, and cocoa. The potato is especially important because it’s known for one of the main foods for Ireland. The European’s influenced oats and barley etc. Domesticated animals as pigs, chickens, sheep, and ox were also brought to the Americas. Horses were also brought to the new world which was a new tool for hunting and used for military.

Introducing cash crops such as tobacco, sugar, and rice was a pivotal time for the Chesapeake and South Carolina societies. The environment was a big factor on what each colony could grow, and this helped assist in the boom in several cash crops. Such as, the Chesapeake society relied on tobacco because it could grow so well in the environment. The desire for tobacco made it easy to trade because of the coast. Indeed, this changed the colonies drastically but it wouldn’t have been the same without European help. Europeans played a big part in the introduction to cash crops in the south. Powerful countries like England started to have limited resources, so they began to exploit the colonies for their resources. The climate in Chesapeake

Migration into regions can create a struggle for finding new or even familiar foods making the creation of palatable foods difficult. Therefore, many Americans brought bulk foods with them in their quest for Western expansion. Some of the staple items during this period could have consisted of salted meats, beans, flour, and any other items that would have the ability to keep without spoiling. We can only imagine how such meals would have tasted, especially after eating the same meal for days at a time. However, one way to create appealing and appetizing food is through the use of condiments, along with the fact that canning jars help people store foods for lengthier periods.

European crave for spices was immense. It would drive merchants to seek out trade routes. The Colombian Exchange which commenced after Colombus landing in America, was the exchange of goods, resources, and ideas between the New World and the Old World. From Europe, Asia, and Africa many different species of animals were brought into the lives of Native Americans in the New World. Cattle, pigs, and horses being some of the most influential. Sugar and Coffee would also tremendously impact the lives of Native Americans as the remaining amount that survived small pox disease would be to work in the fields cultivating these popular crops. A few crucial plants that came from the New World were the cacao bean, as Europeans would begin to develop a liking for chocolate and other consumer goods later on, the highly addictive Tobacco would be dispersed though out the nation as well. This exchange system would prove to be a huge turning point as Spain, Portugal and later England, France, and the Dutch would come out to take their piece of this new land. Compared to 1517 these discoveries would change the lives of just about every European for the better, as it was the nobles who funded the expeditions for the search of new goods by intellectual men, rather than the blind following that happened with the Protestant leaders that would

Foods that originated in the old world are apples, bananas, beans some varieties , beets, broccoli, carrots, cattle beef, cauliflower, celery, cheese, cherries, chickens, chickpeas, cinnamon, coffee, cows, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, ginger, grapes, honey.Some foods that originated in the new world is artichokes, avocados, beans , black walnuts, blueberries, cacao , cashews, cassava, chestnuts, corn ,etc.Columbus also realized that the new food they got is that there is more food to feed more people but also more calcium that gave the hard working men for energy to

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, English Protestants established a group referred to as the Puritans. The Puritans were resistant to bold flavors and intense ingredients, such as garlic, for these had “Catholic Continental political references”. This led to a distinguishable description of English cooking. (Amelia Meyers) Puritan meals and meal times are different from what we know today. Although the English from this time ate most of the same foods that we eat today, their selection was quite divergent from ours. In fact, citizens back then had an abnormal idea of what foods were healthy for them (Plimoth.org). The Puritans had several meal responsibilities; women were in charge of meal planning, and food preservation

Considering the potential economical interests, European colonists traded with the native people and introduced new foods home. Then, ports in the eastern coast became bustling, as “maize, potatoes, tobacco, beans, squash, peppers, cacao, syphilis” were sent to the European market. (Doc 4) The new goods greatly increased the food supply in the Europe, casuing a tight dependence of raw materials on the American continent. As the natural resourses in American were exploited, foreign species came in exchange. Similarly, native Americans were surprised at the new creatures. Indigenous people welcame “cattles, sheep, pigs, and goats” for “meat, tallow, hides, transportation, and hauling.” (Doc 10) The popular animals from Europe largely made the native’s lives easier and exponentially increased the economic potential in the indigenous tribes. Besides the positive goods exchange, the communication largely changed the landscape at the expense of some economic growth. Historian Alfred Crosby described that the “weeds” brought by the European travelers

