Stories say black-eyed peas and salted pork were left untouched because Sherman and his troops believed they were for animal consumption. [5]Decades later, folk singer Ella Jenkins recalled how this tradition remained: “People had this feeling about good luck and black-eyed peas. Ah, we raised a lot of black-eyed peas… those black-eyed peas, he’d [his father, Jim Pettie] have a bunch of them.”[10] Painter Jack Whitten (1939 – 2018) recalled his father’s standard meal while working in the Muscoda Coal Mines of Bessemer, Alabama: “My mom [Annie Cunningham Whitten] had to make a dinner that he took. And he had… good old down home food… the black-eyed peas and the ham hocks. [1] “Are black-eyed peas really peas?” Library of Congress Everyday Mysteries, accessed September 15, 2020. https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/are-black-eyed-peas-really-peas/#:~:text=Fun%20Facts%20about%20black%2Deyed,by%20earliest%20records%20in%201674.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 18, 2020 13:52 UTC