William Ellison & African American Cuisine
William Ellison gained much fortune and prospered in a racially tumultuous time by buying, selling, and trading what he knew was profitable: slaves, and he would know because he was one. My project deep dived into the morality, ethics, and reasoning that led William Ellison to decide to become a slave owner as someone who was formally enslaved himself. Throughout his lifetime, he gained his freedom at 21, and by the time he died, he was a strong proponent of the Confederate Army and had 53 slaves himself. He was a byproduct of his environment, and it is truly a question of William Ellison's culture, upbringing, and decision-making that led him to choose that life for himself. I examined several aspects of William Ellison's life, but I especially analyzed his culture through food for my art project, and I reflected this in my history project by creating a food blog that analyzed his life along with what he consumed daily as someone who was formally enslaved and as a slaveholder.
Self in Modern World
William Ellison is one of the first freed slaves to own them himself. By his death, he owned 53 slaves and was among one of the richest men in the South. Of all the slaveowners, a black man is an anomaly. I investigated the conditions and environment that led to William Ellison becoming a slaveowner as well as William Ellison himself; from childhood to his treatment of slaves, I learned everything there is to know about his reasoning in this project through the idea of morality and ethics. What conditions could someone experience that would lead them to enslave people as someone who was formerly enslaved themselves? The “why” behind this project is truly the examination of environmental factors and moralities that led William Ellison to decide to own slaves. I created a blog post that ties into African American cuisine and its' influence in American society.
Art
I analyzed African-American cuisine and its impact on American cuisine in general. Without the evolution of African American culture, America would look entirely different, and the African American community has primarily produced the daily staples of our culture’s food, and they all have stories. I created an array of different foods the African American community is responsible for creating and explained how they each came to be. For example, Despite the fact that fried chicken is popularized in America and there are several stereotypes that the African-American community consumes it, fried chicken actually originates in Scotland. However, in Scotland, it was unseasoned oil and is not the same fried chicken we know in modern-day America. In West African nations, fried chicken was deep-fried in batter and seasoning, but because of the extensive labor and the expense of all of the ingredients that went into the dish, it was seen as a special dish. Enslaved Americans would recreate this dish in America after they were forcefully enslaved, but they would do so with the limited spices and flavors they had on hand, so the dish changed when it came to America. Ironically, Fried Chicken actually brought about an era where black women could create wealth for themselves and their families because after emancipation, these women would cook it and sell it to people popularized places in their local area because it traveled well despite the obnoxious heat of a Southern summer. With how much wealth black women accumulated from selling fried chicken, it often elevated these families from poverty into the middle class, even if it was still segregated and vastly different from a white family in the middle class. Because this industry helped so many black people transcend from poverty into the middle class, it was often seen as a negative dish that caricatured black people despite the fact that white people consumed as much if not more fried chicken than black people. Each dish was created with the purpose to share culture, stories, and the origin of the food many Americans eat on a daily basis. To watch me make the fried chicken and chips, click the picture!