Food has had a major social and political influence on the world due to the trading of crops and ideas which have been seen in chapters five and seven of Standage’s novel. You can see this trade when middle-eastern botanists shared different stories of origins during the spread of cinnamon to make others not know how to harvest cinnamon, as well as the trading of potatoes from England and Ireland down to other parts of Europe. Botanists were very important for trade in Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia because they let people acquire spices from all across the world and they made their home civilizations richer because of it. In chapter 7, Columbus brought back maize and sugar from the New World over to Spain which then spread to England and all across the world “So rapid was the spread of maize around the world that its origins became obscured almost immediately” (Kindle Locations 1592-1593). The trading of maize became so important because it can grow almost anywhere, and it served as a very nutritious, popular, ad plentiful

Also, the best form of transportation that the Europeans greatly relied on to carry their valuable resource from one place to another it was by riding horses. Domesticated animals were a fundamental part in European society due to it maintain a reliable, high energy food source through many colonies. Whenever the new settlers introduced animals to the New World, they would let wild pigs run free to the land as a new food source for the Europeans. This had a negative contribution to the new land due to new animals destroyed most native’s crops. Therefore; the Natives Americans were highly exposed to the different outcomes that change their way life. In the Columbian Exchange food crops like corn, potatoes, etc. was cultivated by the Native Americans. In the new world the big advantage over the old word was the food crops that indigenous people were able to produce due to great soil and stretch land. Potato has been for many centuries a great crop to grow because it resisted cold climate and it would grow on thin

Colonial America was the era when America was made up of different colonies; in this case there were thirteen. Colonial America lasted from 1587 to 1770, 183 years long. As said before, there were thirteen colonies: four New England colonies, four Middle colonies, and five Southern colonies. The New England colonies were New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, otherwise known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The four Middle colonies were New York, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Maryland made up the Southern colonies. These colonies were located in North America, along the Atlantic coast. Although these were the main colony groups, the very first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. People settled in the colonies in North America to have a better life, and to escape persecution from people with different beliefs. The next colony, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, was Plymouth, Massachusetts. Native Americans assisted the Pilgrims when they first arrived at Plymouth. Two of the Native Americans were Samoset and Squanto, an English-speaking Pawtuxet, who was kidnapped by Europeans, but was later freed. Another colony that was helped by Native Americans was Virginia, where tobacco was used as a cash crop that helped Virginia prosper. The colonies in Colonial America not only prospered from cash crops, but slaves as well. African Americans were brought in on trade ships

Once the colonists’ left England and arrived in North America, their diet changed dramatically. Instead of having the foods they were accustomed to, they had to adapt to fit their environment. The colonists were also accustomed to a regular eating schedule that they would soon have to change. The colonists would eat an early breakfast, an early dinner and a late supper, lunch were not included; however, all this schedule and way of doing things would soon change.

There was no typical meal for a colonial Americans, as the diets between a rich and a poorer citizen would have depended on what they could afford. This was also the case because of the different food sources that each of the colonies had. The breakfast of the typical colonial American consisted of bread, cornmeal mush, milk or tea, and possibly an alcoholic beverage. The poor would eat dinner midday while the rich would have it midafternoon. Dinner may have consisted of one or two meats, pudding, cheese, pickles, vinegar, salt, roots, and vegetables. The evening meal was called “supper” and consisted of foods similar in content to breakfast. Butter, spices, sugar, coffee, tea, chocolate, and alcohol were considered luxuries and were only consumed

child. Wild Rice is one of many dishes that have been passed down to me

Crops were transported over from the New World, such as Potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables that drastically changed the European diet. Before the arrival of said plants the European diet relied on grain, mostly wheat, even this was hard to come by as there was not land to farm on. Cargo ships coming from the New World brought other resources needed for the growing industrial Europe, ship timbers, hemp rope, tar, furs, dyes such as indigo and red Brazil wood, dried fish, flaxseed oil, hides, and a mass of other materials.